Integrity Legal - Law Firm in Bangkok | Bangkok Lawyer | Legal Services Thailand Back to
Integrity Legal

Legal Services & Resources 

Up to date legal information pertaining to Thai, American, & International Law.

Contact us: +66 2-266 3698

info@integrity-legal.com

ResourcesCorporate and Tax AdvisoryThailand Corporate LawWhat Is the Cost of Setting Up an Amity Treaty Company in Thailand?

What Is the Cost of Setting Up an Amity Treaty Company in Thailand?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests we're going to be discussing Amity Treaty Companies here in the Kingdom of Thailand and specifically costs associated therewith.

One thing to keep in mind with respect to this video is we have done a lot of other videos on this channel with respect to Amity Treaty Companies. Those who are interested in that topic specifically to go check out the videos using the search function on our channel. That being said, what is an Amity Company? Very briefly I will go through sort of an overview of what it is.

Pursuant to the provisions of the US-Thai Treaty of Amity, certain corporations in the Kingdom can be designated with and can be certified as being American companies and pursuant to provisions of the Treaty can thereafter  be granted "Thai National Treatment", so notwithstanding things like the Foreign Business Act for example, an Amity Treaty Company can be owned outright by an American citizen or American citizens and those companies can be owned and operated, notwithstanding the provisions of the Foreign Business Act, because they are for all intents and purposes legally treated as if they were a Thai company, so essentially the Foreign Business Act doesn't apply. Moving away from that, and that again I urge people who are interested in details on those topics to use the search function on our channel, and there's plenty of videos with respect to more detail on Amity Companies and how they are set up, and benefits, and sort of various issues associated with them. With respect to cost of an Amity Company, well the cost to set up is going to vary depending on the specific set of circumstances in a given individual’s case. Some things that can be given as far as costs within this video, there are just sort of some rock bottom costs: for example the certificate itself costs Baht 20,000. There are various other aspects of the Amity Company set up, you have to go ahead and file to register the underlying company and there is costs associated with that. Those costs are going to be dictated by the amount of registered capital associated with the company and the various taxes and fees associated with that setup. Thereafter, you are looking at various costs associated with possible tax certification for things like VAT, and then those who are interested in getting things like work permits and visas are going to be assuming a certain amount of cost with respect to the Company setup. I am not trying to be opaque with this video or purposely sort of obtuse by not providing specifics as to cost because quite frankly, it varies case to case, and anybody that says otherwise and can sort of shoehorn this in to sort of just sort of a “one size fits all” structure, you have got to be a little bit cautious. I am not saying that  it is necessarily impossible, but me personally, having dealt with matters pertaining to Treaty for some 10 years now, I can say that depending on the type of operation, the type of Company one wants to set up, the amount of registered capital in question, the number of foreign employees associated with the Company, the number of objectives associated with the Company, the type of tax certification the Company may need, these are all going to kind of dictate the cost associated with, not only the set up, but the ongoing maintenance and it is very, very difficult for me in one single video to say,   “Oh , this is what an Amity Company costs”. Quite frankly, by and large, I can provide a sort of framework as to what that is going to look like but as a practical matter, I think it is kind of disingenuous to say “this is just what it is”, because tomorrow the entire process could change, that is the other thing, and then basically you have got a bunch of defunct information out there. 

So what I would urge those who are interested in this topic to do I basically contact a legal professional and ascertain, explain the situation, explain what you want to do with respect to your Company, explain how big it is going to be, explain how much registered capital is foreseen in the setup of the Company, are there necessarily going to be work permits and visas associated with foreign nationals on the Company and basically I think any seasoned legal professional here in the Kingdom is going to be able to provide some insight and with all of that information is going to be able to break down the exact costs and fees associated with getting an entity like that set up.