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Issues Associated with Thai Social Security

Transcript of the above video:

In this video, I'm going to be discussing briefly Thai social security, the implications it can have for foreign national who's running a business or working in Thailand and some recent developments, sort of, anecdotally that we've heard with respect to the Social Security office. So recently, there's been certain sort of rule changes or policy changes with respect to fines and penalties associated with issues pertaining to social security.

So we're talking, you know, failure to pay social security or deficient filing or late filing etc. Fines can be associated with those developments and certain of the fines and certain of the enforcement regime and certainly, the rules associated with Social Security have been recently amended. Currently, our Thai attorneys - I'm an American attorney, not a Thai attorney. Our Thai attorneys are dealing with that and sort of on a case by case basis as necessary. If there's anything further in sort of a detailed scenario where I can provide further information on that, I will of course do another video. But this is just sort of the general overview.

Thai social security, it's important for a foreign national especially small companies wishing to obtain a work permit on the company because one needs to go ahead and have four Thai employees on a Thai company in order to maintain a work permit or apply for a work permit on the given company. Those four Thai employees need to be registered for social security, becomes part and parcel. It's a requirement with respect to the work permit application. So social security can be something of an important point with respect to work permit issuance in the kingdom.

It should be noted that sometimes, Thai social security can be a real sticking point with respect to the process of ultimately getting a work permit for a small company here as they can be rather strict in their interpretation of the rules pertaining to social security. I've seen situations where they won't allow their employees to be registered on social security unless the facilities are up to the Social Security office’s standard. So you'll see situations where we've got a new venture going and you're doing a remodel or something and you want to go ahead and get your Thai employees registered on social security but the office won't let you do it because the office doesn't look the way or the premises of the facility doesn't meet their standard. This can be a significant issue.

Also with respect to social security when employees quit or let go from a given entity, dealing with social security and the registration or de-registration of future former employees, it can be something of a hassle to deal with. This is especially the case with respect to foreign nationals. We deal with social security issues quite frequently at the firm. Those who are interested or those who are seeking to do like a company set up, work permit application here in the Kingdom and are having issues with Thai social security, it’s a very good idea to go ahead and contact Thai legal professionals to go ahead and get an assessment of A - what the issue is and B - figure out a solution to the issue.