Bangkok to Raise Agricultural Land Tax to Stop Tax Dodging
Bangkok plans to triple agricultural land tax rates to 0.03–0.12% to prevent landowners from evading higher vacant-land taxes by planting crops on underutilized plots.
Bangkok is preparing to overhaul its land and building tax system to make it more efficient, following the discovery that many landowners are planting agricultural crops on vacant plots to claim lower agricultural tax rates and avoid higher vacant-land taxes. The city plans to increase agricultural land tax rates from the current 0.01–0.1% to 0.03–0.12%, or from 100 baht per million to 300 baht per million. The proposal will be submitted to Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt, the Bangkok City Council, the Finance Ministry, and the Interior Ministry. The revision comes seven years after the 2019 Land and Building Tax Act took effect. Currently, landowners who leave plots vacant or underutilized pay 0.3–0.7% tax, with penalties increasing by 0.3% every three years. Some owners have planted bananas, mangoes, and lemons on vacant land to qualify for the lower agricultural rate and reduce their tax burden, even if they are not engaged in genuine farming. The higher rate is intended to close this loophole and ensure Bangkok collects full tax revenue.
