* I posted about this around a year ago and can't find the original post. I couldn't find anything on the search facility either If I have posted in the wrong forum - mods please move

My husband and I (I am British he is Thai) bought a house about a year ago with money from the UK. We rent the house out by the day/week as it's in a nice location near the beach and have been quite successful so far. The house was bought outright and is in my husbands name (chanote). We never intend to live in this house. We also have another house which my husband is still paying the motgage on, it's the same as the first house. Furthermore we live in a row of three and we are currently living in the third house and paying rent to the previous owner of the other two houses. Next year this house will go on the same mortgage and we will own all three. I am not on the mortgage as I don't work here so I refused the bank when they asked me to sign.

Okay - what we want to do is put the first house into a business in which we will report our earnings, pay tax and get any benefits that come with it. I would own as much as I am legally entitled to and my husband would own the rest. We have a daughter so she would stand to inherit if anything happened to us. We also have insurance on the mortgage in case anything happened to my husband.

My questions are

1) what type of business & how much am I legally entitled to own - 39% or 49%?

2) who controls the company - would it be to my advantage to be Managing Director?

3) do we have to have employees? We have someone who we think will agree to do our accounts and a maid

4) how do we transfer the house from my husbands name to a business?

5) is it possible to transfer the other two houses while under mortgage or will we have to wait till after? We would ideally like to move elsewhere and rent all three out.

6) are there any major pitfalls to putting the houses into a business i.e. resales tax?

7) do I need a work permit

8) how do I go about doing all of this?

1) what type of business & how much am I legally entitled to own - 39% or 49%?

Guesthouse. You could have 49% of the shares.

2) who controls the company - would it be to my advantage to be Managing Director?

You could be the MD

3) do we have to have employees? We have someone who we think will agree to do our accounts and a maid

no employees are required to get a work permit or form a company.

4) how do we transfer the house from my husbands name to a business?

With a mortgage you would not be able to transfer the houses

5) is it possible to transfer the other two houses while under mortgage or will we have to wait till after? We would ideally like to move elsewhere and rent all three out.

Wait till later

6) are there any major pitfalls to putting the houses into a business i.e. resales tax?

The advantage is you would be able to depreciate the houses.( not the land) Your husband would need to prove he had the capital to have a company. If he has had the mortgage in his name, and afterwards they are paidoff, this should be no problem. He simply puts the paid up capital being the houses in the By-laws.

do I need a work permit.

If you are working, you will.

8) how do I go about doing all of this?.

Have a service provider or lawyer help you with this

www.lawyer.th.com