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Work Permit Based On Rental Properties


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Mods feel free to move, post is about work permits, business and property.

Indo Siam or Sunbelt - help!

I recently purchased several rental properties with my husband who is a Thai national. The properties were bought for approx 4.5 m baht. We would like to transfer the properties to a limited company part owned by me, part owned by my husband.

What is the procedure for this? What percentage of shares am I allowed to own, 39% or 49%? It is a legitimate business and we would be paying taxes both on the business and my personal income.

The assets of the business would be in excess of 2,000,000 baht - is it possible to get a work permit for me on this basis - or do we have to have 2m cash in the bank?

Also I believe that there is a lower threshold for capital for spouses of a Thai national (1m?), does this also extend to salary levels?

If I've missed any info let me know.

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Mods feel free to move, post is about work permits, business and property.

Indo Siam or Sunbelt -  help!

I recently purchased several rental properties with my husband who is a Thai national.  The properties were bought for approx 4.5 m baht.  We would like to transfer the properties to a limited company part owned by me, part owned by my husband. 

What is the procedure for this? What percentage of shares am I allowed to own, 39% or 49%?  It is a legitimate business and we would be paying taxes both on the business and my personal income.

The assets of the business would be in excess of 2,000,000 baht - is it possible to get a work permit for me on this basis - or do we have to have 2m cash in the bank?

Also I believe that there is a lower threshold for capital for spouses of a Thai national (1m?), does this also extend to salary levels?

If I've missed any info let me know.

Apparently if you have a thai husband you dont need any capital if he is registered as the supporting party. if not you need 400,000 baht a year on your account to prove that you can survive there without working.As for the work permit...i opened a two million baht company and rented a shop and registered myself as managing director and put 60 percent (YES 60 PERCENT YOU ARE ALLOWED DONT BELIEVE THE LIE THAT THAIS TELL TO MAKE YOU MINORITY SHAREHOLDER)...IF YOU GO TO THE BOOKSTORE CALLED JULAA IJN SIAM SQUARE ONE BLOCK BEHIND THE SKYTRAIN, you will be able to get the foreign business operations act in english and thai bilingual versuion about 200 baht.It explains that you can have 60 percent and even up to 75 percent in special conditions.Anyway as i was saying i made company and work permit with a total capital of 60,000 baht. this means i had no 2,000,000 baht to show..you just let the lawyer value the company for 2,000,000 and then get the work permit...my lawyer asked for 30,000 baht to register the company and the work permit for me...in the end i had to pay another 5,000 at immigration for the work permit..strange considering that the official price for a work permit is 750 baht.Anyway nothing new to say that thais are corrupt especially immigration.You do not have any difficulty to get the work permit..one tip though be careful how you phrase what your tasks are for the position you choose ..i was managing director, and then got the permit (i am really a tattoo artist so need to do the tattooing too.)..when i recieved the permit the lawyer said that i can open the shop but not tattoo only manage!!! i said are you xxxxx crazy i AM the tattooist ..she said oh in which case we have to put you down as training the thais to do it..this permitted me to tattoo..if the police came i should say that i am training my wife and have to be able to tattoo in order to demonstrate.Answer to your question is, no you dont need 2 million baht, only maybe 35,000 baht to pay for company registration..to register the company you need to rent a premises..after that you need to register 4 or 5 thais as employees for every farang that should get a permit must have 4-5 thais.This means paying tax for the thais and yourself..also you have to give yourself a wage of about 50,000 (used to be 35,000 ,now changed, only teachers allowed a wage so low).This means you will have the monthly expenses of about 12,000 baht a month in taxes and company costs..lawyer and accounting.This really irritated me, as i wanted to make company and work permit, due to the fact that all the monthly visa runs were costing me all my extra pennies which were for my 2 children's schooling..after opening company i couldnt afford to look after my kids anymore! the thai system is set up in such a way that it is impossible to live there without spending 30,000 baht a month...this is the supposed amount necessary to exist there as a farang...strange as a thai man manages to look after his wife on a monthly wage of 6,000 or so...me and my wife only wanted to live on a thai style lifestyle and expenses.if i didnt need all the legal stuff i could easily exist on 10,000 a month me my wife and kids as i only eat thai food for 20 baht and dont drink beer..but the thai governnment want to make things hard for us.Anyway, most importantly, i want you to know that you can own more than 50 percent of your company. Go buy the book i mentioned and read it. Dont be tricked.Yours sincerely, Spencer Edited by spencerdharmagrafix
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Hi –

You do not need to go to a bookstore – an English version of the Foreign Business Act is available at http://www.thailawforum.com/database1/foreign.html

Regardless of what the official rules are, in actual practice, it is MUCH easier to complete a property purchase using a company with at least 61% of shares owned by Thais.

And, again, regardless of what the official rules are, it is very difficult to obtain cooperation and support from Immigration and from Work Permit offices if your company is majority foreign owned, and you do not have an Alien Business License. Believe it or not, most officials at both these offices are not familiar with the details of the Foreign Business Act – they simply tell you to go away if your company is majority foreign-owned, and you have no Alien Business License.

What I am wondering is why you do not simply apply for Thai citizenship – a foreign woman married to a Thai man can obtain citizenship fairly easily – and then enjoy the benefits (such as they are) of being a Thai.

If anyone tells you that you must forfeit your original citizenship, just smile and nod – and ignore them. It is not within Thailand’s power to strip you of citizenship of another country, and with respect to almost all countries on earth, it is almost impossible to be involuntarily stripped of citizenship by your native land. While inside Thailand, you might have to exercise only Thai citizenship, but as soon as you depart Thailand, you can exercise your original citizenship.

It is absolutely possible to place capital assets onto your company’s balance sheet, and thus fulfill capitalization requirements – any good Thai accountant can arrange that.

All that is required for a company to sponsor a work permit for a foreigner with a Thai spouse is that the company have 1,000,000 baht registered capital.

If you would like help with any of this, and you are in the Bangkok area, we’d be happy to have you stop by – location as shown at http://www.thaistartup.com/contact.html

Good luck!

Steve Sykes

Managing Director

Indo-Siam Group

Bangkok

[email protected]

www.thaistartup.com

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Thanks for the great replies. My husband has been looking into this for me at the work permit office and seemed to think it was straight forward, but you hear so many conflicting reports that I thought I should do a little fact checking.

Regardless of what the official rules are, in actual practice, it is MUCH easier to complete a property purchase using a company with at least 61% of shares owned by Thais.

What I am wondering is why you do not simply apply for Thai citizenship – a foreign woman married to a Thai man can obtain citizenship fairly easily – and then enjoy the benefits (such as they are) of being a Thai.

I actually am not hugely concerned about owning more than 39% of the business. My husband is putting more money into this than I am, he is the one with the income. I am mainly doing this to protect my mother's interests as she has contributed - give her peace of mind. Otherwise I would like to be able to cement my case as a contributor to Thai society should any future problems arise if I do try for citizenship.

Which brings me to my last point. Why don't I apply for citizenship? I have only lived here for 2.5 years, been married to my husband for 16 months and am just applying for my first yearly extension.

Unfortunately I think I would hit the same brick wall as SBK if I tried to apply for citizenship as we both report to the same immigration and Special Branch offices. I'm pretty sure they have told her that they aren't sure how it is done! Also I was told by a rather well connected lawyer, a friend of my husband, who has a Japanese wife, that I would be required to wait a few years first.

I would be delighted to hear if you know anything more than this or if you know anybody who does! :o

Thanks again

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