Getting Your Money Out Of Thailand

[chiang mai]

This post is s subset of an earlier post in another section of the forum and I was totally amazed that no one commented on this aspect of it. Either everyone fully understands what's involved in the the buying/selling of real estate in Thailand and the associated money transfer inbound/outbound or the people who need to know don't read the posts in the Economy and Finance section. Based on the conversations I have had with expats over the years I am pretty sure it is the latter. So here once again is a heads up for those thinking of buying their dream home in Thailand and especially for those in that category that have a safety net plan:

When a foreigner buys real estate in Thailand they are required to fund the purchase with money brought in from overseas. The foreign currency arrives, is converted into Baht, a certificate is issued and the purchase is completed. All well and good so far and a route many of us have been down.

But then the foreigner decides to sell and as in my case, convert the funds back into a native currency and transfer the money back overseas. In order to do this the foreigner has to produce a receipt from the Land Office showing that tax has been paid on the sale of the real estate, not just on the amount declared to the Land Office but on the amount of money deposited that resulted from the sale - more often than not the amount quoted to the Land Office is substantially less than the actual sale price and where individuals choose to leave the money in Thailand (as in the case of native Thai's) there is unlikely to be a problem.

But where the money is to be remitted overseas the Thai banks act as an auditor for the BOT to ensure that the entire sale amount was taxed. If you have not paid tax on the full amount you are restricted in the amount you can transfer out and this equals the taxed amount. And before anyone starts to scream at me, the certificate you received when you brought the money in to the country is only a part of the picture when taking the money out.

So, if you are thinking that you will buy a home here in Thailand and in the back of your mind you reckon that your "escape plan" is to simply sell and get your money back and leave, be sure to pay ALL your taxes here else it aint going to happen easily. BTW, Land Office taxes on a Baht 6.0 mill. sale are about 8% so make sure you factor that into your plan before you start.

Edited February 19, 2007 by chiang mai

[sulasno]

change the Baht to US or Euro and carry it out via the airport

[alexth]

change the Baht to US or Euro and carry it out via the airport

At least that's what I did...