The land and building tax bill which has been held up for more than a year will be submitted to the National Legislative Assembly for deliberation in the second and final readings in mid-November and is expected to become law after the New Year.

Deputy Finance Minister Wisut Srisuphan said Wednesday that the land and building tax bill which was initiated by the cabinet had been amended by the scrutiny committee of the NLA after it sailed through the first reading of the assembly over a year ago.

Under the bill, the first house worth not exceeding 50 million baht will be exempted from land taxation, but the second home will be taxed at the maximum rate of 0.3 percent per annum no matter how much of its worth.

Farm land belonging to an individual will be exempted for taxation for the first three years, but, starting from the fourth year, the farmland will be taxed with the exception of land worth less than 50 million baht.

Taxable farmland owned by an individual will be taxed at progressive tax rates from 0.01 to 0.15 percent for land worth more than 10 million baht but not exceeding 50 million baht.

But farmland belonging to legal entities such as a corporation will be subject to taxation.

Private schools, hospitals, sports stadiums and non-performing land or land bank will be exempted from taxation for the first five years after which they will be taxed in accordance with the usage of the land.

Unutilized land will be taxed 0.3 percent which will be increased by 0.3 percent every three years but not more than 3 percent.