Blow for the property industry as Government declares no more reduction in land and buildings tax

[webfact]

File photo//wikipedia

 

Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, Thailand’s Finance Minister announced on January 17th that his ministry is ruling out the likely hood of any reduction in 2022 in the land and buildings tax.

Apparently, relief had already been granted for two years and all further reductions would be a financial burden for the government.

 

The minister added that a 90% reduction in land and buildings taxes granted in 2020 and 2021 had already cost the government about Bt30 billion a year in lost revenue, which is an extremely high figure to manage.

The Finance Ministry has suggested that there be no further tax cuts and the legal rate be restored this year, he said.

This will be a blow for the Property industry already suffering from the pandemic.

The land and buildings tax are collected by the local government organisation. 

The actual figures collected is then treated as local revenue, which is reinvested in developing that locality. 
When the government announced a 90% reduction in the land and buildings tax in June 2020, the Finance Ministry had to find money to compensate local governments for lost revenue.

Previously, the government had postponed the deadline for residents of land and buildings to pay this tax from April to August. 

The usual tax will now be paid in April, starting 2023.

 

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[topt]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The usual tax will now be paid in April, starting 2023.

I'm confused - that's another year? Is it because it is payable for the past and not coming year?

[scubascuba3]

Apparently you don't have to pay if you only have 1 property, but they make it very difficult to prove, i.e. you have to get a yellow book which is an unnecessarily difficult process, why make a process simple when you can make it hard

[matchar]

8 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Apparently you don't have to pay if you only have 1 property, but they make it very difficult to prove, i.e. you have to get a yellow book which is an unnecessarily difficult process, why make a process simple when you can make it hard

It's just another foreigner tax. For Thai people it's easy to prove because they can go on the normal house book.

 

Last year it was about 40 baht for my tiny condo after the discount, so I'm expecting a bill of around 400 for normal years. Easier just to pay than attempt to jump through all of the silly hoops for a yellow book which are at the discretion of the local land department.

[Road Warrior]

10 minutes ago, matchar said:

It's just another foreigner tax. For Thai people it's easy to prove because they can go on the normal house book.

 

Last year it was about 40 baht for my tiny condo after the discount, so I'm expecting a bill of around 400 for normal years. Easier just to pay than attempt to jump through all of the silly hoops for a yellow book which are at the discretion of the local land department.

 

10 minutes ago, matchar said:

It's just another foreigner tax. For Thai people it's easy to prove because they can go on the normal house book.

 

Last year it was about 40 baht for my tiny condo after the discount, so I'm expecting a bill of around 400 for normal years. Easier just to pay than attempt to jump through all of the silly hoops for a yellow book which are at the discretion of the local land department.

but you own condo AND NOT YOUR LAND  so should not have to PAY land tax ?????

[scubascuba3]

15 minutes ago, Road Warrior said:

 

but you own condo AND NOT YOUR LAND  so should not have to PAY land tax ?????

You do have to pay tax for condos unless only 1 property but they've intentionally made the requirements for a foreigner too onerous

Edited January 18, 2022 by scubascuba3

[kingstonkid]

59 minutes ago, matchar said:

It's just another foreigner tax. For Thai people it's easy to prove because they can go on the normal house book.

 

Last year it was about 40 baht for my tiny condo after the discount, so I'm expecting a bill of around 400 for normal years. Easier just to pay than attempt to jump through all of the silly hoops for a yellow book which are at the discretion of the local land department.

Why for some people is everything about hurting Foreigners.  You almost sound as bad as the woke people in the U.S> saying that everything people say is racist.

[scubascuba3]

28 minutes ago, kingstonkid said:

Why for some people is everything about hurting Foreigners.  You almost sound as bad as the woke people in the U.S> saying that everything people say is racist.

Everything he said was accurate, presumably you know nothing of the process

[Guderian]

2 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Apparently you don't have to pay if you only have 1 property, but they make it very difficult to prove, i.e. you have to get a yellow book which is an unnecessarily difficult process, why make a process simple when you can make it hard

I didn't realise that this applied to evil foreigners too, I was originally told it was only Thai people who could own one property and avoid paying the tax on it. Is the process summarised anywhere, and does it apply to owning a house via the company route? I have to pay Pattaya City Hall 7,500 in a normal year, so I might be willing to jump through the yellow book hoops to avoid that imposition.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Guderian

[scubascuba3]

37 minutes ago, Guderian said:

I didn't realise that this applied to evil foreigners too, I was originally told it was only Thai people who could own one property and avoid paying the tax on it. Is the process summarised anywhere, and does it apply to owning a house via the company route? I have to pay Pattaya City Hall 7,500 in a normal year, so I might be willing to jump through the yellow book hoops to avoid that imposition.

Not sure about holding via the company route. See below. There are other threads with more detail

Edited January 18, 2022 by scubascuba3

[Guderian]

@scubascuba3thanks, that makes it look like it's impossible via the company route as you cannot own the land. Maybe if your company only owned the land and you'd built a house on it separately you could satisfy the requirements, but I've never heard of anyone doing it that way to be honest.

[LukKrueng]

3 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Apparently you don't have to pay if you only have 1 property, but they make it very difficult to prove, i.e. you have to get a yellow book which is an unnecessarily difficult process, why make a process simple when you can make it hard

 

3 hours ago, matchar said:

It's just another foreigner tax. For Thai people it's easy to prove because they can go on the normal house book.

 

Last year it was about 40 baht for my tiny condo after the discount, so I'm expecting a bill of around 400 for normal years. Easier just to pay than attempt to jump through all of the silly hoops for a yellow book which are at the discretion of the local land department.

Can you please explain how the yellow/ blue book has anything to do with paying or not paying taxes?  AFAIK the house registration book is only an official proof of address that any Thai citizen residing in Thailand MUST be registered in whereas non Thais don't have to. It has nothing to do with ownership of the property. Moreover, land without a house on it doesn't have a blue book, yet tax is being collected for it as well. 

And do you really think the Thai government has designed a property tax to be collected only from foreigners? How many foreigners do you think own property here? 

[scubascuba3]

10 minutes ago, LukKrueng said:

 

Can you please explain how the yellow/ blue book has anything to do with paying or not paying taxes?  AFAIK the house registration book is only an official proof of address that any Thai citizen residing in Thailand MUST be registered in whereas non Thais don't have to. It has nothing to do with ownership of the property. Moreover, land without a house on it doesn't have a blue book, yet tax is being collected for it as well. 

And do you really think the Thai government has designed a property tax to be collected only from foreigners? How many foreigners do you think own property here? 

Pattaya City Hall Revenue dept have decided that a yellow book Tabien Baan is required, of course it's nonsense, I'm on the chanote, driving licence and immigration address is the same condo. Feel free to call them

[LukKrueng]

23 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Pattaya City Hall Revenue dept have decided that a yellow book Tabien Baan is required

Required for what? 

[scubascuba3]

4 minutes ago, LukKrueng said:

Required for what? 

in order to be exempt from land and buildings tax, you know the subject of this thread

[scubascuba3]

1 hour ago, Guderian said:

@scubascuba3thanks, that makes it look like it's impossible via the company route as you cannot own the land. Maybe if your company only owned the land and you'd built a house on it separately you could satisfy the requirements, but I've never heard of anyone doing it that way to be honest.

in that doc above no mention of must have yellow book, i reckon revenue dept have just made that up

[Yellowtail]

1 hour ago, scubascuba3 said:

Pattaya City Hall Revenue dept have decided that a yellow book Tabien Baan is required, of course it's nonsense, I'm on the chanote, driving licence and immigration address is the same condo. Feel free to call them

Is that the same yellow book that's cheap and easy to get and everyone claims is useless? 

[matchar]

3 hours ago, LukKrueng said:

 

Can you please explain how the yellow/ blue book has anything to do with paying or not paying taxes?  AFAIK the house registration book is only an official proof of address that any Thai citizen residing in Thailand MUST be registered in whereas non Thais don't have to. It has nothing to do with ownership of the property. Moreover, land without a house on it doesn't have a blue book, yet tax is being collected for it as well. 

And do you really think the Thai government has designed a property tax to be collected only from foreigners? How many foreigners do you think own property here? 

Because only your primary residence is tax exempt. Thais can only be on the blue book for one residence at a time so this serves as proof of residence.

[digbeth]

The property being your 'sole residence' exempt you from the property tax if the property value is less than 10m Baht   

 

It is understood that having people in the Tabien Baan qualifies you to the this lower residence bracket. In late 2020 I was sent a letter from the Khet in Bangkok informing me of what tax bracket my condo was going to fall under, I was given an opportunity to reply back with evidence 

 

you could have random Thai in the blue tabien ban if you want to save 1-2000 baht a year in Tax, since the tax is only 0.02% for property up to 50million baht, so people that qualifies for the free tax if you have people in Tabien Baan is for houses and condos valued below 10 million, and at most you'll be paying is 2000 a year, so if trying to get the yellow book or moving people into blue book is only going to save you max of 2000 baht a year for most houses and condos

 

If you have a company owned property and it got classified as commercial property or empty land then you're looking at 0.30% tax, which is why you see empty land being turned to banana farms for the past two years.

[scubascuba3]

7 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Is that the same yellow book that's cheap and easy to get and everyone claims is useless? 

at Pattaya City Hall? you know the requirements? it's more difficult than getting a driving licence or opening a bank account or applying for a retirement extension

Edited January 18, 2022 by scubascuba3

[scubascuba3]

6 hours ago, matchar said:

Because only your primary residence is tax exempt. Thais can only be on the blue book for one residence at a time so this serves as proof of residence.

Do you think that's why farang need a yellow book rather than prove using other methods?

[scubascuba3]

4 hours ago, digbeth said:

The property being your 'sole residence' exempt you from the property tax if the property value is less than 10m Baht   

 

It is understood that having people in the Tabien Baan qualifies you to the this lower residence bracket. In late 2020 I was sent a letter from the Khet in Bangkok informing me of what tax bracket my condo was going to fall under, I was given an opportunity to reply back with evidence 

 

you could have random Thai in the blue tabien ban if you want to save 1-2000 baht a year in Tax, since the tax is only 0.02% for property up to 50million baht, so people that qualifies for the free tax if you have people in Tabien Baan is for houses and condos valued below 10 million, and at most you'll be paying is 2000 a year, so if trying to get the yellow book or moving people into blue book is only going to save you max of 2000 baht a year for most houses and condos

 

If you have a company owned property and it got classified as commercial property or empty land then you're looking at 0.30% tax, which is why you see empty land being turned to banana farms for the past two years.

it's just a start though, initially 0.02% then it will steadily increase over the years

[Yellowtail]

2 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

at Pattaya City Hall?

no

 

2 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

you know the requirements?

yes

 

2 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

it's more difficult than getting a driving licence

no

 

2 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

or opening a bank account

no

 

2 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

or applying for a retirement extension

yes

[scubascuba3]

2 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

no

 

yes

 

no

 

no

 

yes

Pattaya City Hall is harder than the other places outside the city. Getting a driving licence is easy, a bank account very easy i have 3 already. No need for 2 thai witnesses and none of this notorising passport nonsense

[chilly07]

City hall sent tax demands to everyone but because it was heavily discounted most Thais did not claim their one property exemption. Now the discounting has gone it's going to be difficult to prove to City Hall that they are entitled to an exemption on a property they happily paid tax on last year. Designed as a Stealth Tax from the outset!

[topt]

On 1/19/2022 at 6:27 AM, Yellowtail said:

no

 

yes

 

no

 

no

 

yes

Seems to not just be an issue in Pattaya - 

Surprised you have not been on there and told him how easy it is...............

[Yellowtail]

26 minutes ago, topt said:

Seems to not just be an issue in Pattaya - 

Surprised you have not been on there and told him how easy it is...............

So have you tried unsuccessfully to get one, or are you just talking out your...uh...tailpipe?

 

I had no difficulty getting a yellow-book, but then I have no difficulty opening bank accounts, extending my stay, doing my 90-day reports, renewing my driver license and doing any number of other things that seem so traumatic to so many people here.  

[topt]

1 minute ago, Yellowtail said:

So have you tried unsuccessfully to get one, or are you just talking out your...uh...tailpipe?

 

I had no difficulty getting a yellow-book, but then I have no difficulty opening bank accounts, extending my stay, doing my 90-day reports, renewing my driver license and doing any number of other things that seem so traumatic to so many people here.  

Funnily enough my response was nothing to do with me - but a thread for another location nothing to do with Pattaya - but you'd rather play the man then the agree that something different could happen compared to your own experience...... 

 

But in answer to your question yes I tried once. I agree it is possible but it requires somewhat more than a little effort and comparing it to the other items you mentioned is not only disingenuous but quite frankly laughable.

[Yellowtail]

1 hour ago, topt said:

Funnily enough my response was nothing to do with me - but a thread for another location nothing to do with Pattaya - but you'd rather play the man then the agree that something different could happen compared to your own experience...... 

 

But in answer to your question yes I tried once. I agree it is possible but it requires somewhat more than a little effort and comparing it to the other items you mentioned is not only disingenuous but quite frankly laughable.

So you were not able to get a yellow-book. Did they tell you why? 

 

I never said it did not require effort. I do not think it takes significantly more effort than opening a new bank account, but it is certainly more difficult than a 90-day report. 

 

[scubascuba3]

52 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

So you were not able to get a yellow-book. Did they tell you why? 

 

I never said it did not require effort. I do not think it takes significantly more effort than opening a new bank account, but it is certainly more difficult than a 90-day report. 

 

Of course it's significantly more effort than opening a bank account. You need to drag along 2 Thais who have a blue book, what a waste of their time, then there's the notorising the passport, what a waste of time and money. You think those things are worthwhile? not required for a visa, extension, driving licence, new passport, new bank account etc