Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing VAT, that is Value Added Tax here in Thailand; VAT Certificates in conjunction with Thai Companies and Business Visas. So before I get too far into this, I often times have a tendency to kind of create a cauldron if you will and just throw a lot of the requirements associated with the Thai Business Visas sort of into that cauldron and mix them up.

Directly speaking, it may or may not be a requirement from Thai Immigration that a VAT Certificate exists on a given company but as a practical matter, depending on the other prerequisites often times it will be requirement. Now again it is going to be fact dependent depending on the circumstances and the posture of the Company, the way it's set up, but in most cases that we deal with when we are dealing with Business Visas, yes they want to see a VAT Certificate associated with that Company. The question is "why?" and my answer oftentimes is "Well, they just do. They are Thai Immigration, they can ask for whatever they want". It's not a really satisfying answer but one of the major concerns with respect to foreign nationals here in Thailand who are operating businesses and maintaining things like Business Visas and Work Permits, one of the major concerns is that they are paying their taxes. Thai officials are extremely concerned about this; quite honestly as a citizen of Thailand I can understand it. Folks that want to come here and do business need to pay taxes, so yeah it is a concern. It is a document that often times is just going to pop up when you are dealing with your Thai Business Visa application. They are going to want to see a VAT Certificate and if it is not necessarily a requirement I can tell you from personal experience that it is definitely something that makes the process move a lot more smoothly.