Owning land and property in Thailand.
Under Thai law, foreigners may own buildings, condominium units or houses, in their own names, yet Thai law stipulates that foreigners cannot own Thai land in their own names. However, foreigners have several ways to acquire land rights in the Kingdom of Thailand
1. The romantic solution
2. Renewable 30-year lease with purchasing option.
3. Set up Thai Company
4. Investment (BOI)

The romantic solution
For single client, meet and fall in love then marry a Thai person you trust, buy house and land in his or her name, and live happily together. May be, to make sure your right, you can even rent the house back from his or her in your own name. This beautifully simple solution, for reasons, is the least popular option.

Renewable 30-year land leasehold with purchasing option
As mention above, foreigners can own villa in their own name and in the same time lease the land on which the villa locate. Land Leasing is legally the simplest, most straightforward way to own land rights in Thailand, a solution used by foreigners and Thais alike. Land lease contracts can cover a period of 30 years with an option to extend, at minimum cost, for a further two 30 year periods to give effectively a 90 year lease. That can confer rights equivalent to freehold ownership to the buyer. Also the lease agreement concerns the buyer's right to renew or resell at any time in the future, even the purchasing option. With the option, the land title may be converted from leasehold to freehold at the leaseholders request at any of time. Therefore, leasing is currently seen as a reliable solution until a more agreeable option is introduced. Baan WANA already provide foreigner clients the contracts under this option.

Set up Thai Limited company
One of the strongest structure to purchase land for foreigner client is through a Thai Limited Liability Company. In Thailand, a Limited Company which is a Thai Juristic Person has long been the most popular way of enabling foreigners to acquire property in Thailand. In a simply way, the company owns the land and you, as a foreigner, own the company shares. Though, the foreigner can own a limit of 49% of the company shares, however, you can legally be the only signed director who can control any contractual dealings. This Option allows the foreign buyer to have complete and secure control over the company and all its assets.
With this option, Baan WANA are able to advise you on this process and can recommend legal professionals to help you with the procedure.

Investment (BOI)
A foreigner, who invests up to 40 million Baht for no less than 5 years, is entitled to buy up to one rai (1600 SqM) of land for residential purposes. However, the permission from the Ministry of Interior must be obtained.

What Taxes and Costs are Applicable to Purchasing a Property?

In Thailand, whenever a property in Thailand is bought and sold, there are four kinds of tax that need to be taken into account.

Land registration (transfer fee) of 2.0% of assessed value of the land.

Stamp Duty/Fee of 0.5% of the assessed value or the sale price - whichever is higher.

Specific Business Tax of 3.3% of the assessed value or the sale price - whichever is higher - this will be applied to all sales by companies and to any private sales that occur within 5 years of the date of purchase.

Income Tax which is calculated on a very complex formula according to the assessed value of the property, the length of time owned and the applicable personal income tax rate.

Source: Foreign Buyer Guide http://www.ap-thai.com/HomeBuyerGuide.aspx#a7