Hi all,

I have bought a couple of houses in Thailand in the girlfriend (now wife's) name.

Had no problem on both purchases but there is one intersting point.

On the first house purchase I transfered the cash over to my Thai account and I was required to say what it was for.

Got the TT3 form or whatever it was showing the amount... I explained to the bank that I was buying a house in my girlfriends name and I got the chq issued directly to the property company (Land & houses) ... all went through no problem and we moved in to our new home.

We stayed there about 1 year and then the kids came so obviously we needed somewhere bigger... so we bought another house in the same village.

Again.. same story.. transfered cash from UK.. chq to Land & Houses.. moved in.. very happy. (no lawyers involved btw)

But... when we eventually sold the first house.... the cheque was obviously made out to the girlfriend.. no problem.

She put the money in her account and then got a cashiers chq made out to me.

So I go to the bank (HSBC) with the cheque... but they can't accept it without documentation of where it came from.

Because the house was in the girlfriends name the paperwork was not sufficient for the bank to accept payment into my Non residents account.

I did try to point out that they accepted my cash into the bank with the knowledge that I was buying a house in my girlfriends name and what was the point of them issuing the TT3 form if they knew I could not put the money back in but hey.. TIT.

Personally I had no intention of sending the money back to the UK but I'm sure there are many that would.

So at this point I'm stuck with a cheque for 6 million baht wondering what to do!

Luckily I had opened a Bangkok Bank account a couple of years ago and as far as I was aware this was also a Non resident account.. however..

I walked in with my cheque and passport and they accepted it no problem!

I did go back to the HSBC and complain but they were adamant that all non resident accounts should work the same and any money going into the account needed documentation to show the source.

Anyway... very happy in our new home but just thought this might help others in future.

if the bank supply the information about your straw purchese to their friends in brown you may get taxed

In my experience the best thing to do with a bank when they tell you that you can't do something, is come back at a different time and speak to someone else. Many of the employees don't actually know the rules.

As for tax, my understanding is that if you have lived in the house for a year or more then you are not liable for tax on the sale, I could be wrong though.