Getting a work permit + business visa as a software developer

[farangchris]

On 11/18/2018 at 5:34 PM, dcnx said:

As a software developer who doesn’t need a co-shared office, that means you’re working from home. No one is going to know you’re working if you work from home. There are plenty of agents that can get the ED and you don’t have to go to school, and it costs much less. Works out to around 4000b per month or so. They can shove their 10k + 10% tax baht or 30% if all you need is a way to stay and work from a condo.

 

But if your goal is to do local business then you’ll absolutely want to be above board on all of this. 10k per month might be cheaper than getting a lawyer and having ghost employees.

Even with an ED visa, you would need for example your own company to invoice your clients.

So you would have the costs to run a legal company and you pay probably also taxes with this company.

 

Of course there're other options like a company in Hong Kong, Canada LP, maybe a UK LLP etc.

But you still need also manage your company which takes time and which will also cost you some $ per year. A HK company will cost you maybe 1.000 to 1.500$ per year. Plus you will have problems to get a bank account. There're solutions like Neat for example. But then you're also paying for each transaction, exchange fees etc. etc.

 

I am currently working from my Condo and i'm on my ED visa - That's fine for now. But if i want to live here for a longer period - I would need a proper visa.

 

Currently i've to pay 5.000 baht each 3 months to extend my ED visa. Plus 20.000 Baht for 200 lessons / 1 year.

So 40.000 Baht per year in total for the ED visa.

Edited November 22, 2018 by farangchris

[Scottjouro]

"But in my opinion 10k per month just for the visa & work-permit"

 

..that is cheap if it also includes your tax and social secuity payments..

 

 

 

[Scottjouro]

On 11/10/2018 at 2:09 PM, ukrules said:

 

Only an idiot would use a service like this and pay themselves 2 million Baht per year through the service with their percentage rates and pay Thai tax on top of that.

 

The logical way would be to pay yourself the bare minimum allowed through invoices to your off shore corporation or maybe even personal invoices.

Ah dont bring good/common sense business practices into this LOL..the DNs think they are the "first" generation to work as "freelancers" "contractors" etc and they know it all...some of us have been have been worked through offshore corps and Ltd companies for best part of 30 years to minimise tax burden ????

[Scottjouro]

On 11/13/2018 at 12:57 PM, farangchris said:

No you're not allowed to work. The company has nothing to do with the work-permit. You're not allowed to work in Thailand or almost every other country without a valid work-permit.

 

But even if you would be allowed to work: You're still without a Non-B visa ????

 

One of the best examples would be maybe the U.S they're really strict.

I know someone who where rejected at the border, because he said he's also working on his Macbook ????  True story .. 

 

But anyway. So i think in Thailand there's no real other solution then Iglu ... ????

You dont  NEED a non imm B visa for a work permit, if one is married to a Thai national a WP can be issued under the marriage visa as well under a non imm O

[Scottjouro]

On 11/13/2018 at 12:18 PM, jackdd said:

If you take the law literally nearly everything you do in Thailand could be considered work and would be illegal.

But in the recent times the Department of Employment confirmed on several occasions that they don't consider working online (customers abroad, money comes from abroad) as "working in Thailand" so no work permit or specific visa required and you can legally do it while here on a tourist visa. This could of course change in the future, but currently they don't have a problem with it.

And on supposes said DOL gave you a letter/document stating this ?

 

But yes i agree they wouldnt have an issue with a legimate tourist doing a bit of work on holiday, but the minute someone starts abusing tourists visas to live in Thailand on a "permanent" basis and they are in country more than 180 days p.a. they are now resident in Thailand for tax purposes legally, p

ergo they are not tourist irrespective of the visa class they are abusing..as a legimate tourist will never become legally resident for tax purposes in any country as they are not present in country long enough

 

Therefore in this circumstance said online workers are working illegally if they are present in Thailand for =>180 days a year

[onera1961]

5 minutes ago, Scottjouro said:

Therefore in this circumstance said online workers are working illegally if they are present in Thailand for =>180 days a year

Split your time between Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, S Korea, Japan, Macau. Good luck to those DNs

[Scottjouro]

1 minute ago, onera1961 said:

Split your time between Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, S Korea, Japan, Macau. Good luck to those DNs

If one is doing that certainly a the low levels of income these DNs seem to be talking about, may as well stay in Thailand and pay the fees and taxes for the work permit via these umbrella companies...it will be cheaper than moving around to stay ahead of the tax residency 

[JackThompson]

19 minutes ago, Scottjouro said:

If one is doing that certainly a the low levels of income these DNs seem to be talking about, may as well stay in Thailand and pay the fees and taxes for the work permit via these umbrella companies...it will be cheaper than moving around to stay ahead of the tax residency 

When I was single, so needed very little "stuff," I could have moved many times between less-expensive neighboring countries to Thailand, for the cost of just a few months of paying those outfits.  I did this for a few years. 

 

The only slightly more expensive bit is the PI, since one cannot go over-land - so must pay the airline-fee for an extra bag in and out.  I still have a luggage-scale around here somewhere bought in a PI mall. Some poorer folks I had met in the PI got some freebies when I left - it cost less to re-purchase on the mainland, than to carry on the flight. 

 

If single now, I would probably do 5-mo rotations from Thailand, Cambodia, VN - then the reverse pattern back.  It's meeting a gal you really like that can make the plan go sideways - though I still think it was worth it, to spite the issues with Thai immigration.

Edited November 22, 2018 by JackThompson

[jackdd]

31 minutes ago, Scottjouro said:

And on supposes said DOL gave you a letter/document stating this ?

 

But yes i agree they wouldnt have an issue with a legimate tourist doing a bit of work on holiday, but the minute someone starts abusing tourists visas to live in Thailand on a "permanent" basis and they are in country more than 180 days p.a. they are now resident in Thailand for tax purposes legally, p

ergo they are not tourist irrespective of the visa class they are abusing..as a legimate tourist will never become legally resident for tax purposes in any country as they are not present in country long enough

 

Therefore in this circumstance said online workers are working illegally if they are present in Thailand for =>180 days a year

You are just mixing up different laws which are all exercised by different ministries and then come to a conclusion which doesn't make sense.

1. Revenue law saying you are considered a tax resident if you spend more than 180 days in the country and that you have to pay tax on money from abroad which is transferred to Thailand in the year in which it's earned

2. Immigration law which says you need a work permit to work in Thailand

3. Labour / Employment law which defines what is work.

 

(3) says working online isn't considered work, so you don't need a work permit, which means you are not violating (2) when working online while on a tourist visa. That you are a tax resident according to (1) is no problem if you either pay tax on the income or don't transfer it to Thailand in the year it's earned.

Nothing illegal about it.

 

Here a news about somebody employing 166 people in Thailand, but they were all working online which isn't considered work, so they could do it while being here on a tourist visa and didn't do anything wrong:

The only wrong doing was done by the hotel, they didn't submit TM30s for the guests.

Edited November 22, 2018 by jackdd

[moontang]

There would be 10 million software developers from India here, if it was easy.

[JackThompson]

4 minutes ago, moontang said:

There would be 10 million software developers from India here, if it was easy.

It's cheaper for them to work online from India than here.  The ones here (other than vacationers) are here to make money from working in Thailand.