I was told that here in Thailand, every company must hire an accountant.

So, if you, as the head of the company wanted to keep and manage the books, to give an auditor at the end of the year, you would still need to hire an accountant to keep the books. And this is apparently 'the law'.

Has anyone heard of this before?

Richard

Apparently it can be farmed out to a contractor.

Although our company is probably bigger than yours, I don't know how we'd even begin to comply with all the Thai reporting requirements without a Thai speaking accountant (we have several) who has an established relationship with the taxing authorities, the customs department, etc.

Filling out the forms in Thai is just the start of their work.

[url="http://www.bdo-thaitax.com/bdo/financial-report"[/url]

No you do not need to hire an accountant but you do need bookkeeping done in a timely manner.

You can engage the services of an outside accountant.

At the end of the financial year (31, Dec.) you are required to produce financial statements. To do this you have until end of May in the coming year before receiving late fines. If you are fluent in Thai I guess you could hand the self produced accounts to a Thai auditor although strictly speaking 'accounting work' of any kind is a protected profession. Having end of year accounts produced and audited by (2 different) Thai accountants is not difficult or expensive. You can outsource this process, it needn't be in-house.

We hire an outside accountant who checks in every so and often, and we hand him all the documents he requires.

It is like you doing a crime and have no lawyer in the court. If you fell you can defend yourself then carry on and accept the consequences. It is always better for the company to have an accountant because they know the law and they are the one who can also save you money.

As noted, accountancy is a prohibited occupation for a foreigner. That said, you could get any Thai person to make up your accounts - it's more a matter of whether the external Auditor would sign off on the accounts at the end of the year. They will not sign off garbage.

The other thing is that your accountant will probably be taking care of your social fund, income tax, PND, VAT, SBT and other financial matters for a quite modest fee.

If you are running a legitimate business it's going to be better for you to focus on growing your profitability rather than completing accounts in Thai.

You might be able to do anything, but you can't do everything.