Property tax will take years says tax system expert

A tax-structure expert yesterday predicted the proposed property tax would get stuck, due partly to the slow progress of land appraisal in the Kingdom. By some estimates, the new tax would raise as much as Bt90 billion annually for local governments nationwide, against only Bt18 billion collected by them now.

Lavaron Sangsnit, a senior expert on tax-system development for the Finance Ministry's Fiscal Policy Office, said a draft of the new tax had already been submitted to Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij, who might forward it to the Cabinet for approval next month.It is proposed that the property tax should replace two existing tax measures: the land and building tax and the land-development tax.

By some estimates, the new tax would raise as much as Bt90 billion annually for local governments nationwide, against only Bt18 billion collected by them now.Lavaron said even though the draft bill could be passed into law by Parliament next year, its implementation might be delayed for many years, because the Treasury Department had not obtained the funds to proceed with land appraisal, plot by plot, of the 30.6 million land plots around the Kingdom.

via Property tax will take years: expert – Nationmultimedia.com.