Thailand Business & Thailand Property Info Blog
May 19 2010 Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business No comments yet
Years after its neighbors (Cambodia has issued 3G licenses years ago) Thailand is finally about to start the 3G auction process .
Originally posted 2009-09-29 04:11:28.
May 19 2010 Categories: Thailand Business, Thailand Company Registration No comments yet
Three years after its enactment in August 2006 the requirement of disclosure of Thai shareholders source of investment at the time of company incorporation is still confusing many foreign investors who do not always understand when and why do Thai shareholders have to disclose the source of their investment when they invest into a company with foreign investors. In this article i do not address the issue of when a foreigner may or may not own more than 49% of a business in Thailand.
Originally posted 2009-10-21 01:47:12.
May 19 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.
May 19 2010 Categories: Thailand Visas, Thailand Visas & Work Permit 2 comments
The concept of the investment visa is not new in Thailand.
For example, after the crisis of 1997 an investment visa with a ceiling of not less than 3,000,000 THB of investment was created as an incentive to help Thai developers to sell their stock of condominiums units’ leftover of the crisis to foreign investors. This visa was discontinued in October 2006 once Thai economy picked up.
Originally posted 2009-08-04 10:51:25.
May 19 2010 Categories: Thailand Business, Thailand Company Registration No comments yet
In a previous post I explained step by step the formalities to incorporate a Thai Limited Company. Many readers have contacted me to request whether I could also post the english translation of Thai Limited Company documents for information. Today and the next few days I will post the translations of the main corporate documents of a Thai Private Limited company. Please note that this is an unofficial translation only.
Originally posted 2009-09-03 14:40:40.
May 19 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.
May 19 2010 Categories: Thailand Business one comment
One the Real Estate front the question that got everyone agitated is whether the Government will extend the privilege of discounted taxes and government fees on property transactions as the deadline for the end of this privilege (28 March 2010) is coming closer.
Originally posted 2010-01-11 03:45:58.
May 19 2010 Categories: Thailand Visas, Thailand Visas & Work Permit, Thailand Work Permit No comments yet
In France we have this joke of a Prime Minister giving a speech to restore confidence and saying:
” Last year we were on the brink of a cliff but I’m proud to tell you all that we have made a big step forward “.
Originally posted 2009-07-28 11:25:22.
May 19 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 07:09:13.
May 19 2010 Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business one comment
A reader told me the other day that my series of “starting business in Thailand” was a bit skeptical as if I was marked by doubt that it was possible to do business successfully in Thailand.
Not at all, Thailand is as good a place to do business as any other. What I’m trying to convey in this series of articles is that investors should not expect miracles because they will be confronted to 3 problems.
Originally posted 2009-11-12 02:41:19.
May 19 2010 Categories: Thailand Taxes 2 comments
The VAT system was introduced in Thailand in 1992 that is to say at the same time than the Special Business Tax (SBT). In a nutshell most transactions (exchange of goods or services) that are occurring in Thailand are either subjected to VAT or to the SBT.The principle of VAT is simple, any business which having a turnover of more than 1,800,000 THB per annum, and that is not subject to the Special Business Tax, must register for VAT within 30 days of the date they reach 1,800,000 THB in sales.
Originally posted 2009-11-15 05:12:28.
May 19 2010 Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business No comments yet
Thai journalists are so bored by this surprisingly politically “quite” beginning of the year that they have decided to entertain themselves by calling out “Coup”. And for the past week there has not been one newspaper that does not have at least one article per day on the subject of a possible coup.
Originally posted 2010-01-26 23:24:06.
May 19 2010 Categories: Doing Business In Thailand one comment
In this post I tried to make a table that shows for each type of activities the percentage of foreign ownership allowed in Thailand. This kind of exercise is always difficult because there are so many variables applicable that the table format is not always ideal. Anyway this is a work in progress and we will try to improve the presentation over the next weeks.
Originally posted 2009-11-17 04:56:52.
May 19 2010 Categories: Thailand Business, Thailand Foreign Business Act No comments yet
As explained above, if you wish to invest into an activity, which is controlled under FBA List 2 or 3, and own more than 50% of the share equity of your business, then one of the options available to you is to apply for a foreign business license. If you obtain the license, you will then be allowed to exercise a business listed under list 2 or 3 in the form of a foreign majority company. Read more…
Originally posted 2009-07-21 13:07:21.
May 19 2010 Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Business, Thailand Company Registration 3 comments
There is a lot of confusion as to minimal capital requirements when doing business in Thailand and I will try to clarify this issue in this post.
Originally posted 2009-09-28 05:31:43.
May 19 2010 Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property No comments yet
In this post we will show how the government fees and taxes payable at the Land Department are calculated in the case of the resale of a condominium. Note that in the two examples below we envisaged a transaction before end of March 2010 and after March 2010 because government fees are discounted until the end of March 2010.
Originally posted 2009-12-09 06:47:13.
May 19 2010 Categories: Doing Business In Thailand, Thailand Foreign Business Act 3 comments
Many countries are currently negotiating Free Trade Agreements with Thailand and the citizens of those countries are waiting impatiently for the benefits they will get out of these free trade agreements. Hopefully, they will finally be able to invest in Thailand without having to make allegiance to “You-Know-Who” “He/She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” that is to say the Thai Wife, Boyfriend or the Thai shareholder that may be deemed a nominee.
Originally posted 2009-11-09 05:26:48.
May 19 2010 Categories: Leasehold Ownership, Thailand Property 3 comments
In several of my previous posts I have commented on the too short lease period duration in Thailand by comparison to other Asian countries but I had to date to provide to my readers any basis for comparison which I have done now with a table comparing the lease duration period in 13 Asian countries including Thailand.
Originally posted 2009-10-02 03:14:08.
May 19 2010 Categories: Understanding Thailand No comments yet
I was checking my early posts and I realized that while I referred in several posts to the concept of Thainess, I never actually defined it.
Originally posted 2009-08-31 10:34:04.
May 19 2010 Categories: Thailand Business, Thailand Company Registration No comments yet
While companies are juristic persons and cannot be as such subject to the punishment of imprisonment it does not mean that a company may not be prosecuted for a criminal offence in Thailand. To the contrary, companies may be prosecuted the same way as individuals.
Originally posted 2009-12-15 10:20:04.
May 13 2010 Categories: Land Ownership, Thailand Property No comments yet
Assuming that Thai authorities take as announced a hard stance in relation to the matter of “companies that own land with Thai Shareholders that may be deemed nominees” and assuming that the company do not fight back the accusations. What would happen then?
Originally posted 2009-11-02 09:59:13.
May 13 2010 Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property No comments yet
You would think that using the service of a reputed international brand of real estate agencies is the guarantee of a safe purchase. Wouldn’t you?
Let me tell you a story that will show you how wrong you would be to think so.
Originally posted 2009-07-26 04:18:42.
May 13 2010 Categories: Leasehold Ownership, Thailand Property No comments yet
One of the first paradoxes of the offshore real estate market is this: Most buyers are retirees or people preparing for retirement, and Thailand has become over the years one of their preferred destinations because of course of its exotic beauty, unique culture, friendly people but also because of its modern infrastructures, the high quality of health services and of course the reasonable costs of living.
Originally posted 2009-07-27 09:45:37.
April 21 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.
April 21 2010 Categories: Thailand FAQ, Thailand Visas, Thailand Visas & Work Permit one comment
The point of the doingbusinessthailand.com blog is not only to provide potential investors with a comprehensive and up to date source of information on how to do business in Thailand but is also, as much as possible, to try to answer to readers immediate concerns.
One of the benefits of search engines is that they made it possible to keep track of the researches that are made by those among you who are interested by Thailand. Therefore from now on I will not only continue to provide substantive information but I will also from time to time discuss some of the queries that are made every weeks.
Originally posted 2009-08-07 11:59:46.
April 21 2010 Categories: Thailand Business, Thailand Company Registration No comments yet
The first option available to a foreign investor who wants to start a business in Thailand is to register a non-trading legal vehicle (for example Representative Office). Hereinafter we will discuss the characteristics on Non-Trading Legal Vehicles the most common of which is the Representative Office. [this post is an updated version that replace one of my first posts]
Originally posted 2009-10-15 00:09:26.
April 17 2010 Categories: Property General Issues, Thailand Property No comments yet
Most buyers purchasing real estate in Thailand will do so buy purchasing through the services of an agent.
The first difficulty buyers will encounter is that Thailand does not have for the time being (if there are, they aren’t enforced) a regulation that would obligate professional real estate agents to formally notify the buyer that they’re acting as the seller’s agent.
Originally posted 2009-07-26 03:27:37.
April 17 2010 Categories: Land Ownership, Thailand Property No comments yet
As you know a “witch hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials. The term “witch-hunt” is often used by analogy to refer to panic-induced searches for perceived wrong-doers other than witches.” Now Thailand has been since 2006 affected by a serious political crisis and the successive governments since the beginning of this crisis have been under a lot of pressure.
Originally posted 2009-10-28 04:23:27.
April 17 2010 Categories: Thailand Property No comments yet
Dear Readers, if you have been wondering why I barely posted during the past two weeks the reason is that I was finalizing the second edition of my book “How to Safely Buy Real Estate in Thailand” to be published beginning of February 2009.
Originally posted 2010-01-14 10:24:58.
April 17 2010 Categories: Condominium Ownership, Thailand Property No comments yet
This post is part of a series of posts that include my post dated of 26 August 2009 called “Bangkok What and Where to Buy?” and my post dated of 28 August 2009 “Bangkok more reasons to buy”. Two new surveys published recently by CB Richard Ellis (Thailand) and Jones Lang LaSalle (Thailand) have draw my attention.
Originally posted 2009-09-17 03:57:10.
