Us Teleworker Wants To Live In Thailand For A Year(or More)

[brettb]

Excuse my ignorance. I've been going over all the great information here for a few days now and nothing quite seems to fit my particular situation.

Here's my details:

My wife and I are both American living in California. Age 38 and 33 respectively.

We own our home.

I work for a U.S. company in California as a Programmer/Systems Administrator, where I'm not required to be in the office. As long as I have a computer and a high speed internet connection I can accomplish my job.

My Wife and I just returned from a 2 week vacation on Phuket.(I have a friend who moved there a couple years ago and has a Thai wife).

We fell in love with it and wish to move over there for a year or so.

We hope to rent out our home here, while we're in Thailand.

I hope to continue my current employment. My company pays me by direct deposit to my US bank account twice monthly.

Now for the questions:

1) What kind of Visa's do I and my Wife require?

2) Is my Employer required to file anything?

3) Do I have to file Thai taxes?

I saw mention of the Non-Imm B Visa, but in the details, it appears that that is dealing with working for a Thai company. But I could certainly be reading incorrectly.

I still have to sell my boss on this as he's concerned about any potential labor laws that might affect our working relationship, or potential tax repercussions for the company.

Any pointers/help would be greatly appreaciated.

Thanks in advance!

-Brett

Edited April 14, 2006 by brettb

[kudroz]

I am in a similar situation as you right now - I can tell you what I know.

1) What kind of Visa's do I and my Wife require?

If you intend to come here and do everything by the book, you would require a Non Immigrant Visa "Type B" (for business). Once you arrive here in Thailand it would be wise to incorporate your own company and instead of being on the payroll with your current employer - you can ask him to be a contractor for the time you will be in Thailand.

You can invoice them once/twice a month for the equivalent of what you're gross salary is. You send them an invoice and they can pay that invoice by sending you a wire transfer here to a bank account you'll setup here in Thailand. Then as an employee of your new thai company - you will be on a payroll here.

I should also point out that you will need a workpermit after setting up your company here, the process can take a few weeks.

2) Is my Employer required to file anything?

Not if you stop being an employee and form your own company in Thailand and invoice them as a contractor.

3) Do I have to file Thai taxes?

If you intend to stay in Thailand for more than 183 days (i think it is), you are recognized as a resident for tax purposes. Meaning that you have to pay income tax on your income derrived in Thailand and also on your Worldwide income brought into Thailand.

Once you have your workpermit, you can go to some place to get a Tax ID Card. When your new thai company pays your salary, it has to withhold the taxes and remitt it to the government.

--

There are other options, but I'm not the best person to explain those to you. As many people here would probably advise: "just come here, pretend to be taking a one year off work - and don't tell anyone you're working when you're on your PC".

Anyways, I'm pretty new here too - don't take my post as 100% accurate, I'm in a similar situation as you are right now and I'm still trying to answer these same questions for myself.

Edited April 15, 2006 by kudroz

[Crossy]

EITHER

Do what Kudroz says which is totally by the book

OR

Do what most others in your position do:-

1. Get double entry tourist visas, good for 60 day entries (extendable by 30 days at immigration for 1900 Baht).

2. Enjoy yourselves, don't tell anyone what you're doing, stay under the radar.

3. When your visas expire, whizz down to Penang and get new ones.

QED

[astral]

I suggest you read the computer section about the quality of internet

connections in Thailand and decide if they are adequate for your purposes.

They are nowhere as good or as fast as you are used to in the USA!!

You may be able to get a Non Immigrant visa (multi-entry) from the Thai consulate in Houston.

You can give, "to explore business options in Thailand" as your reason.

This will allow you to stay 3 months at a time, between visa runs, and carefully used

will cover you for about 15 months. Your last visa run will need to be just before the visa expires and then you will get stamped in for a further 90 days.

After that you will have to review matters and perhaps take a short trip back to the USA.

Krudoz is right about the tax situation, but I am not sure your will find setting up your own

company to get a work permit, quite as easy as he paints. However Sun Belt who sponsor

this forum will be able to advise you there.

Until you get a work permit you need to keep your head down, and not advertise that you

are working........... Answers like, "enjoying life and considering my options"

will be fine if anyone asks.

Edited April 15, 2006 by astral

[Gary A]

I have a friend who has been here for several years now. He makes his living from working via the Internet. He has no work permit and takes his money from his Canadian ATM card. He keeps a low profile and has never had any problems. I certainly wouldn't create problems that you don't need. You technically WON'T be working out of the US because that is where your income is coming from and where your banking is being done.

Your only problem may be the Internet if you need a really fast connection. You may want to set up two separate systems to make sure you can always get on-line.

[brettb]

Thanks a lot for all your quick responses.

That's about what I thought my options were.

Reading the info on creating my own company over there sounds like a very expensive proposition. Plus, if I read things correctly, wouldn't I have to have 4 Thai nationals on staff for every non-Thai(myself)? I can't imagine what I would have them doing considering my job just consists of me mainting our companies internal and external web applications.

But then again, I'm not to certain that I can get my employer to buy off on doing things the illigitimate way, so it may be my only option.

The biggest drawback to becomming my own company and contracting back to them is that I would then lose all my benefits(health insurance, paid vacation, 401K, stock options, etc.).

As for internet connection. I'm confident that it will be fine.

My friend living in Surin Beach has ADSL and access through dial-up as a backup and I played around with his connection while I was over there vacationing. It's plenty for my needs. The majority of my coding/testing is done on my local PC and just deployed to the servers when I'm happy with it.

Thanks again for the pointers. Now to figure out how to sell this to my boss..

-Brett

[Crossy]

Now to figure out how to sell this to my boss..

I hope you're a good salesman

Certainly, if you don't require a guaranteed connection you will have few problems.

ADSL is variable, we are up in Pathum Thani (40k north of BKK) and the connection is just fine, dies maybe once every other month but soon back up after a call to the service centre. I have a less than cheap KSC Business line (1900 Baht per month for 512/256), seems you do get what you pay for.

[kudroz]

Reading the info on creating my own company over there sounds like a very expensive proposition. Plus, if I read things correctly, wouldn't I have to have 4 Thai nationals on staff for every non-Thai(myself)? I can't imagine what I would have them doing considering my job just consists of me mainting our companies internal and external web applications.

If you setup your company as a "consultant company", you will only need to maintain 1 Thai national employee in order to extend your Non Immigrant Visa.

When you get your Non Immigrant visa in the US before you leave, you will be good to stay in Thailand for 3 months. To get a one year extension you need to go at the immigration here in thailand and in order to qualify for it, you'll need to show at least 1 Thai national on payroll.

If your company isn't setup as a consultancy company - you'll need at least 4 Thai nationals on payroll or maybe more depending on what kind of company it was setup as.

I suggest you contact Sunbelt (www.lawyer.th.com), they can explore all these options with you and maybe propose a solution for you and your employer that might not be as bad as you can think.

[brettb]

Thanks again..

This gives me some talking points to go to my employer with and start a dialog.

I'll probably give Sunbelt a call just in case, to see if there's any options that may have been missed.

-Brett