I live and work in Thailand (work permit) and I was planning to register and offshore company in HK. 

 

Since I will never go to HK and my company will be entirely managed from myself in Thailand, will Thailand impose any tax obligations for this company? Maybe this company will be considered as thailand tax residence for the only fact that I live here? 

 

Its just an online business, so there is obviously no office here in Thailand. 

I just need the offshore to collect income from Google Adsense and offer some in app purchases, that's it. 

No material products. No employees. No office. 

 

 

Edited June 24, 20215 yr by Fredothai

You have to understand that you, and the company, are different entities. You are a natural person, the company is a juristic person.

 

Your affairs, and the affairs of the company, are two separate and very different things.

 

Thailand does not tax the profit of completely offshore companies.

 

The next question is will Thailand tax you, the natural person?

 

1. Will the company pay you any money/earnings/dividend? If yes, then:

2. Are you tax resident in Thailand? If yes, then:

3. Will you remit the money/earnings/dividend to Thailand in the year that you received the money?

 

If you answer yes to all 3 questions then you will probably be liable to pay tax in Thailand.

 

If you answer no to at least 1 of the 3 questions then you will probably not be liable to pay tax in Thailand.

Thank you so much. All clear. 

 

Yes I am resident here, but I can decide when to remit profit to my thai bank account. If I need to wait some months to take advantage of that rule, I can do it. Its sounds good. 

18 hours ago, Fredothai said:

Yes I am resident here,

 

Do you have permanent residency in Thailand, or you are just "living and working" here?

14 minutes ago, Leaver said:

 

Do you have permanent residency in Thailand, or you are just "living and working" here?

 

irrelevant regarding the question asked by OP

 

Blackcab is right on the money

Something to note is, if you do not remit funds into Thailand earned within the previous 12 months then the funds are classed as savings and not subject to tax.

 

However I'm unsure how this stands if you are resident in Thailand for tax purposes.

 

Also, there are considerable fees associated with a Hong Kong company. Before committing please ensure you understand those fees. Unless your turnover and profit is substantial it may be beneficial to setup elsewhere. 

 

Also now that Hong Kong is run by the CCCP is it still a good place to establish a business as a non-resident foreigner?

Thanks. Yes, in case I make that decision I will make sure it's cost effective. 

For now, I was just curious about how the offshores are seen in Thailand. 

Edited June 26, 20215 yr by Fredothai

Have a read of 

 

Legal and Tax Mistakes Frequently Made When Hiring Foreign Employees in Thailand

 

On Lexology website.

All good advice and all correct, big from a practical standpoint, it will be nearly impossible for you to get a bank account in HK as a non HK resident and with neither you nor the company having any ties there. I am an HK permanent resident who has split time between HK and Thailand over the last 8-9 years. You’re better off finding another offshore jurisdiction where you can get the company and the bank account, like Vanuatu for example, or America is a good option also, but then again if your clients are Google or others best fo make sure they’ll work with you as an offshore entity. And also most every offshore jurisdiction anywhere, if you want a bank account, you’ll need to travel there, and in the age of Covid it’s not so easy also.

1 hour ago, jasonsamui55 said:

All good advice and all correct, big from a practical standpoint, it will be nearly impossible for you to get a bank account in HK as a non HK resident and with neither you nor the company having any ties there. I am an HK permanent resident who has split time between HK and Thailand over the last 8-9 years. You’re better off finding another offshore jurisdiction where you can get the company and the bank account, like Vanuatu for example, or America is a good option also, but then again if your clients are Google or others best fo make sure they’ll work with you as an offshore entity. And also most every offshore jurisdiction anywhere, if you want a bank account, you’ll need to travel there, and in the age of Covid it’s not so easy also.

 If you have the company  registered try https://statrys.com/ or work wise a WISE account

13 hours ago, tgw said:

 

irrelevant regarding the question asked by OP

 

Blackcab is right on the money

 

Tax treaties are hardly irrelevant.  

1 hour ago, Leaver said:

 

Tax treaties are hardly irrelevant.  

 

OECD tax treaties are typically applicable depending on the number of days a person physically stays in a country. Legal visa or residency status is typically not taken into account, so yes, totally irrelevant.

@jasonsamui I think neobanks can fix the issue for HK nowadays.

Like => airwallex.com

Moreover there are agencies like sleek.com or osome.com that are great partners for HK offshore entities. 

But you are right, not sure if HK is attractive jurisdictions because of extra fixed expenses like the annual audit report. 

Also Dubai can be interesting to consider or US single member LLC. Will explore. 

 

Edited June 26, 20215 yr by Fredothai

29 minutes ago, tgw said:

tax treaties are typically applicable depending on the number of days a person physically stays in a country

 

29 minutes ago, tgw said:

Legal visa or residency status is typically not taken into account,

 

Too funny.  ????

6 minutes ago, Leaver said:

 

Too funny.  ????

 

yes it is funny.
tax treaties apply even if your activity is illegal or if you are staying or working illegally.

I guess you aren't very well informed on the matter?

 

from the perspective of standard OECD tax treaties, if you stay more than 180 days,, you are liable to tax, regardless if staying on a tourist visa or not.

Edited June 26, 20215 yr by tgw

28 minutes ago, Fredothai said:

@jasonsamui I think neobanks can fix the issue for HK nowadays.

Like => airwallex.com

Moreover there are agencies like sleek.com or osome.com that are great partners for HK offshore entities. 

But you are right, not sure if HK is attractive jurisdictions because of extra fixed expenses like the annual audit report. 

Also Dubai can be interesting to consider or US single member LLC. Will explore.

 

one thing you want to do is verify that the offshore company's activity is fully legal under the chosen offshore jurisdiction.

 

 

 

You may want to look at this site:

 

https://handshake.org/

18 minutes ago, tgw said:

 

yes it is funny.
tax treaties apply even if your activity is illegal or if you are staying or working illegally.

I guess you aren't very well informed on the matter?

 

from the perspective of standard OECD tax treaties, if you stay more than 180 days,, you are liable to tax, regardless if staying on a tourist visa or not.

 

You contradicted yourself in your previous post.  

 

Residency for taxation purposes MATTERS,  

 

Edited June 26, 20215 yr by Leaver

1 minute ago, Leaver said:

 

You contradicted yourself in your previous post.  

 

Residency for taxation purposes MATTERS,  

 

 

read again, there was no contradiction

2 minutes ago, tgw said:

 

read again, there was no contradiction

 

You read again.

 

Residency is "relevant" when it comes to cross border taxation, to say otherwise is just plain wrong.  

1 minute ago, Leaver said:

You read again.

 

Residency is "relevant" when it comes to cross border taxation, to say otherwise is just plain wrong.  

 

you were talking about tax treaties.

"residency" is a legal status in Thailand, i.e. "permanent residency"

tax treaties don't use "residency" as a criteria for taxation of individuals, they use the number of days a person physically stays in a country.

 

if you are a permanent resident in Thailand, but you stay 186 days in the UK, the UK tax office will want to tax your income.

14 minutes ago, tgw said:

 

you were talking about tax treaties.

"residency" is a legal status in Thailand, i.e. "permanent residency"

tax treaties don't use "residency" as a criteria for taxation of individuals, they use the number of days a person physically stays in a country.

 

if you are a permanent resident in Thailand, but you stay 186 days in the UK, the UK tax office will want to tax your income.

 

That would make where one choses to domicile, either literally, or on paper, relevant.  Right?  

1 minute ago, Leaver said:

 

That would make where one choses to domicile, either literally, or on paper, relevant.  Right?  

 

you win. mai bpen rai.