Does anyone know how exactly the fee/tax that you pay to the land registration office is calculated when you buy a house/land? I know they have some way of calculating the value of the property, but I'm trying to discover how they then calculate the tax/fee from this value. I also wonder whether there is any tax benefit for the seller if the seller decides to pay this fee? Thanks.

BeachNut wrote:Does anyone know how exactly the fee/tax that you pay to the land registration office is calculated when you buy a house/land? I know they have some way of calculating the value of the property, but I'm trying to discover how they then calculate the tax/fee from this value. I also wonder whether there is any tax benefit for the seller if the seller decides to pay this fee? Thanks.

I did a fairly detailed posting on calculating the land values some time ago, maybe one of the more computer savvy members can post a link for you.As to the percentage charged, this varies from area to area and is based on the municipal facilities available in that area. There is no way of reclaimimg this tax, it is basically a sales tax, so it doesn't matter whether buyer or seller pays it. This is normally agreed with the purchase price of the land, but is generally a 50/50 split.

I don't know how they calculate it!I only know that when I bought some land ,the lady that was helping us,because she ''knew'' the people at the land office,told us the put down the sales price as a little less than half the price we paid!
When they calculated the tax ,it was based on a land value that was a little higher price than what we actually paid by 125,000 Baht!
It made me wonder what the tax would have been if we had stated the actual price!

When we bought land in Udon in 2002 and again in 2004 it didn't matter what price we said we paid.. In fact, the first seller told us to tell the land folks a ridiculously low price as he thought he might have to pay some type of tax on the money he made off the deal. The land office had an assessed land values list for our area and stated "that's what you'll pay".. In checking the second purchase papers a moment ago, I see that we paid 300,000 Baht for the land and paid a grand total of 8,905 Baht purchase tax. The tax was broken into 4-5 different sub-totals and my Thai isn't good enough to figure out what each means on the receipt. Our annual property tax has been less than 200 Baht paid annually at our Samnak Ngan office..

Thanks for the replies. I've managed to reconstruct the calculation more or less to what we were charged. It doesn't matter what value you tell the land office as they use their own method of calculating the property/land value, and they consider including things like number of floors, is there a garden wall/fence, etc...

I was curious because although we paid the fees, the seller was given the receipt in her name, probably through money under the table to the person at the land office. We were told by the land office person that havng the receipt ourselves would be of no use. I was wondering what beneft this receipt would have to the seller. I'm still wondering what, if any, her little scam was here as it's odd that she wanted (and got) the receipt...

I was curious because although we paid the fees, the seller was given the receipt in her name, probably through money under the table to the person at the land office. We were told by the land office person that havng the receipt ourselves would be of no use. I was wondering what beneft this receipt would have to the seller. I'm still wondering what, if any, her little scam was here as it's odd that she wanted (and got) the receipt...

I would be interested in the answer to that one.

could it be that she simply deducts this fee from her income and thus will pay less income tax ??

(by the way, was this receipt on her name or on the name of her company, or does she owns a shop, mini mart,....???)

Its possible the land although in her name was jointly owned by other family members and the proceeds less expenditure had to be divided between them.

Right Val,
This also happens many times when land is owned by several family members.
Many times it is owned by a family member (father, mother, grandparents,..)
But they don't want to put the deed on the name of their children (or other family members) because they will have to pay these taxes.
So they wait until the land is sold and only then they transfer the deed of the land. I heard this story also before.

Thanks Val - I think you are right. Now I can sleep better knowing that I've (probably) not been scammed!