Sole Proprietorship Work Permit

[bellachg]

I have been married to my Thai wife for 16 years and have resided in Thailand on Non-Immigrant 1-year visa extensions for 11 consecutive years. I am 77 years old. My wife runs a small service business as a sole proprietorship (as yet under her own name and not under a trade name). Is it possible for me to obtain a work permit to assist her? There will be no other permanent employees, only occasional outside help as needed, as her trade volume is rather low, more of a hobby than a regular business, as my pension income from abroad is adequate to provide us with a modest living standard. The extra income goes mostly to bring up 2 of my wife's grand children who live with us and to assist her family.

If yes, is there a minimum salary involved? I presume I must enroll then in the Thai Social Security Scheme. As the owner of the business can she do so also?

At the moment my visa extensions are on the basis of "retirement" with a Baht 800,000 bank deposit. Must I change this to "Married" status?

Any informed opinion would be appreciated

[soundman]

This forum for your question.

Moved.

[Lite Beer]

Not being an expert on this. As far as I know there is a list of jobs that foreigners cannot do.

You would have to show a salary of 50,000 Baht a month .

Hopefully someone will post soon.

[NHJ]

hi,

this won't be possible, a company needs to be setuped with a capital of two million bath and as you are married and depending of your labour office you would require two employees at least on paper (four for non-married) or not.

as said previously some jobs are reserved for thai nationals (a list is available if you google it) , regarding the salary, recently it seems the labour departement want to see not less than 50k.

[ubonjoe]

For the list of work you cannot do go to page 18 of the following link.

http://www.boi.go.th/english/download/busi...stment-laws.pdf

For info on work permits and etc. the following is a link to the department of employment website.

http://www.doe.go.th/service3_en.aspx

A work permit can be obtained working for a sole trader. The amount of company income and number of employees is cut in half if married to a Thai.

You will most likely have to change to an extension based upon marriage to get a work permit. The minimum salary will depend on what the department of labor says when application is made.

[bellachg]

.

[A work permit can be obtained working for a sole trader. The amount of company income and number of employees is cut in half if married to a Thai.

You will most likely have to change to an extension based upon marriage to get a work permit. The minimum salary will depend on what the department of labor says when application is made.

Your information is helpful. My wife's business is not a "trading" business but a "service" business and the activity is not prohibited for a foreigner.

I had talked to a lawyer and he suggested that there was NO need for further Thai employees, nor any minimum income (not a company but a sole propriertership. I have had reason to question his prnouncements in the past, hence my question on this forum. She could certainly pay me a salary of Baht 40,000, to satisfy the Thai Tax and Labour Departments, but then she would likely be operating at a loss, and we would have to reclaim any of the 3 % withholding tax deductions applied by her customers from her invoices.

Perhaps somebody on this forum has some more specific data on this type of case.

[Arkady]

A work permit can be obtained for a sole trader, although I have never known any one do it. There are lots of references in Thai legislation and regulations to businesses that can employ foreigners and they usually specify limited companies, partnerships, other businesses etc. I don't how the notion of two million baht paid-up capital can be satisfied for a sole trader. In an unregistered unlimited partnership, which is basically a sole traders' partnership, this can be verified by looking at the capital filed with the Revenue Dept. Perhaps they look at income and tax but they must have their minimum guidelines which they will not necessarily disclose.

Yes, you would need a marriage or non-immigrant visa, not a retirement visa.

Immigration would normally require 2 Thai employees, probably including your wife.

Minimum salaries for WPs are now based on profession and nationality. Something like B70k for Americans, B60k for Europeans, Ozzies, Kiwis, B20k for teachers.

You wife will need to register for VAT and make monthly VAT returns. It might be difficult to get the Revenue to accept her VAT application if her inome from business is less than B150k a month.

If the business makes a loss, you will have trouble renewing your WP.

You will have a lot trouble reclaiming specific business tax deductions from invoices (if that's what the 3% is - it's more likely to be 7% VAT for most businesses which you can reclaim if you are registered whether you make a loss or not), if she makes a loss, and after making the loss you might lose the WP anywhere.

You cannot get a WP to serve customers in a retail business or be a cook or something like that. You will have to get a WP for a management type job on the basis that Thais are not available to do it. If the business is tiny, they might not accept that the company needs that type of management employee.

There are a very few large businesses run as sole proprietorships and they should have no problems with WPs. I suspect that small sole traders do have difficulties. You are probably better off sticking to a retirement or marriage visa and only working discretely behind the scenes to help your wife.