New property tax regulations are due for a reading by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) this month. If approved, they will be a boon to new property owners in the Kingdom, waiving taxes on first home and land purchases. However, first time buyers will need to be patient; if approved, the bill will come into play no earlier than January 2020. Deputy Finance Minister, Wisudhi Srisuphan, expects the new bill to “sail through the lawmakers’ session.”
The most attractive change for first-time buyers is the proposed tax relief ceiling of 50 million Baht for first homes if the land is also registered under the buyer’s name. For first-time buyers who don’t have the land registered under their name, the ceiling will be 10 million Baht. Second buyers will get low tax rates of only 0.02%.
Agricultural land taxes will be as follows: 0.01% for 50 to 75 million Baht, 0.03% for 75 to 100 million Baht, 0.05% for 100 to 500 million Baht, 0.07% for 500 million to 1 billion Baht, and 0.07% for 1 billion Baht plus. Agricultural land owned by businesses will be taxed 0.01% up to 75 million Baht. If not purchased for commercial use, agricultural land taxes will be waived for three years after the new tax regulations are promulgated, if at all. Land for other uses will be taxed along a scale of 0.3 to 0.7%. Holding unoccupied land will incur increasing tax penalties of an additional 0.3% per year, up to a total of 3% tax (this will be around 27 years, according to the Deputy Finance Minister).
Finally, the draft won’t immediately punish those it is taxing at the higher end of the scale; each year, for four years, taxes will increase by 25%, giving high tax paying landlords a chance to adjust to the new rates.
Jonathan Holmes
All facts are cited from: https://property.bangkokpost.com/news/1568042/reading-of-draft-land-bill-this-month
