I am considering moving to Thailand in the next few months. I am planning on working for myself as an agent working with Thai factories and American buyers. Can I set up a business in thailand and get a visa/work permit that way. What about starting the company in the U.S. and opening an office in Thailand? I have no problem keeping 2million baht in the bank, but I don't plan on having 4 thai employees.

I am 28 and American.

Thanks in advance-

-JB

1. Yes, you can start a company in Thailand, and obtain a work pemit from that company - provided that you register (not necessarily pay-in) at least 2,000,000 baht capital. Being able to document a University degree makes things esaier.

2. If you will serve as a Director, and can live with departing Thiland on visa runs every 90 days, you can proceed wih no other considerations. This approach works best if you can obtain a one-year, non-immigrant visa.

3. Where 2,000,000 baht and four Thai employees comes in, is if you want to obtain a long-term entry permit extension - allowing you to obtain a matching long-term work permit, and enabling you to stay on the ground in Thailand longer than 90 days at a time. You must pay-in 2,000,000 baht toa company bank account - but you do NOT needn to maintain this as a running balance - you are free to spend it, after it is recorded as paid-in.

4. In your case, literally, your biggest challenge will be establishing a legally sufficient street address at which your business will be registered. I never see this mentioned on this discussion board, but obtaining certification of business addreess for tax registration purposes is the single biggest challenge for 90% of my company's clients - and for 100% of my smaller "bootstrap" start-up clients.

Good luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

Bangkok

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com

Thanks for the advice Steve, I may be giving you a call when I get to Thailand. Can you please explain what is required to in order to have an adress that can be legally recorded and why this is so difficult?

Thanks again,

JayBee

The Thai Revenue Department will only give you the VAT and tax registrations that you need in order to do business here (or even open a company bank account) if you provide the following:

1. Letter certifying that your company is a registered tenant of the building at which your office is located, signed by building owner(s), and including signed copies of proof of ownership document (title, bill of sale, or tambien bahn), and also signed copies of ID card and house registration of building owner 9s).

2. Thai-language street map showing office location.

3. Glossy photo of office entrance, including company name sign, and street or office number.

You normally have to pay building management office a fee to put together item #1 - and, frequently, actual building owners do not live in the city where building is located (sometimes not even within Thailand) - so getting signatures may take a while.

Residential buildings will often not allow businesses to be registered at their address, because it opens them up to greater Revenue Department scruntiny.

Basically - start the process of getting certification of your office address at the same time you start the incorporation process - the office certification will almost always take longer than actually incorporating the company - meaning that you will at some point be sitting around witha legal company, but no tax registrations - and you can do virtually nothing here without a tax ID.

My company can assist with establsihing an office address.

Good luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

Bangkok

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com