Land, building tax to be revised

BANGKOK, July 14 (TNA) -- The government is revising the land and building tax bill with an aim to expand the country’s tax base. Wisudhi Srisuphan, the Deputy Minister for Finance said the National Legislative Assembly is working on the bill on land and building taxes. He expected a further 45 days would be needed to review issues arising from the bill. It would then be taken into the National Legislative Assembly for third readings before becoming law. The committee members proposed a reduction in the threshold at which the tax will be applied on the value of a main house to below Bt50 million. Based on the current draft, a house worth no more than Bt50 million receives a tax waiver. If the value of a main house eligible for tax exemption is cut to below 20-30 million baht, the tax base will be widened. They are also considering cutting the tax ceiling of a residential house from 0.5 per cent to 0.25 per cent of an appraised price. The reduction will then lower tax payment by house owner to a few thousand baht. The Treasury Department was assigned to conduct survey on the appraisal prices of land across the country. So far, 18.6 million plots of land or 60 per cent of all 32 million plots of land have been surveyed. The work is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The state property land will be surveyed for the new town development along the planned high speed train route in order to serve growth, which will follow the construction of the high speed train project after the Cabinet’s approval for the construction on Tuesday. (END)