Thailand's new Land and Building Tax Act B.E. 2562 (2019) ("Act") came into force on 13 March 2019. The provisions in the Act on the collection of tax imposed on land and buildings took effect from 1 January 2020.
According to the new provisions, a person who is an owner or possessor of land or buildings on 1 January of any year shall be liable to pay tax for the year.
The tax rates imposed on land or buildings are as follows:
- not exceeding 0.15% of tax base for land or buildings used for agriculture;
- not exceeding 0.3% of tax base for land or buildings used for dwelling;
- not exceeding 1.2% of tax base for land or buildings used for purposes other than those mentioned in (i) and (ii); and
- not exceeding 1.2% of tax base for land or buildings that are desolate or not utilised as it should be.
Thailand's Office of the Trade Competition Commission (OTCC) has published new regulations prescribing trade practice guidelines for specific business sectors. On 9 December 2019, the Notification of the Trade Competition Commission Re: Guideline for Consideration of Unfair Trade Practices in Franchising Business B.E. 2562 (2019) ("Notification Re: Franchising Business") was published in the Government Gazette. It came into force after the lapse of 60 days from the date of publication.
The Notification Re: Franchising Business applies specifically to franchising businesses. A franchise business is described as business where one party, the franchisor, enters into a written contract authorising another party, the franchisee, to undertake a business which employs the format, system, process and rights of the franchisor or which the franchisor has the right to authorise the franchisee to undertake for a specified period of time or in a specified area, whereby, such a business is subject to the support and control of the franchisor and the franchisee is obliged to pay remuneration to the franchisor.
In November 2019, the Thai Revenue Department published a new Transfer Pricing Disclosure Form requiring the disclosure of the following:
- information about the relationships between related parties; and
- the value of related party transactions.
The form, which was annexed to a Notification of the Director General of the Revenue Department, is available in Thai at this link:
https://www.rd.go.th/publish/fileadmin/user_upload/kormor/newlaw/dgpareport1.pdf
Disclosure must be made by parties with an annual turnover of at least THB200 million and must be done within 150 days from the end of the accounting year (please see Section 71 Ter, last paragraph, of the Revenue Code).
