# Specific business tax (SBT) (ภาษีธุรกิจเฉพาะ)

Source: https://www.thailandpropertyinvestor.com/glossary/specific-business-tax

**Definition:** Specific business tax is a 3.3% tax on the sale of property by a company or developer, or by an individual who has owned it for less than five years. It is charged on the higher of the sale price and the appraised value.

The rate is 3% plus a local levy of one tenth of that, giving 3.3%. It is collected by the land office at transfer and is the seller's cost unless the contract says otherwise. Developers always fall within it and build it into their prices.

An individual seller escapes the tax after holding the property for more than five years. Other exemptions include inherited property and a home where the seller's name has been in the tabien baan (house registration book) for at least one year, which seldom helps a non-resident foreign owner. Where specific business tax applies, stamp duty does not.

For an investor the point is the holding period. Selling a THB 20 million property after four years costs THB 660,000 in specific business tax. After five years the charge is 0.5% stamp duty instead: THB 100,000. Sale contracts sometimes try to move the tax to the buyer, so read the costs clause.

See [property taxes and buying costs](https://www.thailandpropertyinvestor.com/guides/property-taxes-and-buying-costs) and [selling property and repatriating funds](https://www.thailandpropertyinvestor.com/guides/selling-property-and-repatriating-funds).