Rights When Thai Wife Opens Company

[Jimbo]

Hi all,

Have a few questions and I hope some of you might have advise:

1) It seems easier if my wife (she is Thai) opens the business under her a name. (sole propieter) What would the registration etc cost roughly? I dont want/ need a work permit, I work elsewhere already

2) Will I as a hussband be entitled to half of the company. If no, Can we draw up a contract before hand which stated that I am entitled to half of the company and profits?

3) If you have an account outside the country (offshore) for payments by clients, will Thai officials find out. Is it common practice for e business companies to do this

[issan2]

I havent done this but what about setting up one of those $1000 offshore

companies in the Dominican republic or Gibralta and having all your banking offshore. If you have an ebusiness and avoid doing business in Thailand then why set up a company here ?

Ive always been intrigued to know whether this works.

[Jimbo]

Thanks for your reply.

There are many benefits in opening a company in Thailand especially in the field that I work in. If I was to open for example a travel website featuring Thai travel products (hotels, tours, car etc) then have a company here in Thailand would mean that hotels, tours companies ect will give you lower rates. They supply higher rates to foreign companies. (This happens all over the world) Having lower rated would enable me to either be more competive rate wise or make higher margins. Also when and if the company would expand and one would need to hire staff like reservation staff, it would be signigicantly cheaper to have Thai staff on the books then European or American. The point about the offshore account would obviously be to go around taxes or atleast some portion of it and to have your money in a safe account as god knows what can happen in Thailand with new laws or some crash in the economy.

[Sunbelt Asia]

1) It seems easier if my wife (she is Thai) opens the business under her a name. (sole propieter) What would the registration etc cost roughly? I dont want need a work permit, I work elsewhere already

3,900 Baht registration with our firm.

2) Will I as a hussband be entitled to half of the company. If no, Can we draw up a contract before hand which stated that I am entitled to half of the company and profits?

No.... No it would not be enforceable

3) If you have an account outside the country (offshore) for payments by clients, will Thai officials find out. Is it common practice for e business companies to do this

Odds are much higher that you would be investigated now than 3 years ago. Common for companies to do it, but more are being investigated.

[Jimbo]

Although I trust my wife, I dont want too look like a fool if the company proves to be successful and she leaves me. Better cover all bases, right?

So is there no way at all to protect myself. I guess I could transfer money abroad to an account which I controll and that would take care of the problem.

What happens if we use the profits from her company to purchase a car or house in our name. Would I own half of that or would she still be the sole owner?

[Sunbelt Asia]

Form a limited company and if your wife leaves or God forbid even dies, you still have control as you are the Managing Director as the sole binding power. You can even have more voting rights even if you have fewer shares than her. More important you can sleep at night.

If you are American, you can be a sole proprietor as well. If you are exporting or manufacturing, odds are high, no matter what your nationality, you can even have more shares than your Thai wife. Many ways to protect yourself. Putting it all in your wives name, unfortunately is not one of those ways though.

As for the car, you'll need a work permit to buy one. On the house you can own but not the land. Still legal ways to protect yourself on that as well such as 30 year leasehold, morgage, etc.

Find out more by contacting our firm

Sunbelt Asia

[email protected]

[aqua4]

Well you are married and I would assume in community of property. You may want to consider an Ante Nuptial Contract to block off any problems. Make the company part of the contract. You should be able to register it after marrage, but might cost a little bit more.

Just my 2 baht.

[narit]

1) It seems easier if my wife (she is Thai) opens the business under her a name. (sole propieter) What would the registration etc cost roughly? I dont want/ need a work permit, I work elsewhere already

Sole propieter under your wife name is not too good, as you a couple jointly and severally will have unlimited liability should any thing go wrong. You should incorporate company under Thai law. The lawyer probably ask you for 10,000 to 20, 000 baht for incorporation costs. If you don't have lawyer contact, let me know I will give some contacts.

You need work permit. Yes, in order get work permit the company you will form must meet qualifications. Or your business must need be desired business based on Ministry of Labor regulation.

According to Thai law, even signing one single document in the Kingdom is considered work and requires work permit otherwise you will fine prosucute.

2) Will I as a hussband be entitled to half of the company. If no, Can we draw up a contract before hand which stated that I am entitled to half of the company and profits?

I would recommend that to make this easy, you want to own 49.99$ and your wife you remain the citizen of thailand owns 50.01 % of the company.

However, if you actaully put 70% of capital of the company, you can have your corporate lawyer drafted the article of association of the company that somewhat give you rounghly 70% of return.

3) If you have an account outside the country (offshore) for payments by clients, will Thai officials find out. Is it common practice for e business companies to do this

I don't know answer to this question. Good luck

[asinah]

3) If you have an account outside the country (offshore) for payments by clients, will Thai officials find out. Is it common practice for e business companies to do this

I am doing it offshore but you have to be sure not to collect a single cent in this country. If a hotel pays you a commission for a cleared transaction they will 100% have a widtholding tax which means your records will show up in the A/C of the hotels which means your name will show up.

BTW: The best rates to get is going to a global inbound operator in Thailand and forget dealing with all those hotels. If you setup a new travel portal it will take time to generate the revenues (between 6 - 12 months time) and they want to see numbers first before they come out with some excellent rates.

Good luck !

[NedKelly]

Jimbo said................"If I was to open for example a travel website featuring Thai travel products (hotels, tours, car etc) then have a company here in Thailand would mean that hotels, tours companies ect will give you lower rates. They supply higher rates to foreign companies. (This happens all over the world)"

This is not true ! Hotels will give better rates to the companies that provide the volume ie overseas wholsalers and companies that are big enough to provide the numbers. I work for a local company and our rates are higher than all our overseas agents.