BMA to levy land taxes in full

Owners are turning to facilities to pay less

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is planning to completely collect land and building taxes on land used for farming purposes after landlords and property owners allegedly exploited tax slashes to avoid higher taxes, a source said.

Under present regulations, land plots used for agricultural reasons are subject to the land tax associated with 0. 01-0. 1%, depending on their value.

The full rate is 0. 15%, which has a tax liability of 1, five hundred baht per 1 million baht.

However , the entire rate is being planned on land used for farming purposes in 3 zones — commercial (red), industrial (purple) and warehouse (lilac) — under the town planning law, the source said.

The tax prices for the other areas and specific zones will remain unchanged.

The plan uses owners of undeveloped land in industrial areas, where property prices are high, turned their attributes into banana plus lime plantations to lower their tax rates.

Undeveloped gets in commercial locations are subject to 0. 3-0. 7% tax of their value.

According to the resource, more than 120, 000 undeveloped land and building plots have lately been used for agricultural reasons.

The BMA’s fiscal office has already drafted new tax regulations, which will be submitted to the Bangkok city council to get approval.

The BMA provides sent a notice to the Finance Ministry’s Fiscal Policy Workplace to ask about the plan to make the complete collection on lands used for agricultural purposes.

The original source said the plan is in line with Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt’s policy on land development, in which land should be developed according to city zoning.

“So, we have been considering adjusting the land and constructing tax rates in order to encourage land owners to make proper use of their property, ” the source said.

“We start with agricultural land and if we are able to proceed, the BMA will collect more revenue. ”

However , the source said with less than two months before the start of the new fiscal year, the new rates might not be imposed until the 2023 fiscal year, which begins in October.

Within the use of privately owned unused lands to get development into public parks, a committee has been set up in order to draw up criteria to ensure optimal benefits for the public.

It is part of the governor’s campaign platform “Bangkok 15 minutes”, by which city residents may have parks that are no more than 15 minutes’ leave from their houses.

The BMA needs to work out details of such arrangements like the period of land make use of because the property owners can receive tax advantages or they may shed income opportunities.

“The criteria are expected to be designed in August so it can be implemented in the next fiscal year.

“Initially, we must first consider which areas will be turned into recreational areas, how large they should be and exactly how much money is required.

“The BMA has to make maintenance costs and it also may not need the whole plot offered.

“For instance, if it receives an offer of 10 rai, it may want simply 2 rai because of its park project plus collect land tax for the remaining 6 rai, ” mentioned the source.

The Bangkok management has received a lot more than 10 offers as well as the plots are spread in several districts including Watthana, Pathumwan, Boom Rak, Taling Chan and Thawee Watthana. Staff are looking at which of them will be suitable.

After supposing office, Mr Chadchart floated the idea of gathering a higher tax upon land that is improperly developed and discussed the idea with Internal Minister Anupong Paojinda.