Taxes and fees

Four payments can arise at the Land Office, all due on closing day before registration proceeds. As of mid-2026: a transfer fee of 2%; specific business tax (SBT) of about 3.3% when it applies; stamp duty of about 0.5% when SBT does not - the two never stack; and withholding income tax on the seller's side, a flat 1% for companies and a progressive calculation for individuals. A buyer borrowing from a Thai bank adds a mortgage registration fee of about 1% of the loan.

Two mechanics surprise foreigners. First, the taxes are computed from the government's appraised value - revised on a multi-year cycle - and for some payments from the higher of appraised value and declared price, so find out the appraised value before you negotiate. Second, understating the contract price to save tax is illegal and pointless: the Revenue Department cross-checks Land Office data and can assess back taxes with penalties years later.

Whatever the contract says - allocation is custom, not statute. The usual pattern: the buyer carries the 2% transfer fee, often split 50/50 on resales, while SBT or stamp duty and the withholding tax fall to the seller. One statutory floor protects buyers of new builds: a licensed developer cannot pass more than half of the transfer fee to the buyer and must bear the remaining transaction taxes itself.

The practical advice is unglamorous: itemise every payment, by name and percentage, in the sale and purchase agreement. Vague “taxes split equally” clauses are a reliable generator of disputes at the Land Office counter, with the transfer queue watching.

Specific business tax - roughly 3.3% of the higher of price and appraised value as of mid-2026 - treats a quick resale as a commercial act. It applies whenever the seller is a company, and when an individual sells within five years of acquisition. Past the five-year mark, the sale attracts only the much smaller stamp duty instead; that 3.3%-versus-0.5% swap is the rule's entire financial meaning.

The exemptions matter as much as the rule. An individual who genuinely lived in the property, name in the house book for at least a year, escapes SBT even on an early sale; transfers to statutory heirs and property received by inheritance are also outside it. Two buyer-side consequences: ask for the seller's acquisition date and status before you negotiate, because a corporate or sub-five-year seller means materially higher transaction costs to allocate - and if you are buying as an investment with an exit before year five, model your own future sale at the SBT rate, not the stamp-duty one.

Yes, since 2020: the Land and Building Tax, computed on appraised value and collected by the local administration. Whoever owns the property on 1 January owes the year's tax; assessment notices typically arrive around February and payment is due by the end of April. As of mid-2026 the practical numbers are gentle for residents: a primary residence enjoys a tax-free threshold - roughly the first THB 10 million of appraised value for an owner-occupied condo - so most owner-occupiers pay nothing, while other residential property runs in the region of 0.02-0.30% with no threshold.

Foreigners can reach the primary-residence exemption, but only through paperwork: your name must be in the house registration book at the address on 1 January, which a foreign condo owner obtains via the yellow house book. Two traps: renting the property out - even briefly - forfeits the exemption and the change of use must be reported within 60 days, and vacant land is taxed punitively, at rates that escalate the longer it sits idle. When buying, confirm the seller settled the current year's tax; when an offer mentions rental income, note that the tax picture changes with it.

Rent from property located in Thailand is Thai-source income, taxable here whether or not you are tax-resident and even if the rent lands in an overseas account. It is taxed on the progressive personal income tax scale - as of mid-2026, roughly 5% to 35% above an exempt first band - after deductions: either your actual documented expenses or a standard deduction of around 30% for residential lettings, plus a personal allowance. Get a Thai tax ID, keep the lease and payment records, and run both deduction methods before choosing.

Compliance has a rhythm foreigners miss: two filings a year, not one - a mandatory half-year return covering January-to-June rent, due by the end of September, and the annual return due by the end of March - with the half-year tax credited against the annual bill. If your tenant is a company, it withholds a slice of each payment (commonly 5%) as an advance credit; collect the certificates. Penalties for not filing are blunt: a multiple of the tax due plus a monthly surcharge. Most home countries' tax treaties allocate rental income on Thai property to Thailand, with a credit at home - confirm against your own treaty.

One adjacent topic deserves honesty rather than a confident summary: short-term rental licensing. Daily and sub-30-day letting sits under hotel-licensing rules whose application varies with the property type, the building's own bylaws - many condominiums prohibit daily rentals outright - and local enforcement practice. We do not publish a general rule because there is not one that survives contact with practice; if your plan depends on short-stay income, ask us about the specific building before you buy.