Thailand Business & Thailand Property Info Blog
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand Business No comments yet
In this post we will discuss the matter of Thai companies that purchase land and the disclosure requirement applicable to their Thai shareholders. Firstly we will review the legal criteria a Thai company must fulfill to own land.
Originally posted 2009-10-22 04:04:21.
February 1 2010 Categories: Land Ownership, Thailand Property No comments yet
During his latest nationwide inspection tour of 30 provinces, Anuwat Meteewiboonwut, the director-general of the Thai Land Department let an old monster lose again. In substance is said that foreigners that the titled deed of Thais spouses that are purchasing land on behalf of their foreign spouses could be revoked if the land department was to find out.
Originally posted 2009-07-27 11:06:29.
February 1 2010 Categories: Understanding Thailand No comments yet
Having spent 10 years ago a full 18 months teaching and lecturing in Thai schools and government universities and having continued, from time to time, lecturing at Thai universities I had a look at the system from the inside and based on this personal experience I would say that Thailand has overall a good education system.
Originally posted 2009-08-13 23:03:16.
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand Business No comments yet
Hi
I have generated for Readers convenience a TABLE OF CONTENT of all the post I published to date on DOING BUSINESS IN THAILAND .I hope this table will help you to navigate more easily in my blog
Originally posted 2009-11-14 08:15:16.
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand Taxes No comments yet
I recently read an article in the Bangkok Post were a Revenue Department Official was quoted discussing the matter of a possible corporate income taxes reduction. This official was saying that while corporate income tax may be higher than in other countries Thailand was however one of the country in the world where the VAT rate was the lowest. This gave me the idea to compare the ranking of Thailand in relation to personal income tax, corporate income tax and VAT.
Originally posted 2009-10-11 06:54:42.
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand BOI, Thailand Business No comments yet
Reminder: As you already know the Board of Investment is the agency in charge of promoting certain sectors of Thai economy. As such the BOI role is among other to determine:
What are the activities which are eligible for promotion
What are the conditions attached to said promotion
What are the privileges attached to said business activity
Originally posted 2009-08-03 07:10:22.
February 1 2010 Categories: Understanding Thailand No comments yet
In a previous post I already mentioned the 3G licensing drama but only touched the surface of the matter. In this post I decided to discuss this issue more in depth. According to Wikepedia encyclopedia: “As of August 28, 2009, 250 3G/HSPDA networks have commercially launched mobile broadband services in 109 countries; and out of the 250 networks already operational 169 3g/HSPDA networks support 3.6 Mbit/s peak downlink data throughput. A growing number are delivering 21 Mbit/s peak data downlink and one network has been upgraded to 28Mbit/s. Several others will have this capability by end 2009 and the first network supporting 42Mbit/s network is set to come online in late 2009.” In this context it is a scandal that Thailand still does not have 3G capability.
Originally posted 2009-10-17 05:21:34.
February 1 2010 Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business No comments yet
An investor that desires to buy a business in Thailand will have several options as follows:
1. Acquisition of Shares
2. Transfer of the Entire Business Assets
- with immediate liquidation of the transferor company
- without liquidation of the transferor company
3. Amalgamation
Originally posted 2009-09-11 06:14:37.
February 1 2010 Categories: Condominium Ownership, Property General Issues, Thailand Property No comments yet
It is always difficult for a new buyer freshly arrived on a market to make an informed decision on what and where to buy? I have been around for 12 years, believe that I have a good understanding of the market but still I learn new things every day. Should you trust your agent to recommend you the best product available. You may, of course but you could also try to find out for yourself what the situation is.
Originally posted 2009-08-26 03:47:05.
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand FAQ No comments yet
How much is the Elite Card Business worth? ThailandPrivilegeCards or TPC is worth two to three billion THB (60 to 90 million USD) if you believe the Finance Ministry estimation.
Originally posted 2009-12-17 11:11:58.
February 1 2010 Categories: Understanding Thailand No comments yet
I always loved idioms because there is a lot of wisdom attached to them and I particularly loved the “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” idiom because it teach us not to discard something valuable in our eagerness to get rid of some useless thing associated with it. Something Thai political class is in need to learn quickly.
Originally posted 2009-11-11 04:13:00.
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand Visas, Thailand Visas & Work Permit 3 comments
The Non-Immigrant Visa “O-A” (Long Stay) is a visa for people that are aged 50 years and more who wish to stay in Thailand for a period of not exceeding 1 year without the intention of working.
Originally posted 2009-07-28 15:10:50.
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand Visas, Thailand Visas & Work Permit 3 comments
This post conclude for the time being my series on visa. In this post I tried to make a comparative table showing the most commonly used types of visa, their benefits and requirements. Note that some of the visa I discussed here have already been discussed in several posts already. I just want to permit readers to compare different type of visa without to switch from one post to the other.
Originally posted 2009-10-27 10:46:41.
February 1 2010 Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business No comments yet
In today post I continue to discuss the results of the World Bank Global Corruption Barometer 2009. Please see yesterday post on the same subject.
Originally posted 2009-10-01 02:35:23.
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand FAQ one comment
The Cabinet has decided. Elite Card and its Members will go on the auction block. At least this is the solution that has the preference from the government. Now the question is will there be a buyer? Cause the economic model of the Elite Card does not seems to be a success. I mean Elite Card was supposed to attract 200,000 members in the first year but it only attained 2570 members over a 5 years period. Obviously Elite Card is a failed concept and project therefore what next?
Originally posted 2009-11-18 03:30:20.
February 1 2010 Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property No comments yet
In this post I will describe step by step the formalities that must be accomplished by the seller and the buyer in order to complete the sale and purchase of a condominium. In this example I make the following assumption. The buyer is a foreign investor. The condominium unit is completed and ready for transfer.
Originally posted 2009-11-28 05:32:53.
February 1 2010 Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business one comment
Land Development is an activity that attracts many foreign investors in Thailand. I often wonder why because it is really a tricky activity to invest into if you are a foreign investor for several reasons as follows:
Originally posted 2009-11-10 06:17:05.
February 1 2010 Categories: Doing Business In Thailand No comments yet
This morning was published Thailand economic forecasts for 2010. According the Fiscal Policy Office, Thai Economy will rebound next year with a growth of 3.5% next year. Not as good as the growth forecasts for other Asian countries but not so bad country that has been trough 3 years of political crisis and a world economic crisis.
Originally posted 2009-12-29 06:58:51.
February 1 2010 Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property No comments yet
Should you buy your condominium unit in person or should you register an offshore company to purchase it on your behalf? Both options are available with their advantages and drawbacks.
Originally posted 2009-08-24 11:43:20.
February 1 2010 Categories: Understanding Thailand No comments yet
While the purpose of this blog is to inform on how to do business and not to do politic I will nevertheless from time to time dedicate a post to Thai Political Crisis. Indeed Thai Political crisis that has been ongoing since September 2006 has dramatically affected Thai society as a whole and also have caused a lot of distress within the local business community and also the foreign business community with an important diminution of foreign direct investment.
Originally posted 2009-08-23 13:49:56.
February 1 2010 Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business No comments yet
To enhance investment confidence and apparently to facilitate their life the government has established a One Start One Stop Investment Center (OSOS). The primary objective of the center is to help investor to start their business by regrouping up to 18 different administrations under a single roof. Will it help Thailand to regain foreign investors confidence.
Originally posted 2009-12-02 01:50:44.
February 1 2010 Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property No comments yet
If you are married, you have two options when buying a condominium freehold in Thailand. You may either wish to buy the condominium in co-ownership with your foreign or Thai spouse or you may purchase it solely under your name by fulfilling some simple requirements. What you cannot do is to lie about your marital status in order to purchase a condominium in sole ownership while married
Originally posted 2009-08-20 05:25:22.
February 1 2010 Categories: Understanding Thailand No comments yet
To start the year with a smile Thai Airways Board is fortunate that ridicule does not kill otherwhise it would have been decimated which would have been sad those guys that have given us so many reasons to laugh recently.
Originally posted 2010-01-05 07:26:01.
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand Business No comments yet
One question that many investors are asking is whether it is expensive to do business in Thailand? The answer is mixed. On the positive side, Bangkok is according to a CB Richard Elis survey ranking 151st out of 179 markets in terms of office rental costs. Average rental costs in Bangkok for prime grade office are around 694 THB per square meter/per month (or 21 USD).
Originally posted 2009-12-11 06:52:35.
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand Visas, Thailand Visas & Work Permit No comments yet
On the 11 September 2009, Thai news reported a new crackdown on back-to-back Tourist visa applications under the form of an extended screening of visa applicants. Unfortunately I must say that this latest measure does not surprise me and is only one side of a new policy started by the immigration department around two years ago as part of a “spring house cleaning”.
Originally posted 2009-09-12 06:32:32.
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand Foreign Business Act No comments yet
The Foreign Business Act B.E. 2542 (A.D.1999) (“FBA”) was enacted on March 4, 2000 to replace the Alien Business Act of 1971. The FBA does not regulate the entire matter of foreign investment in Thailand. The FBA purposes are:
Originally posted 2009-07-21 08:54:44.
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand Banking No comments yet
One criteria you will have to consider when investing into Thailand will be the long term volatility of the currency of your home country against the THB because the evolution of the exchange rates will be one of the element that will affect on the long term your return on your investment. Being no financial wizard I cannot tell you how currencies will evolute against each others in the future. What I can show you is how some of the main world currencies have evolved against the THB during the past four years.
Originally posted 2009-10-14 02:03:45.
February 1 2010 Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business No comments yet
For reason I cannot come to understand many foreign investors view Thailand as a place where you can do business as you want without having to worried of the potential consequences. Nothing could be farthest from the truth than this belief.
Originally posted 2009-11-08 07:06:53.
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand Visas & Work Permit, Thailand Work Permit No comments yet
If you are working without a work permit the first thing you must understand is that you are at risk of a control either from the Labor Officer or the Immigration Officer.
Originally posted 2009-11-25 04:22:54.
February 1 2010 Categories: Thailand Business, What's Up at DBT No comments yet
For those who did not have a chance to read it an excellent article by Martin Petty (Reuters 1 February 2010) discussed the dangers ahead of us in Thailand, that is to say political instability and the threat of a coup.
