Living In Thailand, Register Business In Uk Or Singapore?

[MisterMark]

Hi,

I wonder if anyone out there can advise me on the best place to register a business for someone in my situation. I'm a British citizen currently working in Singapore, and when my contract finishes in a few months I plan to move back to Thailand. I lived in Bangkok for five years before moving here, and my wife is Thai. I believe I will meet the requirements for a marriage visa, so I'm not worrying about that for now.

I'm more concerned about where to register the business I plan to start. It will be entirely an online venture, which could in theory be run from anywhere. Up to now, I've always been a wage slave and I've never done anything like this before. And I keep hearing so many different opinions about whether it's better to register the business in the UK, Thailand, Singapore or even Hong Kong that I am frankly confused.

Does anyone else have any experience of running a small, foreign-registered business from Thailand? And if so, where do you think the best place to register that business would be? I'd be really grateful for any advice, so thanks in advance. :-)

[Plastic Brontosaurus]

Sorry can't give comprehensive advice, but am presently planning a similar setup and been reading up on things, so here a few random thoughts; hopefully others may be able to provide more substantial information.

Things to consider include is this business going to generate income from overseas (such as selling items online worldwide, that can be shipped from random locations; say if you sold electronics that could be made in China and sold to customers worldwide, bypassing Thailand or whatever country you find yourself living in in future), or is it mainly a service you personally provide, such as consulting for which the website is a front-end/marketing vehicle? If the company sells worldwide, you could consider setting up a Hong Kong business which should, if properly set up, allow for tax-free overseas-sourced income (only income generated in HK would be taxed). There are a few other jurisdictions that allow tax-free income but most of them might raise eyebrows as they are remote island states etc. and people would wonder why a business would be based there.

Not being British I don't know about the UK tax laws but it can be beneficial to avoid tax residency there if possible. Taxes in that general part of the world tend to be rather insane. You could either try to avoid tax residency altogether depending on your personal requirements (if you have a lot of income out of investments etc. it might be useful), which would probably mean shuttling between several countries during the year to avoid being too long in any one of them and becoming tax resident. Or if you are (only) tax resident in Thailand, far as I know only income sourced within Thailand, or monies that you import into Thailand, are taxed. Overseas generated income which stays overseas is not taxed (far as I know).

Singapore corporate tax is 20% off the top of my head so not too bad, if there are good reasons to set up a business there (but once again off the top of my head you need to deposit a fairly large lump sum on the formation of the company). Either way I would avoid anything to do with the UK, Europe or the US unless there are specific reasons to deal with that part of the world, such as expectations to do business there - best to steer well clear of in my view. If the business is simple it may be easiest to base it in Thailand, if it is multinational, consider an Asian jurisdiction such as Hong Kong or another one that might be better depending on the circumstances/requirements.

However it might be useful to have a chat with a Thai advisory firm (legal firm or accountancy I guess) in the first instance. If you are planning on worldwide sales, there are a few specialist companies around dealing with offshore constructions etc. They are typically based overseas. If you google "offshore company formation" you will get some results, some of these websites have good information sections to get more details from.

Chok dee

[tombkk]

If you want to live and work in Thailand, you really have no choice. You have to register the company in Thailand, as otherwise you can't apply for a work permit. And without a work permit, you would be working illegally.