~G~

My laptop fan stopped working, which results in overheating and sudden shutdowns (luckily, didn't explode just yet.. ). Seems like a simple problem to fix, I wonder if anyone knows a reliable place in Bangkok to fix that. The thing I want to avoid the most is them causing more damage than is already there.. ("Sorry, your HD crashed, we had to replace it as well and we lost all the data, please pay the 10,000 baht bill at the counter...'").

Edit: It is an HP Pavilion, purchased abroad, if that is of any relevance.

Probably for good people between high basic and bonus, once their broke in and buitl up experinece probably over 100,000 bhat monthly for a good performer.

100K a month will certainly do the trick, unless the basic salary is too low. But you can get native English speakers in Bangkok for half that amount. There are plenty of English and American guys around teaching English, who will be OK with 50K-60K and legit WP. Who knows, some of them may even be good at sales

Also I am sure I can find a good PA, who can suport my own sales work, and fax my proposals, emails, and answer the phone in english, but not do direct sales herself, update the web sites, and database etc.

Thai PA with some experience, good english (studied abroad), expect to pay about 20K-30K baht. Reasonable English (can understand and communicate, but with many mistakes)? 15K-20K will be anough.

There are many stock brokers in Thailand, for example, the Banks themselves.

You don't need Thai employees for a WP. You only need them if you want an "Extension of Stay".

Thank you for your reply.

What does this mean in practice?...sorry for being ignorant.

This means there are two options:

No Thai employees -> Non-B-Imm Visa -> 90 day visa runs to the border.

4 Thai employees and enough income -> Extension of Stay -> No visa runs required.

You get a WP in both cases.

You don't need Thai employees for a WP. You only need them if you want an "Extension of Stay".

I'm just confuse from top to the bottom....

We planned to move since 10 months....

move for a "better chapter of our life" ....

and..... now all this mess .....

The bottom line is, as long as your profit is large enough, you'll be able to handle the overhead. If you expect modest income, the company/taxes/wp/visa runs/etc can be a significant burdon.

You have to have a commercial address, which means an office of some kind. Virtual office works until it doesn't. I have a friend that rents a townhouse, and registered his company in that address, so registering it to your personal address is indeed possible (might not be easy to find a landlord who agrees to).

Nobody is forcing you to hire Thai employees, but unless you have 4 (and enough income), you will have to leave the country every 90 days.

I assume you can find a definition for what you wish to do apart from "consultant".

To be transparent the idea was to buy an house (and we did, it's small one, only 1 bedroom) it's in a resort to be completed soon with rest. Spa and all that stuff. All transfer etc etc has been done already, and the company has an address too. Go there for few weeks and do nothing initially, just looking around. After Rent this house via the resort managment and get money from clients on daily basis. We going to rent an house on long term basisi for us, and create a job "on call" (consultant), in this way I could have my income (and pay tax) out of my personal job and out of the rented property trough the Co.Ltd. But now everything is mixup, you need the Co Ltd (or sponsor) in order to obtain a Non Imm B and so on... so now I can not even sell the house or the Co.Ltd untill I do not find a fix employment otherwise I loose the right to get the Visa, is like running in circle....

In my opinion you are overestimating small problems while underestimating bigger problems - biggest of all is the land ownership issue.

I'm just confuse from top to the bottom....

We planned to move since 10 months....

move for a "better chapter of our life" ....

and..... now all this mess .....

The bottom line is, as long as your profit is large enough, you'll be able to handle the overhead. If you expect modest income, the company/taxes/wp/visa runs/etc can be a significant burdon.

You have to have a commercial address, which means an office of some kind. Virtual office works until it doesn't. I have a friend that rents a townhouse, and registered his company in that address, so registering it to your personal address is indeed possible (might not be easy to find a landlord who agrees to).

Nobody is forcing you to hire Thai employees, but unless you have 4 (and enough income), you will have to leave the country every 90 days.

I assume you can find a definition for what you wish to do apart from "consultant".

Here you go

New rules said also, that you can not apply for a WP if you are a consultant because the term is to vague ? But if you want work for your self only, is possible in Thai ? I would like to be sort of intermediary (let's say translator and consultant) for people who want advise and information's about Properties, biz and marketing, so I will work "On Call" what I should do ? I do not need either the office either any staff ? I have my Co Ltd, can I use it for this purpose ? somebody knows something about individual job with or without Co Ltd ?

This is exactly the kind of foreigner business Thailand is not that eager to have: no Thais employed, non-tangible services, not bringing in any foreign exchange, low capitalization, little taxes...

Not 100% correct under my point of view, because you live there and you spend money in rent an house to live, buy a car, import currency for above and of course if you get paid you pay tax.

Like in EU no difference....

You don't need to convince ME, ask immigration why they changed the rules for Extension of Stay.

There is quite a big difference between the EU and Thailand in foreign business policies, from your previous posts you have spotted some of it, I guess you are currently in the denial stage?

At least Nana Plaza is off the main street even if the pox spilling out from that area can still be seen as one drives past in one's hiso chariot, sipping champagne.

With you serving the champagne, I presume?

New rules said also, that you can not apply for a WP if you are a consultant because the term is to vague ? But if you want work for your self only, is possible in Thai ? I would like to be sort of intermediary (let's say translator and consultant) for people who want advise and information's about Properties, biz and marketing, so I will work "On Call" what I should do ? I do not need either the office either any staff ? I have my Co Ltd, can I use it for this purpose ? somebody knows something about individual job with or without Co Ltd ?

This is exactly the kind of foreigner business Thailand is not that eager to have: no Thais employed, non-tangible services, not bringing in any foreign exchange, low capitalization, little taxes...

I'm in the process of buying a beer bar in my girlfriends name and want to know if there is anyway to protect my investment.

Chastity belts were used in Europe in the past, but they may not be suitable for the Thai climate.

I am not talking birds, i am talking girls - how are they, mint? good attitudes or like farangs?

Forget about India if that's what you're looking for - it's very conservative.

I am retired (and have a retirement visa), but study Thai history as a hobby. I would like to hire a part-time assistant to help with translation, typing, and the like.

Under Thai law, can I simply hire an assistant just as I would hire a housekeeper, or driver, etc. -- that is, somebody who provides purely personal, rather than business, services?

Is there some set of government regulations that I must comply with, or can the person be treated as an indendent contractor, who takes responsibility for his/her own tax payments, etc.?

Does it make any difference if my girlfriend, a Thai national, is the official 'employer'?

No, I'm not worried that anybody is going to come knocking on my door. I'm just curious about what the official rules are, if anybody knows.

Thanks in advance,

Retiree

You can't "hire" employees, but I don't see why you can't just use whatever services supplied by Thais, if they are independent contractors and you are not untilizing those services for any kind of business. In this case you are not an employer, just a client.

Thanks for your replies. I'm glad to know that BUPA seems to work well in Thailand (where all my staff will work). I'm assuming that Prakan Sangkhom is the government program.

ประกันสังคม (Prakan Sangkhom) = Social Security

By the way can anyone answer me on this. Even though I have a company set up I will not have started working till about Dec as I have to take some trips do i still need to file the social security and whitholding taxes and things like that?

Yes, but late filing is not a disaster.

I am not registering for VAT now so I presume I dont have to file VAT returns every month.

How did you get a WP if your company isn't VAT registered??

Get his though, for Thais it's 400 Baht a month, for foreigners it's 1,500 Baht..!!!

Social Security is 10% of the salary (5% paid by the employer, 5% deducted from the salary), with a cap on 1,500 baht. Same for foreginers and Thais.

Edit: Oops, just noticed TerryLH already pointed that out.

Can a foreigner really apply for a commercial registration as an individual?

No.

I doubt you could buy spare parts and maintenance on one Blackhawk for $24M. That's couch cushion change in the defense industry.

Only $5.9M a piece according to Wikipedia. $24M will get you four Black Hawks.

In order to get these people to comply, have they gained some revenue by forcing these people to pay tax, but hurt the economy? A number of people would say this is the case.

Let's take the example of a foreigner running a company with 2 Thais. He will not hire two more Thais just to satisfy the requirement (anyway hiring 2 more minimum wage thais does not result in higher payment to the revenue department, just to social security). The foreginer will just get a one year Non-Imm-B with 90 days entry permits, instead of paying for an extenstion of stay. Then paying the Cambodia government (for example) visa fee. I don't see how they increase Thai revenues here. Just making it more uncomfortable for the foreigner, having to fly abroad and apply for a visa once a year. Oh yes, unless they start making it harder to get the non-imm-B visa at the foriegn embassies/consulates.

Foreginers will just spend more on flights and visas for foreign countries (oh yes, visa runs services as well) instead of simply making the payment to the Thai government. What's the point?

In addition, it will make it more difficult to apply for PR after a few years for those that don't meet the criteria.

Another recent quote "The foreign businessman that was milking Thailand, now will be forced to give some milk back if they want to stay here."

A Thai can start a business legally with zero expenses, foreigners need to start a company, register for VAT, pay for a work permit, visa renewals, audits, etc., who is milking who?

If you do 90-day visa runs on a multi-entry non-imm B visa then nothing changes, right?

Not yet.

As for the monthly land lease cost, I don't think it's relevant if land-rental prices fall in the future. I have done my calculations based on x baht per month. If land rental prices fall, then the only effect on me is that i moan a bit more each month when we pay the lease fee

I agree, my remark was in the context of using the term "asset" to describe the lease itself. In your case, the real assets are the buildings, marketing tools such as a website, and then hopefully a customer base and good reputation.

He is the owner of a guesthouse business, and the owner of a lease on a building. An assett that can be sold on at any time.

Interesting way of describing it. A lease is not an asset, it is an agreement between two sides, where the so-called "owner" is on the paying side. Nor can it be sold at any time, it may be transferred until the end of the lease, by which date it will worth exacty zero.

Hey G,

Your words 'it will be wirth exactly zero' at the end of the lease is exactly correct. However, that would imply that the lease did indeed have value when it was not nearing its end date. Anything with value is an asset, is it not?

Well, the value may be zero or even negative before the end date. Take for example a lease for 3 years, that states you need to pay 50,000 baht a month on the property. First year, everything fine. Second year, real estate bubble bursts and the going rent drops to 30,000 baht a month for similar properties. What will the value of your lease be then? You may even consider paying someone to take it off your hands, meaning negative value!

A real asset, on the other hand, can never have a negative value. At least that's how I see it.

Unless you own the land your business, any business, is on, you will be a slave to the land-owner.

I don't agree. It's all down to having a long-term lease which is registered with the land office, and doing your calculations before you sign the contract to ensure that you will make the profit that you are seeking.

I'd say it matter of time perspectives. How long is "long-term"?

He is the owner of a guesthouse business, and the owner of a lease on a building. An assett that can be sold on at any time.

Interesting way of describing it. A lease is not an asset, it is an agreement between two sides, where the so-called "owner" is on the paying side. Nor can it be sold at any time, it may be transferred until the end of the lease, by which date it will worth exacty zero.