Buying real estate in a company name

Legal Legal - Real Estate & Housing
1

Could anyone tell me if there are any tax or ownership advantages in buying a property through a company?

My wife and I are currently looking to buy a property in Taiwan and were looking at the best possible ownership structure. Our choices are jointly, in wife’s name (she is Taiwanese) or set up a company. The advantage in buying a property with a company might lie in when we come to sell or need to transfer ownership. For example, if a property is corporate owned, with the company itself owned 50% by my wife and 50% by myself, if one of us dies then the shares get transferred to the other which may avoid inheritance or similar taxes. Alternatively if we decide to sell the property then we would sell the company which owns the property (where we currently live there is no stamp duty on company transfers but chunky stamp duty on property transfers).

Would this be more tax efficient in Taiwan?

Thanks for your help

2

Do you wanna transfer the company ownership after some years of buying?

3

I assume that when you sell a property the stamp duty is payable. If you buy a property in a company name and when you wish to sell then you sell/transfer the company. Where I live stamp duty on property sale is 7.5% -ish but the tax payable on company transfer is 0.2% - which is substantial savings

4

ya right … that is the point.

5

You are a smart folk!

6

You can also put the property in your name. Being a foreigner is generally not an issue unless were are talking about farmland or forests in the mountains.