Transfering my house (company name)

[rocky123]

Hi all, I have owned a house here (company Name) for 16 years. I am planning on going back to live in UK, and handing the property over to my long term GF of 11 years.

We have just been told by my bookkeeper, it will cost around 100,000 bht to transfer to her name. The house is worth around 2 mil, is this price about correct ?

 

Many thanks for your info guys

[Peterw42]

The figure appears correct, around 5%.

You could just make your GF the new company director. a lot cheaper.

[bojo]

5 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

The figure appears correct, around 5%.

You could just make your GF the new company director. a lot cheaper.

Great if she wants to own a company............................

[Tom H]

it will cost around 100,000 bht to transfer to her name

 

Yes.

[Guderian]

Yeah, the property tax seems about right, it often surprises us farangs how high it is on what are really quite cheap houses. A Scottish neighbour sold his 3-bedroom bungalow for 3.8 million Baht to a Thai builder. He suggested my neighbour should pay the taxes, and as he assumed it would only cost 20,000 or 30,000 Baht he agreed. Stupid of him, as he was left with a bill for 200,000 Baht, instead of 100,000 if they'd done the usual 50/50 split.

 

The OP should also remember that his GF will still have to pay the annual fee to get an accountant to prepare and submit the company balance sheet. That costs between 10K and 15K Baht each year, so the 100K Baht saving will soon be wiped out. Plus, if she then wants to sell the house to somebody who doesn't want it in a company name she'll probably be stuck paying 50% of the transfer tax (so say 50K Baht). The cleanest and simplest option (and possibly the cheapest one long-term, too) is to pay the tax and transfer it into her name.

[Brick Top]

The sum of 100,000 seems to be about right , but what about closing the Thai company ? , that in my opinion could cost a lot more than 100,000 .

[khunPer]

On 11/9/2021 at 9:55 AM, rocky123 said:

We have just been told by my bookkeeper, it will cost around 100,000 bht to transfer to her name. The house is worth around 2 mil, is this price about correct ?

You can use the property tax calculator HERE to check tax and transfer fee.

 

Be aware that in principle it's the company that sells the property when it's transferred out from company ownership, so in principle the company shall be paid, and the income belongs to the company and it's shareholders.

[khunPer]

11 hours ago, bojo said:

Great if she wants to own a company............................

No, when property is transferred to a Thai national, it's transferred out of the company. If you keep the company as property owner, you don't transfer the property, you transfer ownership of voting majority of shares in the company...????

[bluebluewater]

I might just be interested in a new GF with a house.  Can you send me a recent photo . . .   of the GF?

[bojo]

5 hours ago, khunPer said:

No, when property is transferred to a Thai national, it's transferred out of the company. If you keep the company as property owner, you don't transfer the property, you transfer ownership of voting majority of shares in the company...????

Not so Mr. Per........................Peter42 suggested making her the director (to save property taxes) and I replied 'great if she wants to own a company'.............................................Transferring to a Thai name is a different thing, that is not what Peter was insinuating........................................................many Thais own companies which have multiple properties, quite common for business people.............................

[talahtnut]

Did the same 16 years ago, for about 50 or 60k

probably saved more than that on the annual fees.

Dump the Company.

Great to be free of lawyers and uninteresting bits of paper.

 

[khunPer]

1 hour ago, bojo said:

Not so Mr. Per........................Peter42 suggested making her the director (to save property taxes) and I replied 'great if she wants to own a company'.............................................Transferring to a Thai name is a different thing, that is not what Peter was insinuating........................................................many Thais own companies which have multiple properties, quite common for business people.............................

Being director of a company does not give you ownership over anything, the director is just an employee until the shareholders elects a replacement. To control a company you need the shares that holds the majority of the voting rights. In the long run you might not save anything if the company has no other activities than owning the said property, as it costs money just to keep a shell company running.  Yes, Thai nationals that owns companies for property ownership are business matters, most foreigners owning a company for property is for nominee ownership of a property, which seems to be the case here...????

[bojo]

1 hour ago, khunPer said:

Being director of a company does not give you ownership over anything, the director is just an employee until the shareholders elects a replacement. To control a company you need the shares that holds the majority of the voting rights. In the long run you might not save anything if the company has no other activities than owning the said property, as it costs money just to keep a shell company running.  Yes, Thai nationals that owns companies for property ownership are business matters, most foreigners owning a company for property is for nominee ownership of a property, which seems to be the case here...????

Hence my post 'great if she wants to own a Thai company'............................................

[crazykopite]

Why not just let her live there on the understanding that she pays the yearly accounts your in the U.K. if things go belly up there not going to come after you 

[Delight]

 If the house ends up in your GF's name -then there are 3 issues to consider.

 

Transfer at the land office.

As far as the land office is concerned your transaction is a sale i.e. you are selling the house to your GF . All transfer taxes have to be paid. The sales price is zero Baht. The 100,000 Baht figure is about right if the appraised value is 2MBaht. This value could well be a lot less.

 

The other share  holders. They are entitled to their share of the sales price.

 

Getting rid of the Company

Typically this is about 85,000 Baht

 

Given that you are leaving Thailand -and I assume not returning-then you may consider doing nothing about closing down the company. 

Your accountant will advise against this.