Work Permit Rules Re: Agricultural Business

[pascoan]

My Thai spouse and I are contemplating relocating to Thailand and are looking at starting an agriculture business. However it seems that agricultural business activities are prohibited category/type of work for foreigners seeking work permit. Is there a legitimate solution?

[Maizefarmer]

Scroll back to Page 27 (on this section of the forum), and about 1/3 down the page is a thread titled:

"Do all you farmers have Work Permitts"

Read through the whole thread - it will put your question into context.

MF

[Mosha]

Put the business in your wife's name

[Maizefarmer]

Mosha is quite correct on this point - and if I am not mistaken the "other half" tends to front many ex-pat investments, ag type or otherwise, largely because Thai company law requires Thai citizen participation.

But on this point, I'd like to add 2 points you should give thought to during the desicion process:

- the actual legal structure of the company - indeed, registering your business as a legal/corporate entity may wel have more disadvantages than advantages. One of the key considrations has to be the asset value and turnover. In most cases there is little to no benefit regsistering a farm as a business in Thailand.

- and, while putting the business in your partner/wifes does resolve many of the issues that blight us ex-pats and economic activity in Thailand, that does not need to extend to the assets i.e. nothing to stop you putting the tractor & the plough in your name - or any other piece of hardware.

.... in short, the point I want to make is think very hard and very carefully before committing your signature to any formal business setup

All the best

[pascoan]

Gents, thank you for your advice.