Help

[firstproducer]

I have been married now for 11 years to my Thai wife. We have lived in the UK for the past 9 years but I feel the government has gone mad with rules and I am seriously considering moving back to BKK, this time working for myself.

If I understand this correctly, to set up a business in Thailand I would need to form a company with a minimum of seven shareholders, six Thai and myself. This would be described as a 2Million Baht Ltd company. I believe that various lawyers will help for a fee of around 40K Bhat.

What I fail to understand, and I hope one of you can help me on this, is what exactly is a 2Million Baht company and what is the true cost of setting up. Does the Thai authority keep the 2Million or does it sit untouched in the company bank account - Can anyone explain?

[dr_Pat_Pong]

I have been married now for 11 years to my Thai wife. We have lived in the UK for the past 9 years but I feel the government has gone mad with rules and I am seriously considering moving back to BKK, this time working for myself.

If I understand this correctly, to set up a business in Thailand I would need to form a company with a minimum of seven shareholders, six Thai and myself. This would be described as a 2Million Baht Ltd company. I believe that various lawyers will help for a fee of around 40K Bhat.

What I fail to understand, and I hope one of you can help me on this, is what exactly is a 2Million Baht company and what is the true cost of setting up. Does the Thai authority keep the 2Million or does it sit untouched in the company bank account - Can anyone explain?

The capital remains with the company. Ask for advie from the experts Sunbelt or Indo-Siam on here

[davethailand]

not an expert but the 2 million thing is just on paper as capital, you don,t actually need 2 million baht to start the company.

my lawyer just set up my 2nd company for my house for under 30000 bht, the shareholders are me, my wife, my mum, my dad(in the uk), my stepson, my step daughter and 2 thai friends. the major holder is my wife then me ,dad, mum etc etc.

all the share tranfers have been allocated to me giving me full control.

the thai names you have on the company papers can be anybody as long as they sign the share transfer.

for a work permit you need 2 million capital, my other companies capital is currently at 12 million baht but we are in the process of bringing it down to 6 million. (3 work permits)

as dr pp says sunbelt or indosiam would be more knowledgable than me.

[Indo-Siam]

Hi FP -

If you send me a private message to which I can reply with attachments, I will send you a set of documents that address various aspects of the process.

Things that would be useful to me in replying:

1. What is general nature of proposed activity in which the business will be engaged.

2. In what city in Thailand will you locate your registered business address?

3. Are you able to pay-in 2,000,000 baht to a company bank account (to subsequently be used by your company, however you see fit)?

4. Will your business be likely to be in position to have at least four Thai employees within 90 days or so of start-up?

For your information, if you come here with your wife ona Class O visa (and you have Thai marriage registration papers), and she can accompany you to Immigration office, and you can remit 400,000 baht from overseas into a bank account here, then you can obtain a long-term entry permit on the basis of supporting a Thai spouse. With that, you can form a company with just 2,000,000 baht in REGISTERED capital (pay in just 25% of that) - and you can still get a long-term work permit, without regard to number of Thai employees, or your monthly salary.

Otherwise, if you come in on a Class B visa, and seek to obtain long-term extension of your entry permit, you will need to pay-in 2,000,000 baht, have at least four Thai employees on your company's books, and pay taxes on a salary of at least 50,000 baht per month (applies to all Europeans).

Good luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com