Land Transfer.....Fee.Incorrect?

[cheeryble]

I would like to know the potential transfer expenses on a piece of land I am negotiating for.

I had looked at some past info on Thaivisa and seen that there is a basic 2% transfer fee. Then, if the seller had bought within the last 5 years, business tax applied, which was up to 3.3%. Then there is a stamp duty i don't exactly remember but small, about 0.2%. So when a friend of mine sold a condo last month which he had owned for 6 years he was expecting the transfer to be about 2.2%. In actual fact he said he paid about 33,000 on a declared price of 625,000 (a little above the Land Dept appraised value he believes) which seems to be +\- 5.28%. He actually thought a mistake had been made and mentioned to the lady that he had owned for over 6 years. Yes, she said, if you had owned for less you would have had to pay business tax.

So bearing in mind my land will have an official value of around 2 million baht those 3% that seem to be extra would be quite significant, and I'd like to satisfy myself about the true fee.

Can anyone help? Thankyou.

(ps: there's an added slight complication to which I doubt I'll get an answer but try anyway. The seller inherited the land on May18th nearly four years ago. Would he be free of business tax on the land considering he inherited it?)

[stgrhe]

Just a comment, as a buyer you should not agree to pay the business tax if it is applicable, that tax should be considered as the seller's own cost. Hence, if you agree to split the transfer fees 50 / 50 ensure that it excludes the business tax. Having said that, in a deal everything is negotiable, but as a starting point you as the buyer should not have to cover the business tax.

[donx]

When my wife bought land a few years ago, the seller paid all of the transfer fees. Why don't you insist upon the same arrangement for your land purchase? It doesn't hurt to ask.

[cheeryble]

Just a comment, as a buyer you should not agree to pay the business tax if it is applicable, that tax should be considered as the seller's own cost. Hence, if you agree to split the transfer fees 50 / 50 ensure that it excludes the business tax. Having said that, in a deal everything is negotiable, but as a starting point you as the buyer should not have to cover the business tax.

Thankyou Stgrhe

That has occurred to me too about business tax. The fact is the guy wants as much money as possible.....he already stopped the deal in it's tracks my changing his tune about the price he had at first said. He denied that price when I went to talk seriously, and became very uncomfortable when I started looking for it in my phone.....I had shown him the price on it to confirm.....he decided to leave the room and i decided he could go to hell.

After a week his friend started contacting us, and after about three weeks he got in touch himself. So sometimes doing nothing works.

So anyway the less the tax the easier the deal, and I'm looking forward to a reply about that.

Edited May 2, 2011 by cheeryble