donx

My understanding, although I could be wrong, is that it doesn't matter whose bank account the money was transferred to so long as the funds for the purchase of a condo come from overseas. Additionally, you should be able to show that the money originated from an overseas bank account in your name. As you see from other responses, some people have transferred the funds to the builder or to an agent or lawyer. Transferring to your wife's account makes the most sense to me in your situation, in my opinion.

If you are married to a Thai, then she can have a bank account if she doesn't already have one. Send the money to her bank account. Very easy unless you don't trust your wife.

Where can I find a $10 onward ticket? Where does such a ticket take me? I'm a US citizen and some destinations such as Laos require that I obtain a visa as well as a ticket that costs at least $100. And I'm travelling with my family of 4.

Kasikorn won't accept changing my wife's contact information from her defuncted Thai phone number to her US phone number. We can change it to some other Thai phone number, but only if she appears in person at her Kasikorn bank branch. And then we will have the same issue if my wife changes her phone number again. She has to keep her old phone in order to use the Kasikorn App because the account App is associated with the phone's IMEI number, or perhaps it is the phone's EID number. This all wouldn't be a problem if we lived in Thailand, but we don't and she only visits once a year or so.

I use Wise to transfer small amounts from the US to Thailand, usually $3000 or less. These transfers are usually received almost immediately into my wife's Thai bank account (Kasikorn). When I need to transfer large amounts for the purpose of purchasing real estate, for example $50,000, then I use a swift bank transfer. These take longer and my bank fee for this transaction is $50. My last swift transfer took a very long time, but I blame this on Kasikorn bank because they needed a confirmation from my wife to accept the transfer, but we didn't know this was required (it wasn't in the past as far as I am aware) for over 2 weeks when my US bank called me and said she needed to contact Kasikorn bank. Our bank provided us with two Thai phone numbers for my wife to contact Kasikorn bank. I think this is a new requirement because there have been so many fraudulent bank transactions recently. It's strange and not very reliable since my wife never had to provide any proof to the bank of who she was such as her Thai ID number. She could have been anyone that sounded like a female, spoke Thai, and knew the account number and amount in US dollars being transferred. It could be that Kasikorn tried to contact my wife with the phone number associated with her bank account. The problem is that her account is associated with a Thai phone number that is no longer active (at least not active for her). Kasikorn won't allow associating her bank account with a foreign phone number, and since we live in the US, she only obtains a Thai phone number while she's visiting for a month or so each year. In the past when I used swift bank transfers, my wife would be in Thailand waiting for the money to arrive. Perhaps she contacted Kasikorn about those transfers asking about the status of the transfer and therefore they already knew the transfer was legitimate.

This is also true in the United States. I bought my house there in 2016 and because the bank assessed the value of the property $10,000 less than the asking price (which I was willing to pay), the seller was forced to either sell it to me for $10,000 less or find another buyer.

Is your marriage registered in Thailand like @FarangRimPing? My wife retains her single status on her Thai ID and kept her maiden name. We were married in the US and never registered our marriage in Thailand and thus I have never been asked to sign any documents every time she purchases or transfers Thai real estate to herself.

Do you know who owns the vacant land that your girlfriend thought she was buying? It's not clear from the above discussion if that plot is owned by the man occupying the plot she bought or not. If he owns that adjacent plot of land, do you think you could convince him to swap properties?

For some perspective, my wife has a townhouse she has owned for several years, but had remained mostly unused until last January when she decided to list it on Airbnb. She immediately received several bookings until April. She did receive one booking in July, but other than that, it has remained vacant since March. She has an 11 night booking in December, so we expect bookings will increase as the high season approaches. Her townhouse is within walking distance of a beach in Krabi. It also accommodates up to 8 guests. Keep all this in mind if you decide to dip your toes into running an Airbnb.

Why can't the 49% shares be willed?

You can always ask for a discounted rate of an Airbnb, especially if you book for several weeks. My wife had a family stay at her Airbnb townhouse for 21 days. They asked for a discounted rate which my wife accepted.

My wife didn't received such an email from Airbnb. I'm guessing she didn't receive it because her Airbnb is a townhouse, not a condo. Are you renting a condo on Airbnb?

Since my wife has an agreement with Airbnb and they are including VAT as a charge against her profits, wouldn't this information be similar to the situation you posted where she will need to pay taxes on her rental income?

This topic is of interest to me as well since my wife is in a similar situation to the OP. We don't live in Thailand and my wife has never paid tax in Thailand even when she was living there many years ago. However, she now receives rental income for her townhouse that is available to rent through Airbnb. I asked her about taxes and she said she has a friend that works in the government (revenue department?) that can explain what she needs to do. Airbnb collects VAT but I'm sure she will need to start paying personal income tax on top of the VAT. Perhaps she should establish a Thai company so she can deduct expenses to reduce her tax liability.

He means the use of a Thai company to circumvent laws prohibiting foreign ownership is illegal. He recommends only purchasing a condo that does not need to be owned by a Thai company. The condos owned by Thai companies most likely already had/have a 49% foreigner ownership.