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Self Employment and Small Business Ownership in Thailand

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing small business ownership in Thailand and self-employment. Now the reason I made this video is if you are an expat or you are thinking of being an expat, you are thinking of coming here, doing business, living in Thailand you need to understand that self-employment and small business ownership are two separate things. One of them you can basically do in Thailand, the other you basically can't.

What are we talking about? Well when I think self-employment like I think back home, I think of family and friends that work for themselves. They may be what is called a sole proprietor or I can think of one person I know that is like a handyman, he is semi-retired and he is a handyman and he is really good actually. When a pipe bursts or you have some problem, a minor electrical something at your house or you just need somebody to help nail up a shingle or something like this, you call this guy. He is a handyman and I am pretty sure he has no business; most of the time I am pretty sure he gets paid in cash although I do happen to know that he sometimes takes checks etc. The question is can you do something akin to that in Thailand? Can you be self-employed where you just come to Thailand, just kind of work on your own? Yeah, the answer is NO. If you are a foreign national you can't do that. 

Now this seems strange to a lot of folks that are here because Thais do it all the time. There is a big cash economy in Thailand and Thais are always working on the streets; street vendors etc. Well they are Thai. Thai Nationals can do that. Street vending for example is a restricted occupation. There are a number of restricted occupations in Thailand but long story short no foreign national in Thailand is inherently work authorized. You have to get a Work Permit if you are a foreigner in Thailand and as a practical matter and this is where small business comes in, you have to have a Corporate sponsor these days. There was a time that was a little different but that time has come and gone. These days you need a company in order to maintain status and in order to sponsor that Work Permit and keep it up and also to keep up Business Visa status here in Thailand.

So first thing to understand is self-employment is a different thing than a Company but you can be self-employed under a Company, what I call under the umbrella of a Company. We see a lot of folks that do that especially in the consulting world. A lot of folks will be over here in Thailand, they will have a company, they will run a lot of income through that company and then they pay themselves a salary and they maintain their status that way. That is a pretty common thing in Thailand especially for folks who are not of retirement age or who are just working and I know plenty people that are of retirement age that are still working here in Thailand and using a Company to do that but understand there is very much a difference between self-employment and small business ownership here in the Kingdom of Thailand.