Buying land Issan - transfer fees etc

[busa]

Hi,

Sure this has been dealt with before, but I'm unable to locate a thread with a definitive answer relevant to 2015

I'm in the process of purchasing 6 rai in north east Thailand, of course the property will be in my wife's name but we have been asked to pay fees that I believe are not correct, or at best just a ripoff.

it is my understanding there are three (3) fees associated with purchasing and selling land

Thailand Property Taxes

Transfer fee 2% of the registered value of the property ( paid by purchaser) Stamp Duty 0.5% of registered value. Only payable if exempt from business tax (Responsibility of seller, if applicable) Withholding tax 1% of the appraised value or registered sale value of the property (whichever is higher and if the seller is a company). If the seller is an individual, withholding tax is calculated at a progressive rate based on the appraisal value of the property. (Responsibility of seller, if applicable) Business tax 3.3% of the appraised value or registered sale value of the property (whichever is higher). This applies to both individuals and companies.(Responsibility of seller, if applicable)

Today advised that the cost of transfer fee when it takes place in the district lands office will be 5% of assessed land value, looks like the seller wants me to cough up all his tax obligations.

Am I correct in saying my legal obligations under Thai tax rules for land transfer fees is capped at 2% and all other applicable costs are sole responsibility of the seller unless prior arrangements are made?

Has any one recently purchased land in NE Thailand, if so what was your experiences and outcomes.

Regard's,

Busa

[rocketboybkk]

Can I ask what price your paying?

What area?

We're looking to buy also

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rocketboybkk]

Buyer/seller usually pay 50/50

What was agreed?

The tax will also depend on how long the lands been owned with current vendors

It won't be a lot

Have you done searches on the title to confirm its all correct

It's too late for recourse after the documents signed & processed

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[473geo]

Wife bought recently, and although I was not involved, I understand there was a visit and survey by the land office to confirm the boundary and markers, followed 2/3 months or so later by transfer of chanote into the name of my wife, payment by my wife if I recall correctly would work out at 2% of the land value, certainly no more than 2.5%

[473geo]

Can I ask what price your paying?

What area?

We're looking to buy also

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My wife was recently offered 10 rai of land in Buriram area for 80,000 per rai my thought is a little off the beaten track agricultural purpose only but again not involved so not sure

Local roadside (two way tarmac) land prices for possible development (Surinwell out of the city) appear at the moment to be quite expensive, asking price from 0.5m to a 1m per rai - I am told land is moving at these prices, but I know of some at this price that is also not moving.

Trouble is one plot in an area realises a high price and everyman and his dog thinks they can get the same, but of course location is important for some buyers enough to pay well above market price depending on the intended use, recently for example one local plot sold well and a house come restaurant appeared

[busa]

Wife bought recently, and although I was not involved, I understand there was a visit and survey by the land office to confirm the boundary and markers, followed 2/3 months or so later by transfer of chanote into the name of my wife, payment by my wife if I recall correctly would work out at 2% of the land value, certainly no more than 2.5%

Hi,

Land surveyed and boundary markers placed all ready.

Wife will be going into land office next week to complete transfer, yesterday we were quoted a fee of 5% and on top of that if you want it all to go through smoothly 10,000bhat would be required (never going to happen).

Wife has been briefed, pay no more than 2% transfer fee, and if bribe mentioned again to walk away.

I really don't care about losing money that I have all ready paid too date, its a matter of principal, I will not pay bribe to a government official, simple as that.

Even phoned a English speaking local lawyer, and she tried to tell me what I'm being charged is normal, I guess if I spoke thai it would have been a different outcome.

Land owner and government official can fight it out, all I know is the land owner is heavily indebt with local bank and about to lose his land if he doesn't pay back money.

Worst case scenario, I'm out of pocket a few dollars, farmer losses his farm in small village, government official goes hungry. And a guarantee I will push this up the food chain as far as I can and see what's happen.

The up side, next week I get to travel and look for another property to buy in lovely north east Thailand.

Cant wait till next week to see how it all plays out.

[LukKrueng]

Wife bought recently, and although I was not involved, I understand there was a visit and survey by the land office to confirm the boundary and markers, followed 2/3 months or so later by transfer of chanote into the name of my wife, payment by my wife if I recall correctly would work out at 2% of the land value, certainly no more than 2.5%

Hi,

Land surveyed and boundary markers placed all ready.

Wife will be going into land office next week to complete transfer, yesterday we were quoted a fee of 5% and on top of that if you want it all to go through smoothly 10,000bhat would be required (never going to happen).

Wife has been briefed, pay no more than 2% transfer fee, and if bribe mentioned again to walk away.

I really don't care about losing money that I have all ready paid too date, its a matter of principal, I will not pay bribe to a government official, simple as that.

Even phoned a English speaking local lawyer, and she tried to tell me what I'm being charged is normal, I guess if I spoke thai it would have been a different outcome.

Land owner and government official can fight it out, all I know is the land owner is heavily indebt with local bank and about to lose his land if he doesn't pay back money.

Worst case scenario, I'm out of pocket a few dollars, farmer losses his farm in small village, government official goes hungry. And a guarantee I will push this up the food chain as far as I can and see what's happen.

The up side, next week I get to travel and look for another property to buy in lovely north east Thailand.

Cant wait till next week to see how it all plays out.

Very simple really. You go to the land office where this property is registered with a copy of the chanot. They tell you the amount of tax/transfer fee to be paid. I guess as the chanot is mortgaged to the bank there might be an extra charge to release it (I know that when you mortgage a property to the bank you have to pay something like 1% of the value mortgaged in tax, so there might be similar charge when you release the mortgage).

As for who pays what - this is totally up to what was agreed between buyer and seller. Never heard of tea money or any charges to "make it all a smooth transactions". Done it few times already: you wait your queue, go to the officer, he/she check all involved documents and calculate the transaction fee, you (or whoever) go to the cashier and pay the fee, get back to the officer and show the receipt, sign a buy/sell agreement and get the chanot transferred to your/your wife's name. depending on how busy the land office in that area is - all this should be done in about 1 hour.

[georgemandm]

Hi,

Sure this has been dealt with before, but I'm unable to locate a thread with a definitive answer relevant to 2015

I'm in the process of purchasing 6 rai in north east Thailand, of course the property will be in my wife's name but we have been asked to pay fees that I believe are not correct, or at best just a ripoff.

it is my understanding there are three (3) fees associated with purchasing and selling land

Thailand Property Taxes

Transfer fee 2% of the registered value of the property ( paid by purchaser) Stamp Duty 0.5% of registered value. Only payable if exempt from business tax (Responsibility of seller, if applicable) Withholding tax 1% of the appraised value or registered sale value of the property (whichever is higher and if the seller is a company). If the seller is an individual, withholding tax is calculated at a progressive rate based on the appraisal value of the property. (Responsibility of seller, if applicable) Business tax 3.3% of the appraised value or registered sale value of the property (whichever is higher). This applies to both individuals and companies.(Responsibility of seller, if applicable)

Today advised that the cost of transfer fee when it takes place in the district lands office will be 5% of assessed land value, looks like the seller wants me to cough up all his tax obligations.

Am I correct in saying my legal obligations under Thai tax rules for land transfer fees is capped at 2% and all other applicable costs are sole responsibility of the seller unless prior arrangements are made?

Has any one recently purchased land in NE Thailand, if so what was your experiences and outcomes.

Regard's,

Busa

For the life of me I can't understand why the hell you would buy land you can't own just rent here is a lot safer then buy but like a thai would say up to you PS do you know how many man get rip off here lots of them so if you have the money to lose it go a head all the best

[ZuluSixNine]

Can I ask what price your paying?

What area?

We're looking to buy also

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My wife was recently offered 10 rai of land in Buriram area for 80,000 per rai my thought is a little off the beaten track agricultural purpose only but again not involved so not sure

Local roadside (two way tarmac) land prices for possible development (Surinwell out of the city) appear at the moment to be quite expensive, asking price from 0.5m to a 1m per rai - I am told land is moving at these prices, but I know of some at this price that is also not moving.

Trouble is one plot in an area realises a high price and everyman and his dog thinks they can get the same, but of course location is important for some buyers enough to pay well above market price depending on the intended use, recently for example one local plot sold well and a house come restaurant appeared

You can check with the bank exactly how much they value the land at and then this can be confirmed by the land titles office, you will be surprised at how much it has been marked up.

Only buy land that has a chanote title and have your name and 30 year lease stamped on the chanote.

Don't buy the land if it isn't on a black or cement road, as you may find that you will have to pay your neighbors for road, water and power rights etc... and access to them.

if you build a house you can own the house 100% with a yellow book registration that will be linked to your chanote lease agreement.

and last of all if you have any doubts.... walk away... you can always find more land and another Thai lady friend

Hope this helps

[swissbie]

Wife bought recently, and although I was not involved, I understand there was a visit and survey by the land office to confirm the boundary and markers, followed 2/3 months or so later by transfer of chanote into the name of my wife, payment by my wife if I recall correctly would work out at 2% of the land value, certainly no more than 2.5%

Hi,

Land surveyed and boundary markers placed all ready.

Wife will be going into land office next week to complete transfer, yesterday we were quoted a fee of 5% and on top of that if you want it all to go through smoothly 10,000bhat would be required (never going to happen).

Wife has been briefed, pay no more than 2% transfer fee, and if bribe mentioned again to walk away.

I really don't care about losing money that I have all ready paid too date, its a matter of principal, I will not pay bribe to a government official, simple as that.

Even phoned a English speaking local lawyer, and she tried to tell me what I'm being charged is normal, I guess if I spoke thai it would have been a different outcome.

Land owner and government official can fight it out, all I know is the land owner is heavily indebt with local bank and about to lose his land if he doesn't pay back money.

Worst case scenario, I'm out of pocket a few dollars, farmer losses his farm in small village, government official goes hungry. And a guarantee I will push this up the food chain as far as I can and see what's happen.

The up side, next week I get to travel and look for another property to buy in lovely north east Thailand.

Cant wait till next week to see how it all plays out.

Very simple really. You go to the land office where this property is registered with a copy of the chanot. They tell you the amount of tax/transfer fee to be paid. I guess as the chanot is mortgaged to the bank there might be an extra charge to release it (I know that when you mortgage a property to the bank you have to pay something like 1% of the value mortgaged in tax, so there might be similar charge when you release the mortgage).

As for who pays what - this is totally up to what was agreed between buyer and seller. Never heard of tea money or any charges to "make it all a smooth transactions". Done it few times already: you wait your queue, go to the officer, he/she check all involved documents and calculate the transaction fee, you (or whoever) go to the cashier and pay the fee, get back to the officer and show the receipt, sign a buy/sell agreement and get the chanot transferred to your/your wife's name. depending on how busy the land office in that area is - all this should be done in about 1 hour.

In a recent survey officials of land departements had been named the second most corrupt ones just after police. So maybe not that uncommon.

[khunPer]

Wife bought recently, and although I was not involved, I understand there was a visit and survey by the land office to confirm the boundary and markers, followed 2/3 months or so later by transfer of chanote into the name of my wife, payment by my wife if I recall correctly would work out at 2% of the land value, certainly no more than 2.5%

Hi,

Land surveyed and boundary markers placed all ready.

Wife will be going into land office next week to complete transfer, yesterday we were quoted a fee of 5% and on top of that if you want it all to go through smoothly 10,000bhat would be required (never going to happen).

Wife has been briefed, pay no more than 2% transfer fee, and if bribe mentioned again to walk away.

I really don't care about losing money that I have all ready paid too date, its a matter of principal, I will not pay bribe to a government official, simple as that.

Even phoned a English speaking local lawyer, and she tried to tell me what I'm being charged is normal, I guess if I spoke thai it would have been a different outcome.

Land owner and government official can fight it out, all I know is the land owner is heavily indebt with local bank and about to lose his land if he doesn't pay back money.

Worst case scenario, I'm out of pocket a few dollars, farmer losses his farm in small village, government official goes hungry. And a guarantee I will push this up the food chain as far as I can and see what's happen.

The up side, next week I get to travel and look for another property to buy in lovely north east Thailand.

Cant wait till next week to see how it all plays out.

Very simple really. You go to the land office where this property is registered with a copy of the chanot. They tell you the amount of tax/transfer fee to be paid. I guess as the chanot is mortgaged to the bank there might be an extra charge to release it (I know that when you mortgage a property to the bank you have to pay something like 1% of the value mortgaged in tax, so there might be similar charge when you release the mortgage).

As for who pays what - this is totally up to what was agreed between buyer and seller. Never heard of tea money or any charges to "make it all a smooth transactions". Done it few times already: you wait your queue, go to the officer, he/she check all involved documents and calculate the transaction fee, you (or whoever) go to the cashier and pay the fee, get back to the officer and show the receipt, sign a buy/sell agreement and get the chanot transferred to your/your wife's name. depending on how busy the land office in that area is - all this should be done in about 1 hour.

Normally – to my knowledge and also what Surin Land Office says – buyer pays transfer fee and stamp(s); seller pays taxes.

Let the Land Office calculate the fees – sometimes the Land Office have a price set, sometimes they wish to know the buying price and calculate thereafter.

Tea Money or VIP-fee sometimes appears, for a quicker service – for example an hour or few hours instead of half or whole day – and if any fee often a 1,000-baht note in a white envelope (could be two with inflation, but not more).

Edited September 1, 2015 by khunPer

[Robert24]

@busa: agree with what LukKrueng said. There is no need to pay any tea money to a government official for a normal land transaction as you mention. Just go to the land office and do the transfer. That's daily business for them, no need to bribe anyone.