I'm in the process of setting up a company in Thailand and I'm trying to understand the pros and cons of what I understand to be three main options:

- Form a Thai private limited company

- Foreign owned with BOI approval

- American owned under special treaty (I'm an American)

Are there benefits to having a Thai company, e.g. taxes, preferential treatment, etc?

Thanks in advance.

Edited December 29, 200421 yr by deWeeseCo

For the three alternatives you mentioned:

1) Forming a Thai Private Co. Ltd. (TPCL) is fairly straightforward - I will send you more information via direct e-mail. As long as majority of shares are documented as belonging to Thais, the Thai government requires very little information concerning your business intentions. For either of the other two alternatives, you must form a TPCL before you can complete either process.

2) The Thai-US Amity Treaty approach is questionable at the moment - because of ongoing Thai-US Free Trade agreement negotiations, you may find that the US Embassy is not supporting processing of these at the present time.

3) For the BOI approach, only activities listed at http://www.boi.go.th/english/about/sections.pdf are eligible to apply. The application process involves preparing a quite detailed three-year business plan - you can see the basic application form at: http://www.boi.go.th/english/download/boi_forms/50/PP_01.pdf

My own suggestion would be to first form a TPCL, and then - if a situation develops where you feel that you are blocked from doing something that you want to do - but one of the other approaches will enable you to proceed, then apply for the program that you need.

Good luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

Bangkok

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com

Skype: sykesbkk

http://www.boi.go.th/ is a very interesting site ! thanks a lot steve

As a non-american, I haven't bothered much on looking into the pros&cons of that American Treaty thing - and I don't feel like helping out the Americans on this ridiculous discrimination (even if I could).

However, for the non-Americans, dropping in on this thread, I'll enter a remark on the pros&cons of a TPCL compared to merely buy-and-run a business of some kind. I'm merely talking to entrepreneurs, here - not employees.

Pros of a TPCL basis: You'll have a proper legal foundation for working and making money in Thailand.

Cons of a TPCL basis: You'll have to pay tax and VAT.

Pros of a non-TPCL basis: You can evade tax and VAT.

Cons of a non-TPCL basis: You can't work and make money legally in Thailand.