Selling My House

[Westerner]

Hi,

When I bought my house a few years ago, I didn't want to put it in a Thai person's name so I formed a company. I now want to sell my house and I have a Thai buyer, but my lawyer says it will cost me 64,000 baht to dissolve the company!

Can anybody tell me if this amount is correct

Thanks

W.

[colinthailand20005]

Post your question in the "Ask the expert section, Sunbelt Asia" on Thaivisa. They should be able to answer that question.

Seems like alot to me.

[JohnC]

depends when your last annual audit and tax return was done, normal charge for this is 12K, this is a requirement to wind down a company, other charges are depending on the companies dept and the lawyer.

[digitalchromakey]

Why not sell the company (with house attached) - that way there would be no land transfer tax to pay and the company is no longer your problem.

If the company sells the house, then there could be a lot of taxes to pay on the profit, this is maybe why the figure is high.

[Maestro]

I am moving this topic from the forum "Thai visas, residency and work permits" to the forum "Real Estate, housing, house and land ownership"

[Maestro]

Why not sell the company (with house attached) - that way there would be no land transfer tax to pay and the company is no longer your problem.

If the company sells the house, then there could be a lot of taxes to pay on the profit, this is maybe why the figure is high.

Not every Thai who buys a house wants to buy a whole company, ie 100% of the company's shares, with all the risks and expenses attached to it.

[gregb]

Sounds a bit steep, but you've obviously got an expensive lawyer.

The final audit will cost you around 10K direct from a Thai accountant. Your law firm is probably charging you twice that or more. There are a few thousand baht (less than 4K for sure) in fees to be paid to the government, and other than that it is just time and filling out forms.

I would think you could get it for around 20k if you shopped around for a Thai lawyer. No reason to use your existing law firm if they aren't competitive. Thai firms won't be able to communicate in English though. Except for the final audit which must be done by a certified accountant, anyone can fill out the paperwork and close the company. You could even do it yourself. Just takes time.

[Westerner]

Thanks everybody for your help and suggestions. I'll shop around other lawyers and see what their charges are.

Cheers

W

[Deke]

It's two separate issues:

1. The company sells the house.

2. You disolve, or abandon, the company.

The quote of 64,000 Baht to take care of the company disolution sounds reasonable to me. The accounting issues are not trivial.

[johnnyk]

I have also heard company wind-up costs of 50-60K.

A Thai will never buy the company. Why should he? He doesn't need it and he sure doesn't need the 15K a year or so for tax returns etc.

[Livinginexile]

A friend of mine just disolved his company and it cost him well over 100k!

Reason being is that he had "goast" employees, he had to pay all the back taxes and social security for them as well as all the legal fees.

I'm not sure what the process is but I feel it's not just a matter of forming a company here in Thailand and then letting it sleep, there are tax & social security implications too!

[Westerner]

Hi Everybody,

Thanks very much for your help and suggestions, also those who P.m'd me. Managed to get it dissolved for 32,000 bahl in the end, so quite happy with that.

Cheers.

W.

[johnnyk]

Hi Everybody,

Thanks very much for your help and suggestions, also those who P.m'd me. Managed to get it dissolved for 32,000 bahl in the end, so quite happy with that.

Cheers.

W.

Sounds pretty reasonable.