Working online in Thailand for foreign company

[Promsak]

Asking for a friend (really).
If working online from home in Thailand, is a work permit necessary and to declare foreign earnings (paid abroad)?

[topt]

As long as not working for Thai companies how would anybody know..........

Your friend wants to be philanthropic............

 

I don't know the specific situation but he may not even be able to get a work permit very easily if at all.

 

[Swiss1960]

As a foreigner, if you work in Thailand, you need a work permit. Period. That is the law.

 

That said, as a digital nomad, there are several options available:

• don't tell. make sure that nobody knows about you working, otherwise somebody could inform immigration. Make sure your salary does not come directly from the company you work for, this would be a pretty telling sign of you working. Let the company pay you into an account outside Thailand, and then transfer the money to Thailand in your own name.
• create your own company, hire Thai employees and do it by the book. There are companies in Thailand, that help you with that, they even offer "Thai-Employees-as-a-Service", offer the taxing work for you etc. This is costly, don't go that route, if your salary is not in the at least mid-6-digits THB monthly 
• Co-working spaces: There are plenty of companies offering co-working spaces, some will "hire" the digital nomad and for a share of his income, they will give him the work permit and do his taxes.

With regards to foreign earnings, yes, all foreign earnings (not only from working, but also capital earnings etc) would in theory be taxable, if brought in to Thailand in the same year they were earned. However, you would need to check, if the country the earnings come from has a double-tax-treaty with Thailand (many countries have one, i.e. Switzerland does).

[Onerak]

Though legally not allowed, there is absolutely no problem for remote workers working from home in Thailand. The problem is the visa. What type of visa they will get to stay in Thailand for long time? If remote workers' company allows them to work from Thailand, there is no chance of immigration knocking at your door to verify if you're working or not. 

Edited May 7, 2022 by Onerak

[Peterw42]

As above, its not the work permit etc, as nobody would ever know, unless maybe you are silly enough to get payed directly into a Thai account, tagged as salary etc.

The main issue is what visa do you stay on, under 50, not married, cant afford elite etc, the options are none. 

[Neeranam]

On 5/8/2022 at 7:37 AM, Peterw42 said:

As above, its not the work permit etc, as nobody would ever know, unless maybe you are silly enough to get payed directly into a Thai account, tagged as salary etc.

I don't think that's silly, no one cares if you earn money from abroad. 

[Meat Pie 47]

28 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

I don't think that's silly, no one cares if you earn money from abroad. 

Then why wants the Thai government more digital nomads if they don't make any money?

[Chris.B]

On 5/8/2022 at 12:37 AM, Swiss1960 said:

As a foreigner, if you work in Thailand, you need a work permit. Period. That is the law.

 

That said, as a digital nomad, there are several options available:

From the description in the original post, the person is a 'remote worker' not a 'digital nomad'.

 

[Meat Pie 47]

If some one works online from home he is a digital nomad in my opinion

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

At mostly 30-45k baht/mo, most foreign teachers in Thailand also teach online to supplement their income.

 

Whenever I meet a new student and mention I'm from Thailand, many remark "Oh, another one in Thailand! Why are so many of you in Thailand?" There's hundreds and hundreds of us doing it. I then tell them about the friendly people, low cost of living, etc. And as mentioned, having a regular job like teaching is handy as it gives you the Non-B visa to stay here, to do any online work you might have, as there is no "digital nomad" or "online work" visa.

 

I definitely wouldn't recommend online teaching if you really like making money, however. You should be doing what my friends are doing, like web development for e-commerce.

[Neeranam]

13 hours ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

I definitely wouldn't recommend online teaching if you really like making money

Easily get 1000 baht an hour or more, which is pretty good if you do 40 hours a week. 

[Chris.B]

20 hours ago, Meat Pie 47 said:

If some one works online from home he is a digital nomad in my opinion

That is probably because you don't understand these things. ????

 

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

17 hours ago, Neeranam said:

Easily get 1000 baht an hour or more, which is pretty good if you do 40 hours a week. 

Yeah, for like test prep and STEM specializations, with lots of charisma, like that one guy who always gets into these threads about how he's got the Chinese kids booked into the next year with his "mad scientist" schtick. ???? That def ain't me. Just lowly Eng conversation practice here. $200 USD is a good week for me, part time. Just happy it makes the car payment.