November 16, 2018 - At the Parliament, during a meeting of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), Mr. Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, the NLA President, chaired the meeting to consider voting on the draft Land and Building Tax Act in its second and third readings, which had been pending since November 15, 2018. After the assembly completed voting on each article in the second reading, it approved the draft law with a vote of 169 in favor, 0 against, and 2 abstentions, allowing it to take effect as law.

The key points of the law include the establishment of tax rates for land and buildings, divided into four categories: 1. Agricultural land, with a value of 0-75 million baht taxed at 0.01%, 75-100 million baht at 0.03%, and 100-500 million baht at 0.05%. 2. Residential land, with a value of 0-50 million baht taxed at 0.02%, 50-75 million baht at 0.03%, 75-100 million baht at 0.05%, and over 100 million baht at 0.1%. For primary residences, if the owner is both the homeowner and landowner, they will be exempt from tax on the first 50 million baht; if they only own the house, they will be exempt on the first 10 million baht.

3. Commercial land, with a value of 0-50 million baht taxed at 0.3%, 50-200 million baht at 0.4%, 200-1,000 million baht at 0.5%, 1,000-5,000 million baht at 0.6%, and over 5,000 million baht at 0.7%. 4. Vacant land will be taxed starting at 0.3%, increasing by 0.3% every three years if not utilized, but the total must not exceed 3%. This law will take effect after its announcement in the Royal Gazette, except for the tax rates which will start on January 1, 2020. Additionally, there is a transitional provision that exempts individual landowners and building owners using the land for agricultural purposes from tax for the first three years of implementation.

According to reports, the draft law was initially approved in principle during the first reading on March 31, 2017, after which a special committee was formed to review it. During this period, the review period was extended nine times, with the latest extension on September 20, 2018. The draft law then returned to the NLA for consideration in its second and third readings on November 15, 2018. Thus, the Land Tax Act took a total of 1 year, 7 months, and 16 days to finalize.

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