The land and building tax law lets local administrative officials decide whether landowners are managing their lands in such a way to avoid paying a higher tax rate, says finance permanent secretary Krisada Chinavicharana.
He made the remark in response to a recent meeting between the subcommittee discussing the law and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), as the latter sought consultation from the subcommittee on how it should enforce the law in specific cases.
The BMA noticed that some plots in the heart of Bangkok were not being used and were subject to no tax or low tax under the previous law. Since the new law was introduced in 2019, owners of such plots planted trees so they would qualify as farmland, thereby entitling the owners to a lower tax for agricultural land.
