Housekeeper Wants Bank Letter Confirming Wage

[R123]

I have a housekeeper who lives out but comes severel times during the week to my home for the usual housekeeping work and is paid for each daily visit in cash. The employment had lasted more than a year. The housekeeper wants to start a laundry business and will go to a bank to ask for a loan as start up. I may be asked by my housekeper to provide details of employment and confirmation of the monthly wage.There is no tax etc paid nor I believe should there be however by me signing a formal letter confirming the employment am I exposing myself to any responsibilty or liability etc?

Any input gratefully received.

[Phil Conners]

You should probably check this with a good lawyer, but I afaik if you hire someone you're liable at least for taxes and social security.

[dave111223]

Just make a confirmation letter that you have hired her for X amount of time as a private contractor to clean your house for Y amount per month.

No need to refer to her an an "employee" with "wages".

If she is not an "employee" you are not liable for employment taxes (social security etc..). By your own description i would not consider this person an employee anyways.

It won't matter to the bank whether she is an employee or contract labor; they just want to confirm that she is receiving a certain amount of money.

[Yenoormit]

Just give the poor girl the letter and stop over thinking everything. Her bank is not going to start investigating you mate. They just need paper

[Tywais]

If her salary is less than 20,000 Baht then she will have no tax liability.

[raylo]

Just make a confirmation letter that you have hired her for X amount of time as a private contractor to clean your house for Y amount per month.

No need to refer to her an an "employee" with "wages".

If she is not an "employee" you are not liable for employment taxes (social security etc..). By your own description i would not consider this person an employee anyways.

It won't matter to the bank whether she is an employee or contract labor; they just want to confirm that she is receiving a certain amount of money.

Social security as a concept quoted by many TV members still lving in their own country, physically or mentally, is not necessarily Thai. Internationally the amount of hours a person works per working week identifies whether they are permanent or casual and what entitlements. As a contractor no responsibility but without a contract or lettwr of intention the bank might not be willing to use that as an identification of employment and income.

There was a Thai Labout Law extract posted on the forum last year that should help you out. I would not beileve the 20k tax rule unless I saw it in writing as companies with tax obligations withhold tax on 7k salaries.

[dave111223]

Just make a confirmation letter that you have hired her for X amount of time as a private contractor to clean your house for Y amount per month.

No need to refer to her an an "employee" with "wages".

If she is not an "employee" you are not liable for employment taxes (social security etc..). By your own description i would not consider this person an employee anyways.

It won't matter to the bank whether she is an employee or contract labor; they just want to confirm that she is receiving a certain amount of money.

Social security as a concept quoted by many TV members still living in their own country, physically or mentally, is not necessarily Thai.

I have a business which employs 4 Thai employees and pay social security for each, so i don't see how my concept of social security would be derived from my home country (where i never employed anyone).

We also hire a motorcycle taxi driver to pick up and make deliveries but i would not consider him an employee and we don't pay social security for him. We just call him when required.

In the same way that i would not consider someone who sometimes came in to clean my house as an employee.

It doesn't mean that i couldn't provide the motorcycle driver with a letter saying that i normally pay him between X and Y per month if he asked.

[asiawatcher]

If her salary is less than 20,000 Baht then she will have no tax liability.

Correct but if deemed an employee - you will need to have paid social security. If a person works less than 20 hours a week - considered to be less than 50% of their time for you, then it is easily argued she works for more than one person thus qualifies as a contractor. Given that though, she should be charging 7% VAT and you should be withholding 3% withholding tax and submitting monthly.

But ... as already clearly stated - Bank is not going to drop this on the Revenue Department and even if they did there is no liability.

Don't read into it what is not necessary.

Cheers

[dave111223]

If her salary is less than 20,000 Baht then she will have no tax liability.

Given that though, she should be charging 7% VAT and you should be withholding 3% withholding tax and submitting monthly.

Only charge VAT if she was earning more than 1.8Mil per year.

[raylo]

Just make a confirmation letter that you have hired her for X amount of time as a private contractor to clean your house for Y amount per month.

No need to refer to her an an "employee" with "wages".

If she is not an "employee" you are not liable for employment taxes (social security etc..). By your own description i would not consider this person an employee anyways.

It won't matter to the bank whether she is an employee or contract labor; they just want to confirm that she is receiving a certain amount of money.

Social security as a concept quoted by many TV members still living in their own country, physically or mentally, is not necessarily Thai.

I have a business which employs 4 Thai employees and pay social security for each, so i don't see how my concept of social security would be derived from my home country (where i never employed anyone).

We also hire a motorcycle taxi driver to pick up and make deliveries but i would not consider him an employee and we don't pay social security for him. We just call him when required.

In the same way that i would not consider someone who sometimes came in to clean my house as an employee.

It doesn't mean that i couldn't provide the motorcycle driver with a letter saying that i normally pay him between X and Y per month if he asked.

I stick by what I wrote. In this case how you think of it as conditioned by your experience in your home country is what concept refers to, I never inferred you might have been an employer in your home country:

As to the OP. A labor law posting by a legal firm. Look under social security - House Servant. The rest of the info you require is also there.

http://www.tillekeandgibbins.com/publications/thailand_legal_basics/labor_laws.pdf

Edited April 3, 2011 by raylo

[R123]

May I thank each and every one who has posted replies to my original enquiry. All are very useful and informative and I much appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Enjoy songkran!