Disputing your Land and Building Tax bill: the appeal process, deadlines and what actually moves an assessment

Can you actually push back on a Land and Building Tax (LBT) bill, or is the annual notice final? You can push back — the Land and Buildings Tax Act B.E. 2562 (2019) sets out a formal, three-stage objection and appeal process in Chapter X, starting with a 30-day window to object once the assessment notice (form ภ.ด.ส.6) arrives, typically in February (Section 73). For the rates themselves and who's liable on a leasehold villa, see Owner's taxes on Koh Phangan; this guide covers what to do when the number on that notice looks wrong.

Step 1 — object to the local administrator (30 days)

• File within 30 days of receiving the assessment or payment-demand notice, with the local administrator — the OrBorTor (Subdistrict Administrative Organisation) for most of Koh Phangan.
• Use the prescribed objection form (ภ.ด.ส.10 in Ministry of Interior practice) and state clearly what's wrong — the appraised value, the property-use category, the recorded land area, or the taxpayer identified.
• The local administrator has 60 days to decide and must notify a reasoned order in writing. Miss that window and the law deems the administrator to have agreed with you.
• If they agree, any overpaid tax is refunded within 15 days of the written notice.

Step 2 — appeal to the Provincial Tax Assessment Appeal Committee (30 days)

If the local administrator rejects the objection, the next step is an appeal to the Changwat (provincial) Tax Assessment Appeal Committee — for Koh Phangan, Surat Thani's committee, chaired by the provincial governor alongside the provincial land, treasury, public works and revenue officials (Section 74). The appeal is filed with the same local administrator within 30 days of the rejection notice, who must forward it to the committee within 15 days. The committee has 60 days to decide, extendable once by up to 30 days for good cause, and must notify its reasoned decision within 15 days of finishing its review (Section 81).

Step 3 — court

If the committee's decision still isn't satisfactory, the final route is a court action, filed within 30 days of receiving the committee's decision (Section 82).

Do you have to pay while you dispute it?

Filing an objection or appeal does not, by itself, pause the payment deadline — the tax is still due on the original schedule unless you separately apply to the local administrator for a stay of payment, and they grant it. Even when granted, a stay typically only covers the increase over what was assessed the previous year, not the whole bill, and the administrator can require security to grant it (Section 73). Don't assume disputing the number buys you time without asking for that stay explicitly.

What actually moves an assessment

• Wrong use classification is the most common and most winnable ground — a property taxed at the 0.30–0.70% rented/commercial band when it's genuinely an owner-occupied primary residence (0.02–0.10%) is a real error worth challenging with occupancy evidence. See Owner's taxes on Koh Phangan for the full rate table.
• Recorded land or building area that doesn't match the chanote or building permit — a straightforward documentary correction.
• An appraised value pulled from the wrong zone or a mismatched comparable — request the valuation basis from the OrBorTor and compare it against the Treasury Department's published zone tables for the specific parcel.
• Vacant-land status applied incorrectly to land with genuine agricultural or residential use, or vice versa — relevant given the step-up penalty on land left vacant for multiple years; see the agricultural-use rules in Vacant-land tax step-up.

Right Way doesn't file tax objections for clients — for a leasehold villa, check the lease first to see whether this cost and the right to dispute it sit with you or the landowner, since the LBT is legally assessed on the registered title holder. Where a real error exists, a local accountant or Thai lawyer familiar with the specific OrBorTor's valuation practice can usually resolve it faster than the formal appeal timeline suggests.