Condo Ownership - Change from Thai Company owner to foreigner freehold, easy ?

[Farang two dot zero]

I bought a condo in Thai Company 5 years ago and I want to know if I can change it into a freehold owner ?

[NCC1701A]

[Farang two dot zero]

Just now, NCC1701A said:

and ?

[Peterw42]

It would depend if there is availability in the 49% foriegn Quota, the condo office would be able to advise. If there is availability then the normal taxes and transfer at the land office.

[Farang two dot zero]

2 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

It would depend if there is availability in the 49% foriegn Quota, the condo office would be able to advise. If there is availability then the normal taxes and transfer at the land office.

You can develop, what should I just ask ?

[Peterw42]

1 minute ago, Farang two dot zero said:

You can develop, what should I just ask ?

You would ask the Condo office if there is availability within the 49% foriegn ownership Quota.

Foriegners can only own 49% of any condo block, if 49% is already owned by foriegners there is no availability.

[Farang two dot zero]

Well i must to ask to Condo office not Land Office or my lawyer if i understood !

[NCC1701A]

2 minutes ago, Farang two dot zero said:

Well i must to ask to Condo office not Land Office or my lawyer if i understood !

first ask your condo office if there is availability for foreign ownership. this is very important so make sure you talk to the right person and they understand. 

[NCC1701A]

9 minutes ago, Farang two dot zero said:

Well i must to ask to Condo office not Land Office or my lawyer if i understood !

if you are uncomfortable talking to your condo people have your lawyer make the call.  

 

[Farang two dot zero]

18 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

if you are uncomfortable talking to your condo people have your lawyer make the call.  

 

Thanks for your advices ????

[Farang two dot zero]

I read this :

Quote

The company sells the condo for free to a Thai person. This will bear the registration fees following the value of the condo assessed by the Land Office.

The company will have to reinstate the value of this condo, the manager will bear the taxes on the profit if there is some and possibly the closing costs of this company.

Is it correct ?

Edited July 21, 2019 by Farang two dot zero

[Arkady]

As others have said, the transfer can be quite easily accomplished, provided that less than 49% of the usable space is owned by foreigners, which can be checked with the developer and the Land Dept will, of course, double check for you when to go to make the transfer.  I have transferred land from a company to my wife and the only complication was I needed a company resolution to sell signed by an authorised director who was not a party that had an interest in the purchase, i.e. not myself and not my wife. This director also had to sign the sale and purchase documents at the Land Office, which was done through power of attorney, so that she didn't have to show up.  This is to try to ensure that other shareholders of a company are not being disadvantaged by sale of an asset at below market price.  If your land office also requires this, you might need to appoint a new outside director and make them authorized to sign alone for a short period of time.  Better check with the Land Office on this point. If you can speak Thai, or have a Thai speaker to help you, transfers at the Land Office can easily be done without a lawyer.  The vast majority of transfers are done without a lawyer and Land Dept staff are used to explaining things in simple terms to members of the public.  Sometimes they ask openly for a bribe to reduce tax liability (unlikely in the case of a company sale) or for you to jump the queue to avoid having to come back again the next day (more likely in city land offices).  Nowadays they have a mobile app you can get IDed into there to fuse to see you are in the queue, so you can wait outside in a restaurant or coffee shop.  

 

A company selling pays 1% withholding tax plus some other lesser taxes and fees, at the Land Office and then has to include the sale in its accounts for that year.  If the withholding tax already paid is too much or too little, based on the company's other earnings that year, the total tax will be adjusted when it files its accounts with the Revenue Department.  The 1% is based on the appraised value or the declared value of the sale, whichever is the greater.  It makes sense to declare it at the appraised value which what probably the price the vast majority of deals are officially done at.  You can find out how much this is by going to the Land Office with your title deed and ID/ passport and they will print it out for you.

[blackcab]

On 7/21/2019 at 12:09 PM, Farang two dot zero said:

I bought a condo in Thai Company 5 years ago and I want to know if I can change it into a freehold owner ?

 

The first thing to understand is that the Land Office will not just change the name of the owner. The Land Office taxes sales of property, so if they were to simply change the ownership then how would they get paid? Everyone would ask for the names to be changed and the government would not receive any revenue.

 

What this means is that in your case it will be a Sale. The company will sell the property to you.

 

On 7/21/2019 at 2:50 PM, Farang two dot zero said:

The company sells the condo for free to a Thai person. This will bear the registration fees following the value of the condo assessed by the Land Office.

The company will have to reinstate the value of this condo, the manager will bear the taxes on the profit if there is some and possibly the closing costs of this company.

 

This makes zero sense to me. You need to talk to your Land Office and see what they will accept. I don't think they will accept a sale for free. This is because as a non -Thai citizen you have to pay for the purchase price using money you have transferred into Thailand and then exchanged.

 

I could be wrong, and it will be interesting to hear back from you as to what the Land Office will accept.

[phantomfiddler]

And don,t forget that, if the % will allow you to put in your own name, you then have to pay to have the company terminated, not a trivial amount ????

[Delight]

  I am curious to know why would you wish to transfer?

The 2 benefits of foreign owned are :

1) No annual audit fees

2) The likely hood of a higher price in the event of your wanting to sell the condo at some point in the future

The downsides are:

1) Cost of transfer i.e Monies paid to the land office

2) Cost to dissolve the company. I read that these can be upwards of 100,000  Baht

3) The requirement to bring monies into Thailand equivalent to the appraised value of the condo. This is not money lost-it is however money that has to be found (in your local currency). This inward transfer is a  necessary requirement for you to obtain  the FET from your bank. No FET -no transfer!

 

The benefit of a company owned condo relates to the very low cost of transfer to  a 3rd party. Typical 3rd parties are either a customer in the event of a sale or a non Thai beneficiary named your will.

[scorecard]

On 7/21/2019 at 12:18 PM, Peterw42 said:

It would depend if there is availability in the 49% foriegn Quota, the condo office would be able to advise. If there is availability then the normal taxes and transfer at the land office.

Now owned by a Thai registered company, therefore there are Thai shareholders. So maybe the LTO might want to see some documents to prove the Thai shareholders agree to the transfer.

 

But that might depend on the original articles of association when the company was first registered; does it indicate that the MD/CEO can make that decision alone? And does it say that you are automatically appointed at registration as the MD/CEO.

 

What about proof that the funds to but have been transferred into Thailand with a distinct label of 'to buy condo?'

 

And will the juristic office issue a note to say that all maintenance etc., fees are up to date? 

 

[newnative]

     Step 1.  Determine if there is foreign quota available before doing anything else.  If it was bought in company name 5 years ago that might indicate that foreign quota was not available at the time and the seller had to originally buy in company name.  

[Arkady]

17 hours ago, scorecard said:

Now owned by a Thai registered company, therefore there are Thai shareholders. So maybe the LTO might want to see some documents to prove the Thai shareholders agree to the transfer.

 

But that might depend on the original articles of association when the company was first registered; does it indicate that the MD/CEO can make that decision alone? And does it say that you are automatically appointed at registration as the MD/CEO.

 

What about proof that the funds to but have been transferred into Thailand with a distinct label of 'to buy condo?'

 

And will the juristic office issue a note to say that all maintenance etc., fees are up to date? 

 

As mentioned above, when I did this, they wanted documents signed by an authorised director who was not myself, my wife or a relative of either of us, since my wife was the purchaser.  Under English common law a board resolution would be required but Thai company law has the system of authorised directors borrowed from European law instead.  There are very few things that require a shareholders' resolution in the Civil and Commercial Code and, in any case, the majority shareholders can steamroller the minorities at AGMs and EGMs.  So the unrelated party authorised director is probably the closest they can get to protecting minority shareholders.

[Henryford]

These posts just highlight the nightmare of having a thai company condo. Just don't do it.

[NCC1701A]

and so we are back to

 

good luck to the op. i hope  it works out for you.

[Farang two dot zero]

I wish to transfer to my name to avoid paying a fake accounting every year !