Published: 10/03/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Business

The new land and building tax law should not have exemptions as it could result in unequal tax collection and fraud, says Sopon Pornchokchai, president of Agency for Real Estate Affairs (AREA)

The Fiscal Policy Office has completed the draft law. It requires owners of non-commercial lands and buildings to pay tax of no more than 0.1% of tax-based value. Agricultural property would face a tax up to 0.05% and others up to 0.5%.

However, Dr Sopon said the draft has proposed many exemptions, for example, for residential buildings on 50 square wah or less and worth less than one million baht in key areas including Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya. As well, residential buildings worth less than 500,000 baht in municipal areas and those worth less than 300,000 baht in tambon administration areas would be exempt.

He said such exemptions could lead to fraud as assets could be undervalued in an attempt to avoid tax.

As well, he said, the tax rate should not be lower than the cost of collection.