Tax for foreign property investors in Thailand

If you own a Thai condominium and let it, you pay Thai tax on the rent — and a further set of charges when you eventually sell. Neither depends on you living in Thailand: income from property situated here is Thai-source income under section 41 of the Revenue Code, taxable whether you are resident or not and whether the rent reaches you in Bangkok or in your home-country bank.

What follows is the shape of the tax, not the size of it. The amount you actually owe turns on your total income, how long you have held the unit, whether you hold it personally or through a company, and any double-tax treaty between Thailand and where you live — variables no article can resolve for you. Treat this as a map of which charges exist and what triggers each, and settle the figure for your own transaction with a tax adviser.

In brief

• Rent from a Thai condominium is Thai-source income taxable in Thailand whether or not you live here (Revenue Code s.40(5), s.41), through an annual return in your own name.
• Rental income is taxed at the progressive 0%–35% personal rates (s.48) after a 30% standard deduction for buildings (or actual expenses); a juristic-person tenant withholds 5% as a credit, an individual tenant withholds nothing.
• Selling brings charges assessed at the Land Office on the appraised or registered value: the 2% transfer fee plus 3.3% specific business tax (held under five years, s.91/2) or 0.5% stamp duty, and withholding under s.50 — 1% for a company seller, progressive for an individual.
• The exact bill depends on your holding period and structure (personal, company or lease) and cannot be quoted from a table — it is worked out for a real transaction.
• Spending 180 days or more in a year makes you a Thai tax resident (s.41), which from 1 January 2024 can bring foreign income you remit into Thailand within the tax net (Paw 161/2566, Paw 162/2566).

Do you pay Thai tax on rent from your condo, even if you live abroad?

Yes. Rent from a property situated in Thailand is assessable income under section 40(5) of the Revenue Code, and section 41 makes income from Thai property taxable in Thailand irrespective of the owner's residence and irrespective of whether the money is paid in Thailand or overseas. A non-resident foreign owner is taxed on that Thai-source rental just as a resident is; being based in another country does not take the rent outside the Thai net.

That means an annual Thai tax filing on the rental income, in your own name, using the taxpayer identification number the Revenue Department issues to a foreign property owner. The obligation sits with you as the owner; a letting agent or building manager who collects the rent does not discharge it for you.

Double taxation — being taxed on the same rent both here and at home — is a real risk that Thailand's network of double-tax agreements is designed to relieve, usually by crediting the Thai tax against your home-country liability. Whether and how a treaty applies depends on your own country and circumstances, so it is one of the first things to check with an adviser rather than to assume.

How is rental income taxed, and what gets withheld?

Rental income is taxed at Thailand's progressive personal income-tax rates — currently ranging from 0% up to 35% under section 48 of the Revenue Code — applied to the rent after deductions and the personal allowance, not to the gross rent. For a building, the Revenue Code allows a standard deduction of 30% of the gross rent in lieu of itemising, or you may instead deduct actual, documented expenses where these are higher. The rate you land on depends on your total assessable income for the year, so the same rent produces a different bill for different owners.

Filing is annual, on form PND 90 or 91 after the calendar year ends; an owner with rental income is also required to make a mid-year filing on form PND 94 covering the first half of the year. These are the mechanics a Thai accountant handles routinely, and getting the taxpayer number and the filings in order early avoids the scramble many absentee owners run into.

Withholding is where the payer matters. When the tenant is a juristic person — a company renting your unit as a staff residence or an office — it must withhold 5% of the rent and remit it to the Revenue Department, and that withheld amount is a credit against your annual liability, not an extra tax. When the tenant is an individual, no withholding applies and the full charge is settled through your annual return. Either way the withholding is an instalment against the final figure, not the final figure itself.

What taxes fall due when you sell?

Selling triggers a separate set of charges, assessed and collected at the Land Office on the day ownership transfers, and calculated on the higher of the government appraised value or the registered price rather than on your actual gain. This article maps them; the mechanics of the appointment itself — what is paid at the counter and who customarily bears each charge — are covered in our note on transfer day at the Land Office, which this does not repeat.

Three tax items can arise alongside the Department of Lands' transfer registration fee of 2%. Specific business tax of 3.3% (including the local surcharge) is charged under Revenue Code section 91/2 where the seller has held the unit for under five years, with exceptions such as long registration on the house-registration book; where it is not due, stamp duty of 0.5% applies instead, and the two are never charged together. Withholding tax on the transfer is collected under Revenue Code section 50.

That withholding differs by who the seller is. For a company it is a flat 1% of the appraised or registered price; for an individual it is a progressive amount the Land Office computes from the appraised value and the number of years of ownership. For an individual not trading in property, whether that withholding is effectively your final tax on the sale or is reconciled in your annual return is exactly the kind of question that turns on your circumstances — settle it with a tax adviser, not at the counter.

Does how long — or how — you hold the unit change the bill?

Yes, on both counts, which is why no single figure can be quoted for "the tax on selling a condo". Holding period moves the sale-side charge directly: the five-year line in section 91/2 is the difference between paying 3.3% specific business tax and paying 0.5% stamp duty, so the same unit sold in year four and in year six is taxed differently on that item alone.

How you hold it changes the picture more deeply. A unit held personally is taxed in your hands at the personal rates above. A unit held through a Thai company is a company asset: the rent is corporate income taxed under the corporate regime, the company must keep audited accounts and file its own returns, and getting profits out to you as a shareholder is a further taxable step — a structure with running costs and consequences that rarely suits a single condominium, and never a nominee arrangement, which the firm declines. A unit held on a registered lease rather than as freehold is taxed differently again.

None of these is inherently "the cheaper way"; each carries its own obligations, and the right one depends on how many units you hold, how long you intend to hold, and your own residence and estate position. This is the honest core of the subject: the exact liability is a function of holding period and structure, and it is worked out for a real transaction, not read off a table.

Are you a Thai tax resident, and does your foreign income come into it?

You become a Thai tax resident in any year you are present in Thailand for 180 days or more, under section 41 of the Revenue Code — a threshold some property owners cross without meaning to, simply by spending long stretches here. Residence does not change the fact that your Thai rental is already taxable; what it changes is whether your income from outside Thailand can be drawn in.

Under Revenue Department Departmental Instructions No. Paw 161/2566 and No. Paw 162/2566, a Thai tax resident's foreign-source income becomes assessable in Thailand when it is brought into the country, for income remitted from 1 January 2024 onward. In plain terms, a resident who remits overseas earnings into Thailand — to fund living costs, or a further purchase — may bring that money within the Thai tax net in the year of remittance. This is a recent and still-developing area, and how it interacts with a double-tax treaty and with pre-2024 savings is precisely where advice earns its keep.

For most foreign buyers who visit rather than settle, none of this displaces the simple starting point: the Thai rent is taxed in Thailand, and the sale is taxed at the Land Office. Residence is the layer that matters if Thailand becomes where you actually live — and the point at which a general article stops and a conversation about your own position should begin.

The limits of this article

• This article identifies the charges and what triggers them; it does not compute the tax on any particular rental or sale, which turns on total income, holding period, holding structure, appraised value and any applicable treaty.
• Tax rates, deductions and thresholds change, and the remittance rule for a resident's foreign income is recent and still being applied in practice. Figures are current as at 25 July 2026 — confirm them for your circumstances before relying on them.
• General information only, not investment, tax or legal advice, and not a projection of any return. Rental and sale taxation for your own situation is handled under a separate engagement with Suwanvara Law Firm.

Continue reading

• Transfer at the Land Department
• Pre-purchase due diligence

In case of any discrepancy between language versions, the English version prevails. / กรณีข้อความหลายภาษาไม่ตรงกัน ให้ยึดฉบับภาษาอังกฤษเป็นหลัก / 如各语言版本存在差异，以英文版本为准。

Sources

• Revenue Department (กรมสรรพากร) — Revenue Code, s.40(5) (rental of property is assessable income), s.41 (income from property situated in Thailand is Thai-source and taxable regardless of residence or where paid; a person present in Thailand 180 days or more in a tax year is a resident), and s.48 (progressive personal income tax rates, currently 0%–35%) (checked 2026-07-25)
• Revenue Department — standard deduction for property rental income (30% of gross for buildings, in lieu of actual expenses, under the Royal Decree issued pursuant to the Revenue Code); withholding of 5% on rent paid by a juristic person; annual return PND 90/91 and mid-year return PND 94 (checked 2026-07-25)
• Revenue Department — on a sale: specific business tax (Revenue Code s.91/2, 3.3% incl. local surcharge, where the seller has held the unit under five years, with exceptions), stamp duty (0.5%, only where specific business tax is not due), and withholding tax on transfer of immovable property (Revenue Code s.50) (checked 2026-07-25)
• Revenue Department — Departmental Instructions No. Paw 161/2566 and No. Paw 162/2566: foreign-source income of a Thai tax resident is assessable when brought into Thailand, for income remitted from 1 January 2024 onwards (checked 2026-07-25)
• Department of Lands (กรมที่ดิน) — transfer registration fee on a condominium transfer (2% of the appraised value; the 0.01% reduction to 30 June 2027 reaches only Thai-national buyers of homes up to THB 7 million) (checked 2026-07-25)