One question came up while looking at a project. Existing Thai company owning a landed property is selling it.  At present there are three options:

 

- Buyer buys the existing company

- Buyer (Thai national) buys the property as individual

- Buyer establishes new company which buys the property from the current owning company

 

Would anybody know if there is significant transaction cost (tax, stamp duty, transfer fee etc.) difference between the 3 options?  Any other potential issues that stick out?

 

Obviously a lawyer will be consulted but it would help to make some preliminary decisions on this if anybody has done their homework already.

 

Thanks in advance. 

Option 1 does not involve the Land Office at all. So no transfer fees or tax or stamp duty. There would be lawyers fees though and there may be company taxes to pay.

 

Both the other options involve a sale at the Land Office, so the usual transfer fees, taxes and stamp duty would apply. These will vary somewhat depending on the individual circumstances.

For companies there may be other considerations: closing down costs, setting up costs, annual accounting costs, tax.

And then there is always the question of whether a company is a sensible or legal way of buying property in the first place. Personally I would never get involved with owning or running any sort of Thai company under any circumstances, as it seems to offer only downsides. But that's just me.