Employing Thai People For Foreign Internet Based Company

[Jonesy99]

Hi,

I need some advice. I own a IT software development company (based in Hong Kong) and want to open an office in Thailand employing Thai developers for several large contracts I have based in the US and UK, ie. no work is taken within Thailand at all so there is no threat to any Thai company, Thailand only stands to gain here as we will eventually be employing around 30 people. (if we can find them!)

* Do I need to start a Thai company at all? All the people I find will be effectively remote working and employed in HK?

* If I do need to start a company in Thailand can I open it as a representative office?

* Is there any office or company that I can go and speak to about this around Pattaya/Chonburi?

Any advice, recommendations etc. gladly received, this is genuine business with genuine employment opportunities for Thai people.

Cheers

Jonesy

[DegenFarang]

heh great minds think alike-i just started nearly the exact same topic today

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Foreign-Comp...ff-t323707.html

Somebody please help us out here!

[Prudent_rabbit]

Im sure Sunbelt could help you out

In order to form a representative office, at least one of the following purposes is sought:

1. The business is to search for the source of goods or services in Thailand for the headquarters overseas. It is to check the quality and quantity of the product ordered by the headquarters overseas. It is to give advices to the headquarters about the goods to order. It is to supply the information of the headquarters' products to the customers in Thailand. It is to report the economic movement in Thailand to the headquarters.

Requirements:

To be a representative office, the company will have to bring Baht 5M into Thailand (1 M within the first 6 months of operation and another million within another six months. After that it has to bring in 1M a year till it has reached 5M). It cannot earn an income or act like a sales office in Thailand. A work permit can be attched to the repoffice.

[DegenFarang]

Thanks. That sounds pretty sweet, especially the work permit part.

Problem is I read that five times and I can't think of a way to squeeze an office full of programmers into any of those capacities. My business has also has absolutely nothing to do with Thailand so that rules out most of them anyway.

Anybody spot any loopholes there where we could call ourselves representative offices?

Im sure Sunbelt could help you out

In order to form a representative office, at least one of the following purposes is sought:

1. The business is to search for the source of goods or services in Thailand for the headquarters overseas. It is to check the quality and quantity of the product ordered by the headquarters overseas. It is to give advices to the headquarters about the goods to order. It is to supply the information of the headquarters' products to the customers in Thailand. It is to report the economic movement in Thailand to the headquarters.

Requirements:

To be a representative office, the company will have to bring Baht 5M into Thailand (1 M within the first 6 months of operation and another million within another six months. After that it has to bring in 1M a year till it has reached 5M). It cannot earn an income or act like a sales office in Thailand. A work permit can be attched to the repoffice.

[nonthaburial]

Have you thought about using an existing company to "host" your rep office. if you think of taking that route please PM me as I think I could help

[DegenFarang]

Have you thought about using an existing company to "host" your rep office. if you think of taking that route please PM me as I think I could help

I'm not sure what you mean and I certainly haven't thought of it. Can you explain how that would work? Not even sure what you mean by 'existing company' or 'host' really...