taking profit and leaving
taking profit and leaving
The subject of buying a property seems endless on this site with a few regulars trying hard to answer a vast amount of questions.They sometimes get stick because they have a slightly differnt slant on the problem which is quite complex and needs to be absorbed before buying.What does startle me is that no one asks about exchange control,taxes on capital gain or what payments need to be made to close a deal when you are selling and not buying.For me the ever present problem in Argentina will be the devaluing Peso,which did happen to the baht in 1997.Would really like to hear from someone who sold up after seeing his investment increase and what problems he had if any.Digger
Good subject.
Getting your money in is easy. Getting it out is another matter.
There has to be proof that the original amount has come in from overseas.
Wire transfers etc will suffice, I think. But make sure you have the paperwork.
I have no gripe, one way or the other, but if you make a profit out of a country, I suppose you've got to pay some tax?
Seems reasonable to me.
Getting your money in is easy. Getting it out is another matter.
There has to be proof that the original amount has come in from overseas.
Wire transfers etc will suffice, I think. But make sure you have the paperwork.
I have no gripe, one way or the other, but if you make a profit out of a country, I suppose you've got to pay some tax?
Seems reasonable to me.
Life is a cycle
This property thing is not and should never be seen as a short term profit maker. Even in the UK in the 90's house prices fell by some 30-40% and it took over 7 years for a proper recovery. The USA is the same. Spain had problems in the 70's with the fall of their currency and Portugal (I think) in the early 70's repossed all land held by non locals, now look at it.
The fact is that if you buy and hang on you will one day be reasonably assured of a profit in most places. BUT dont say that this is Thaidland and they dont want farangs to own land............. In the UK we now have a comunist government that are and will over time tax people more and more on their house, profits form sale, add VAT to the price etc etc and so nothing in our world can be certain anymore.
The fact is that if you buy and hang on you will one day be reasonably assured of a profit in most places. BUT dont say that this is Thaidland and they dont want farangs to own land............. In the UK we now have a comunist government that are and will over time tax people more and more on their house, profits form sale, add VAT to the price etc etc and so nothing in our world can be certain anymore.
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Kraka's Dad
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Re: Life is a cycle
Well one thing is for certain you have not got a grip on reality if you think the UK government is comunist !!essbee wrote:This property thing is not and should never be seen as a short term profit maker. Even in the UK in the 90's house prices fell by some 30-40% and it took over 7 years for a proper recovery. The USA is the same. Spain had problems in the 70's with the fall of their currency and Portugal (I think) in the early 70's repossed all land held by non locals, now look at it.
The fact is that if you buy and hang on you will one day be reasonably assured of a profit in most places. BUT dont say that this is Thaidland and they dont want farangs to own land............. In the UK we now have a comunist government that are and will over time tax people more and more on their house, profits form sale, add VAT to the price etc etc and so nothing in our world can be certain anymore.
As for VAT they are not able to add it to anything without the agreement of the EU. Try and get your facts correct
The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
It really makes me laugh.
What is communist? Good old Tony Blair is on the way out. What does that that leave the UK with?
I'm happy here and moaning about Thai politics.
And as for investment, obviously it should never be a short term one , unless you want to jump on the bandwaggon and ride the wave.
Good luck to you.
For what its worth, I agree with you, essbee. Other than the political thing.
What is communist? Good old Tony Blair is on the way out. What does that that leave the UK with?
I'm happy here and moaning about Thai politics.
And as for investment, obviously it should never be a short term one , unless you want to jump on the bandwaggon and ride the wave.
Good luck to you.
For what its worth, I agree with you, essbee. Other than the political thing.
Replay
lomuamart
Thanks for your comment, politics is always an opinion of course the remaining part of my post was factual. Interesting that some ignore facts and only want to blast an opinion. Then maybe they are opinionated !!!!
Thanks for your comment, politics is always an opinion of course the remaining part of my post was factual. Interesting that some ignore facts and only want to blast an opinion. Then maybe they are opinionated !!!!
Hey esbee, saying the UK Govt. is communist is pretty opinionated and factually incorrect. Agree about the tax issue though! 
Its a pity no-one is able to answer the OP. Whilst clearly members of this site have knoweldge of the ins and outs it would be good to hear from someone with practical experience.
Its a pity no-one is able to answer the OP. Whilst clearly members of this site have knoweldge of the ins and outs it would be good to hear from someone with practical experience.
Talk is cheap
Surely it's all in the name: commune-ist ?
When the state owns everyones' houses and industry and commerce are collectivised you will know you are living in a communist state! We are further away from that supposedly utopian scenario now than at any time since the end of WW2.
High taxation does not equal communism, no matter how hard it hurts and no matter what political axe one has to grind. There are plenty of European countries with higher levels of general taxation than the UK that are clearly not regarded as communist.
Like Caller, I too am sorry that I could not respond directly to the OP and promise that I will refrain from any further off-topic remarks!
When the state owns everyones' houses and industry and commerce are collectivised you will know you are living in a communist state! We are further away from that supposedly utopian scenario now than at any time since the end of WW2.
High taxation does not equal communism, no matter how hard it hurts and no matter what political axe one has to grind. There are plenty of European countries with higher levels of general taxation than the UK that are clearly not regarded as communist.
Like Caller, I too am sorry that I could not respond directly to the OP and promise that I will refrain from any further off-topic remarks!
Digger,
From my experience you can send overseas amounts under 1m Baht, at certain banks, without the need to fill in any forms apart from transfer form, and without them checking the amount you have bought into the country etc.
Then of course there's the option of several bank accounts, transferring several amounts over a period of time.
Although I too have heard about the 'not taking out more than you bought in rule' as Lomuamart pointed out.
Exchange rate is a very relevant point, years ago a typical 3 bed bungalow in the area I live was 2.2m baht and cost a Brit 60k sterling. Now the house has rose to 4m baht and costs a Brit, well 60k sterling still !!!
Ofcourse IF the Baht gets very strong again, what will happen ??
Re: Profit on property. There is no seperate capital gains tax here, but if you own property via a company then when you realise that company asset (ie: sell it) then you have to pay corporation tax on the asset, just as you would running a company in the UK.
In practice tax is kept low due to the amount that the Land Department value the land and house at, or some people simply transfer the company shares to the new owner and then the asset has not been realised and tax not due yet.
Burger
From my experience you can send overseas amounts under 1m Baht, at certain banks, without the need to fill in any forms apart from transfer form, and without them checking the amount you have bought into the country etc.
Then of course there's the option of several bank accounts, transferring several amounts over a period of time.
Although I too have heard about the 'not taking out more than you bought in rule' as Lomuamart pointed out.
Exchange rate is a very relevant point, years ago a typical 3 bed bungalow in the area I live was 2.2m baht and cost a Brit 60k sterling. Now the house has rose to 4m baht and costs a Brit, well 60k sterling still !!!
Ofcourse IF the Baht gets very strong again, what will happen ??
Re: Profit on property. There is no seperate capital gains tax here, but if you own property via a company then when you realise that company asset (ie: sell it) then you have to pay corporation tax on the asset, just as you would running a company in the UK.
In practice tax is kept low due to the amount that the Land Department value the land and house at, or some people simply transfer the company shares to the new owner and then the asset has not been realised and tax not due yet.
Burger
Re: Life is a cycle
Portugal (I think) in the early 70's repossed all land held by non locals, now look at it..[/quote]
Essbee
for a man living in Berkshire you are surprisingly poorly imformed.I was living/working for Shell in Portugal during 1974 revolution when Caetano was removed and elections were held exactly one year later which saw the socialists take control.No land repossesions ever took place and I even bouht a plot of land in Estoril in 1984,built a house and sold on in 1994 with a 300% profit on my sterling investment.The Escudo was devaluing all the time till they joined the EU in the first small country expansion in 1986.They moved on to join the Euro at the start up of the currency and the country has had a vibrant economy for 20 years.Just now it is suffering from overbuild and the movement of business away as labour is now cheaper the new Eastern block EU entrants.
I have heard Blair called many things in the last nine years but not communist,sure it was just a figure of speech but have a feeling that though the middle income households are certainly suffering from higher stealth taxation(ie huge increases in NI) there are many more entrpranual millionaires now than there were 9 years ago.I hate to think how many house price millionaires there are.
If you are selling your main residence there is no capital gains tax to pay,just agents fees of around 2% and that is what you would have to pay VAT on.Excuse history lesson.Digger
Essbee
for a man living in Berkshire you are surprisingly poorly imformed.I was living/working for Shell in Portugal during 1974 revolution when Caetano was removed and elections were held exactly one year later which saw the socialists take control.No land repossesions ever took place and I even bouht a plot of land in Estoril in 1984,built a house and sold on in 1994 with a 300% profit on my sterling investment.The Escudo was devaluing all the time till they joined the EU in the first small country expansion in 1986.They moved on to join the Euro at the start up of the currency and the country has had a vibrant economy for 20 years.Just now it is suffering from overbuild and the movement of business away as labour is now cheaper the new Eastern block EU entrants.
I have heard Blair called many things in the last nine years but not communist,sure it was just a figure of speech but have a feeling that though the middle income households are certainly suffering from higher stealth taxation(ie huge increases in NI) there are many more entrpranual millionaires now than there were 9 years ago.I hate to think how many house price millionaires there are.
If you are selling your main residence there is no capital gains tax to pay,just agents fees of around 2% and that is what you would have to pay VAT on.Excuse history lesson.Digger
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Guess
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Re: Life is a cycle
The strange thing about your post is that the rest of it made perfectly good sense.essbee wrote:The USA is the same. Spain had problems in the 70's with the fall of their currency and Portugal (I think) in the early 70's repossed all land held by non locals, now look at it.
I don't remember that , I know people who have had land investments in Spain since the end of the Civil War and still retain it today. Perhaps someone in the know like Jaime of Mildos could comment on thay one. The property prices in Berkshire took more like 15 years to recover from the 1989 slump. I owned four properties in Berkshire, 2 in Buckinghamshire and 2 in Surrey during that period. I also owned a propert in Spain for ten years.
In the UK we now have a comunist government that are and will over time tax people more and more on their house, profits form sale, add VAT to the price etc etc and so nothing in our world can be certain anymore.
I am afraid that that is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard. Murdoch and his puppets, Blair and Bush are the most ultra right wing superpowers since the death of Colonialism in 1918. Their whole motivation is greed domination and power. According to my studies on world affairs this philosophy is 180 degrees apart from what the rest of the world know as communism. The taxes rased (spelt correctly) whic as you say are increased at an alarming rate are to fund the trios world domination campaign which not only requires large hardware budgets but also requires that the UK, US and OZ have to take on and fund all their supporters of the countries that they decide to overpower.
[color=blue][size=134]Care in the community success story.[/size][/color]
Re: Life is a cycle
Not sure that I am particularly in the know on that era as I was more interested in watching The Bionic Man than in property trends. I do remember that in the 1970's many of the tourist resorts in Mallorca (Alcudia springs immediately to mind) were simply abandoned half built, like huge concrete ghost resorts. Walking through them was quite eerie. As for Portugal, I did look at buying property there about ten years ago and was advised by a reputable lender (Abbey Nat Offshore) that I would need to set up an offshore company to do so as non-residents were not permitted to buy property. Echoes of Thailand?Guess wrote:Perhaps someone in the know like Jaime of Mildos could comment on thay one.
Re: Life is a cycle
[ As for Portugal, I did look at buying property there about ten years ago and was advised by a reputable lender (Abbey Nat Offshore) that I would need to set up an offshore company to do so as non-residents were not permitted to buy property. Echoes of Thailand?[/quote]
Jaime
Am in state of shock as have always found you to be one of the best and most imformed posters on this site.I am unaware of their ever being any restrictions on foreigners buying property in Portugal.We have a friendship treaty that dates back over 400 years.I certainly knew foreigners in the Lisbon/Cascais/Estoril area of Portugal that had owned property there since the 1950s as their was a migration there after Tangier/Morrocco was made independent from France around 1957.I think that you got the wrong end of imformation from Abbey national offshore in as much that if you bought a property in Portugal 10 years ago if you bought it through an offshore company you would not be liable for Sisa which was the 6%(if I remember that well) property tax that was levied on all property purchases.This was abandoned a few years ago.On a historical note the family of the Duke of Wellington still own estates that were given to them by the grateful Portugese around 1809 for driving the French out of their country.However I do know that it was not permissable for foreigners to buy property in Greece even after Greece joined the EU,however now you can as am sure it would be breach of human rights legislation.On a terminal point Portugal was always way more expensive than Spain even in the Algarve.
Jaime
Am in state of shock as have always found you to be one of the best and most imformed posters on this site.I am unaware of their ever being any restrictions on foreigners buying property in Portugal.We have a friendship treaty that dates back over 400 years.I certainly knew foreigners in the Lisbon/Cascais/Estoril area of Portugal that had owned property there since the 1950s as their was a migration there after Tangier/Morrocco was made independent from France around 1957.I think that you got the wrong end of imformation from Abbey national offshore in as much that if you bought a property in Portugal 10 years ago if you bought it through an offshore company you would not be liable for Sisa which was the 6%(if I remember that well) property tax that was levied on all property purchases.This was abandoned a few years ago.On a historical note the family of the Duke of Wellington still own estates that were given to them by the grateful Portugese around 1809 for driving the French out of their country.However I do know that it was not permissable for foreigners to buy property in Greece even after Greece joined the EU,however now you can as am sure it would be breach of human rights legislation.On a terminal point Portugal was always way more expensive than Spain even in the Algarve.
Re: Life is a cycle
Sorry Digger..... even a guru gets it wrong sometime...Digger wrote: Jaime
Am in state of shock as have always found you to be one of the best and most informed posters on this site.
.... but note that I included the comment as a recollection rather than as a statement of fact...... 
For the record my memory is that the restriction was on non-resident investors rather than simply foreigners. Maybe (probably!) my recollection is incorrect - I don't have the documents to hand anymore but Abbey were only lending on that basis - i.e. that an offshore company was established for the property purchase. This only applied to Portugal and not to Spain. Maybe there was something in it for them to do it that way?
Re: Life is a cycle
Cheers jaime,had to reply as felt integrity was at stake as had personally stated that I owned and sold a property in Portugal.However as a footnote to all people who ask advice on this site re house purchase in Thailand and get miffed by contrasting replies,I reckon if you go into a pub in West london and ask 3 homeowners how much stamp duty they would pay on a house costing £250,001 you would get 3 different answers.