Doing Business in Thailand

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.

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Originally posted 2009-12-15 10:20:04.

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.

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Originally posted 2009-10-21 01:47:12.

Is Thailand open to foreign investment?

Absolutely, many foreigners are exempted from visas requirements and as you will see foreigners are welcome to invest in nearly all sectors of activities in Thailand without needing any prior authorization providing that they do a minority investment (less that 49% of a business shares in a few cases less than 25%).

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Originally posted 2009-07-24 07:41:19.

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.

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Originally posted 2010-01-11 03:45:58.

In today and tomorrow post I will comment on the Global Corruption Barometer 2009 just published by the World Bank. Overall, 70 countries were surveyed, 12 of which are Asian countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea).

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Originally posted 2009-09-30 04:55:13.

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.

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Originally posted 2009-09-03 14:40:40.

They are more than a few Tom, Dick and Harry that come to do business in Thailand armed with a “colonial” false sense of superiority. This is a mistake, even if Thailand did not yet achieve European, Japanese or US standards in all matters do not be mistaken about it. Thailand is a developed country. At least economically, politically that is a story for another day.

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Originally posted 2009-11-03 08:15:01.

The Private Limited Company is the most common legal vehicle used by foreign investors in Thailand, it is therefore useful to review its main characteristics. Note that this post do not deal in an exhaustive manner with the matter of the characteristic of a Private Limited Company. There is a lot more to say. In this post we limited ourselves to the characteristics which are a matter of concern for foreign investors.

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Originally posted 2009-10-19 02:22:16.

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.

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Originally posted 2009-10-01 02:35:23.

A client asked me “How many of the business started by Americans are successful, what percentage last more than five years”? Unfortunately there are no statistics existing on this specific question but the fact is that all professionals assisting foreign investors in Thailand have done the same experience that I. The rate of business failure in the first year is anywhere between 50 to 75%.

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