Office At Home Question

[pumi23]

hello,

i have a question. my husband and me live here in hong kong and we have our own company. we plan to move to thailand and open there a second office.

now, my question is:

is it possible to set up the office at home? lets say the groundfloor of a townhouse and register the company with that address? i heard many people do that, but regarding the immigration department, do they accept home offices?

in hong kong, you need to have a "real" office address in a office-building to be able to apply for a working visa with your company as the sponsor. there is almost no chance that you get a visa when you work from home.

is it the same in bangkok? we are planning to employ a few locals later, but we would like to settle down first, work a few months on our own and then start employing some locals.

i appreciate your answers.

thanks

sandra

[guardian]

Since you are setting up your office legally in your home, I don't think it should be a problem. Our office in Bangkok was based from home for nearly 4 years when we first came here and before we moved our office to a "real" office building. Even now, I know many friends and relatives who run their business from home-offices in townhouses. Some have their office in the ground floor, whereas some have it on the 1st floor (or 2nd floor as a Thai person would call it).

So, you don't have to worry about explaining to the immigration/revenue or whatever department. Hope this helps.

[Phil Conners]

I was told it is not possible to get a WP with a home-office, you need a "real" office. TIT.

[pumi23]

guardian, did you get a workpermit based on your homeoffice?

phil, thats exactly what i worry about. i would really like to settle down first, see where we would like to live and what is the best place to have our office.

anyone knows more about this and could help?

thanks

[rogerinthai]

You can register you company in a townhouse as long as your landlord allows it, and provides you the proper documentation. Some landlords will not do that since it will expose them to Tax Authorities.

I do have several friends with that arrangement - and I have even seen some apartments in apartment buildings used as company address. Try to find a place with a landlord that did it in the past and knows exactly what is required.

[guardian]

guardian, did you get a workpermit based on your homeoffice?

phil, thats exactly what i worry about. i would really like to settle down first, see where we would like to live and what is the best place to have our office.

anyone knows more about this and could help?

thanks

Pumi23, if you re-read my posting, the reason I used the word "legally" was to cover all the legal aspects including workpermit. So, yes myself and all the others I mentioned all have workpermit based on the address given as home/office.

rogerinthai gave another very important advice. First find out with your landlord/lady whether they allow an office from home and someone who's allowed it in past are more experienced.

[pumi23]

thanks, this information is really helpful.

i hope we can really do it that way first. i will need a "rea" office later anyway because we want to employ people. but for the beginning it would really be helpful.

any others have similar experiences?

[pumi23]

i will need a "rea" office later

sorry, "real" office ;-)

[autonomous_unit]

We registered a company in a rented condo (with assistance of landlord) and then reregistered it at a single family dwelling that my wife purchased in her name, getting a work permit for myself as an employee and director of this company and renewing it at the new location.

So, any decision about allowing a work permit is obviously based on multiple criteria and discretion of the officers involved... it is not a simple rule about having a "real" office or not. The objectives for ours included software development and consulting, which is quite conceivable with a minimal office, as we do not need to receive customers nor operate manufacturing machinery etc.

Eventually, I suspect renewal will depend on showing reasonable accounting data etc. and have little to do with the type of office. In the beginning, they just need enough combined evidence to believe it is a legitimate business, I think.

[rogerinthai]

i will need a "real" office later anyway because we want to employ people. but for the beginning it would really be helpful.

Another point - in my opinion there is no need to rush registering a company and getting a WP. I'd wait to see that it starts to do some business and that it goes well and is viable, only then proceed with the formalities. There is no point getting into the Thai system beforehand. It is not very welcoming. Plus, moving company address is a bit of a hassle.

Edited January 26, 2007 by rogerinthai

[pumi23]

of course i know, having an office is not the only point to get a WP.

but in hong kong its one of the crucial points.

we would like to rent, not buy any house/condo at the moment.

roger, how can we not register the company and still live in thailand? as i know we have to leave in 3 months then.

thanks so much for your help guys.

[rogerinthai]

roger, how can we not register the company and still live in thailand? as i know we have to leave in 3 months then.

If you get a tourist visa for 2 month and extend it by one month, you can still do 3 visa runs of one month each. Total 6 months. I think this should be enough time to determine whether the enterprise is viable and whether you want to proceed to the formalities. I did it the other way around - I got here and started the company formation almost immediately - office, WP, employees, etc. As a result, I had to carry significant expenses and hassles for several months, until the company started to make money. After a few years, I am now closing my company - but this is another story.

[raro]

I live in a 3 bedroom house and was also planning to work from home. My lawyer advised me that I would NOT get a WP.

Reason: The office must be clearly separated from the living area. In our case, the office room is only accessible through the living room.

[isaanbrit]

Nope - if you register a LTD business, it doesnt matter if you register it in a house or in a factory, it's the money they worry about, not the address.

Most businesss are in townhouses, is there a way of telling the difference between a residential townhouse and a commercial./

[AndyCanfield]

is it possible to set up the office at home?

we are planning to employ a few locals later, but we would like to settle down first, work a few months on our own and then start employing some locals.

A couple of yars ago I went through this:

* Founded a regular Thai company (not Amity)

* Got a 90 day business visa because that company wanted to hire me.

* Hired four Thai workers at 5,000 baht per month each.

* Applied for a work permit

* Got the work permit

* Simultaneously, extended the visa

* Worked

* Ran out of money

Things had to be done in that sequence. AFAIK you needed four Thai employees and two million baht of paid up capital investment for every work permit. I needed a photograph of a plastic sign outside the front of the house showing the house number and company name.

For sure you'll need a lawyer and an accountant. For sure you'll need someone who likes dealing with the Thai government legal system.

The fact that I happen to sleep in the house where the company was registered was irrelevant, never even noticed.

This was three years ago; the laws may have changed. But I repeat:

You will need a lawyer and an accountant.

[Chang_paarp]

You will find a lot of this matter is discussed in this thread in the business section.

The challenge in having a home based office registered legally, is that you need the written permission of the property owner. Many landlords are reluctant to invite scrutiny of their affairs by any sort of government official. You need physical address to satisfy tax and immigration officials amongst others.

[Misty]

I have a home office, and my company is registered in my apartment. I have a work permit, and a long term extended visa for business purposes. My landlord had no problem with me registering my company in the apartment building, as the building itself is owned by a registered company that reports its rental income to the tax authorities. I do advisory work, and outside of the occasional messenger, there aren't a lot of people coming and going to disturb other tenants.

My company is VAT registered. The Thai Revenue Dept. has visited my office and has not had problems with my set-up.

You will need to hire a certain number of Thai employees to get an extended visa for business purposes from Immigration. There may be other types of visas you can qualify for, but you might want to check with SunBelt Asia about what they may be.

According to the company that arranged my visa, Immigration does not require that any of the Thai employees work in my home office. Immigration only requires that the employees be able to commute to my office within an hour if they come to check how many employees I have.

Good luck to you,

Misty

Edited January 29, 2007 by Misty

[raro]

I had labour office twice and immigration once over to my old office in Ban Chang. They measured the size of the room, the size of the desks, had a checklist (homemade....) and ticked the presence of a fax machine, computers etc. They also made lots of picctures and went home after.

Might be because I made it clear that I do not pay under the table, might be because they were picking on me as it was pure intimidation.

I heard similar stories also from Pattaya.