I am trying to 'clean up' the legal/tax vehicle status of my little hotel businesses.

1 hotel is currently trading as a limited partnership

1 hotel is trading as a Thai sole trader

1 hotel is about to open, a legal legal vehicle is needed

I was wondering if there are tax (or other) advantages to place all 3 businesses under 1 single Thai limited company, maintaining internal accounts for each business, but having one set of published accounts for the combined businesses. This would probably reduce my accountancy bill, (but this is not a deciding factor...)

This would (I assume), allow me to offset losses (if any) from one business against the profits of another.

I am also considering applying for Thai citizenship or PR at a later date. A single, larger business might look 'better' than 3 little businesses.

I might open further, similar businesses in the future....

What advantages or disadvantages might there be from placing these 3 businesses under a single, limited company?

I should add that I do not need to have legal control of these businesses in the ltd company structure. I maintain control of them via other means

Edited August 24, 201411 yr by simon43

I don't know a lot about the Thai tax system, but from an accounting perspective your assumptions are essentially correct. Just run separate reporting "divisions" so you can measure individual GP etc and bring everything up to a group P&L etc. Make sure your systems are robust and you record transactions in a logical fashion depending on the reporting outcomes you want.

Not rocket science, but time considering how you want to analyse data in the future is well spent before you set up your system.

However, you may want specific legal/accounting advice on amalgamating your entities. There will probably be initial tax and shareholder issues that you need to be aware of to ensure you don't open a can of worms for yourself.

For example - how do you intend accounting for the contribution of the assets of existing entities into a new entity, are the shareholders the same or different, are there any existing tax benefits that may be lost or diluted by having a single entity?

Thais like to open lots of businesses so they get an overall lower effective tax rate. One big business with three separate divisions might put you up into a huger tax bracket compared with three smaller ones. It really all depends on your finances at the time and there are pros and cons to every option.