Running A Foreign Registered Business From Thailand

[tebee]

HI folks, I'm new here, but have a little query which I could do with an answer to. Would there be any problems running a foreign(France) based small business from Thailand on a short term basis ?

Let me fill you in with the background, I'm English but live in France and I'm married to a Thai/Chinese girl who lives in Pathum Thani. Now much as I love Thailand we are both not too young and have health problems. She has thyroid problems and I have age onset diabetes so our plan has been to eventually move to France together, rather than Thailand as the state health system is much better here.

But she has now been flooded out and is currently in a hotel in Phunket, though she's trying to get a flight to Chiang Mai where hotels are cheaper. Now we were thinking it would be a good idea if I came over after the flood has receded and help her clean out the house and when it has dried out, start fixing it up. She also has some rented houses in Bangkok proper which are currently OK but may still flood too so there may be things to do there as well.

But I run a small business here making parts for modellers by 3-d printing, which although it does not make a huge amount of money( just over $1000 per month) I don't want to shut down for 2 or 3 months as it's my only income and it's taken a year to get it to that level. The fact that it doesn't make enough yet is the main reason she has not moved over yet as we need her doctors salary as well.

Now almost all my sales are online, most are to the USA and the stuff is small and light so does not cost a lot to post. The firm that does the 3-d printing will supply to Thailand for the grand sum of 10$ extra per order - we have already had one test order sent to her. So it occurs to me I could run the business from Thailand while I am over. I would need to buy new postal supplies, a label printer and either order a duplicate set of my stock items or bring all or some of my existing stock over with me - that's not as daft as it sounds, I just did a test weigh on my most popular item of which I have about 130 in stock - the container with them in weighs 97g and an empty container weighs 50g ! Given that my total stock is around 5000 items if I stick them all in plastic bags we are probably talking about a shoebox sized package of about 2 or 3 kg.

So if I am posting 3 or 4 items a day in Jiffy bags to destinations far and wide is this likely to raise any suspicions ? Will I get into any sort of problem though working without a work permit?

Tom

[tombkk]

Note that you need a work permit to work in Thailand. In most cases, this means that you need to register a company here in Thailand, which requires 51% foreign ownership.