The Cabinet has given the green light to the draft law on land and building tax, in which people owning a house worth no more than 50 million baht will be exempt from taxation.

Following the Cabinet’s deliberation, Secretary-General to the Cabinet Ampon Kittiampon disclosed that approval was granted to the Bill on Taxation of Land and Buildings, which was proposed by the Ministry of Finance. From now, details relevant to the draft law will be concluded before being presented to the Office of the Council of State for review.

As revealed earlier by Permanent Secretary for Finance Somchai Sujjapongse, the draft law divides land and buildings into four categories. First is a single house with a value of less than 50 million baht, of which the owner will be exempt from tax. However, a maximum of 0.5 percent tax will be imposed on the excess of 50 million baht while those who have more than one house will be taxed at up to 0.5 percent of the combined value.

The second category is agricultural land which will be subject to 0.2 percent tax at maximum while the third is commercial and industrial structures, on which tax will be collected at up to 2 percent.

The last one is unused land, of which the owner will face a maximum tax rate of 5 percent during the first three years. The rate will double in the following years if the land remains in their possession without purpose.

Cabinet passes draft land and building tax law