If Your Company Will Ever Hold Land, the 49% Rule Is Not the Only Test<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nMost people arrive at a 49\/51 shareholding because of the Foreign Business Act. If the company is ever going to buy land, a second and stricter statute applies, and it does not use the same test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Section 97 of the Land Code treats a limited company as a foreigner for land purposes in either<\/em> of two cases: foreigners hold more than 49% of the registered capital, ou<\/strong> foreigners are more than half the number of shareholders. That second limb is the one that catches people. A company with two foreign shareholders holding 49% between them and one Thai shareholder holding 51% is inside the capital limit and still outside the Land Code, because two of its three shareholders are foreign.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSection 98 extends this up the chain: if a company that is foreign under section 97 holds shares in another company, that second company is foreign too. So a Thai holding company does not launder the position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The consequence is in section 94. Land acquired by a foreigner unlawfully or without permission must be disposed of within a period the Director-General fixes, which cannot be shorter than 180 days or longer than one year. Miss it and the Director-General sells the land himself. Section 96 applies the same machinery to anyone found to be holding land as owner on behalf of a foreigner or of a section 97 or section 98 company, which is the land-side mirror of the nominee offence described above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How the courts have actually decided this.<\/strong> Three Supreme Court decisions, read in the Thai original, set the boundaries better than any summary of the rule:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- Dika 6412\/2560.<\/strong> Section 86 is not an absolute bar. A foreigner may apply to the Minister of Interior for permission to hold land, and even without permission still holds the right to dispose of the land within the period the Director-General fixes under section 94. The Court drew the consequence most English guides miss: a foreigner therefore has the capacit\u00e9<\/em> to enter a contract to buy land, and the contract does not have to spell out an intention to seek ministerial permission. A contract of that kind is not a juristic act with an unlawful object.<\/li>\n
- Dika 1038\/2538.<\/strong> A Dutch buyer had a Thai national hold title for him. Even though the acquisition contravened section 86 paragraph one, section 94 means the disposal decision belongs to the foreigner and then to the Director-General, so the registered holder had no power to sell the land on her own initiative<\/em>. Selling it to a third party was an infringement of the foreigner’s rights and he had standing to sue under section 55 of the Civil Procedure Code. A void acquisition is not the same thing as no interest at all.<\/li>\n
- Dika 2252\/2560.<\/strong> The substance-over-the-register case. A company appeared on its share register with foreign holdings below half, but the foreign side had contributed more than half the real capital. The Court treated the company and the foreigner as carrying on land trading, a List One activity, with the result that the foreign plaintiff was not a lawful injured party and could not prosecute at all. The register is where the enquiry starts, not where it ends.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
What changed at the counter in May 2026.<\/strong> The Department of Lands issued circulars to every provincial land office, led by letter no. Mor Tor 0515.2\/Wor 10722 of 15 May 2026, signed by the Director-General, directing closer scrutiny of company-held land where the Thai shareholding may be nominal. They are internal enforcement guidance: they create no new law and no new filing duty on the public. What they change is how carefully an existing rule is applied when a company registers an acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNone of this stops a foreign-linked company from operating. It means the shareholding you choose at registration, and the number of shareholders as much as the percentages, decides whether the company can ever hold land in its own name. If that is part of the plan, say so before the memorandum is filed rather than after. Our page on restructuring a Thai company that holds property<\/a> covers what it takes to unwind it later.<\/p>\n\n\n\nL'importance d'une assistance juridique sp\u00e9cialis\u00e9e<\/strong> Cr\u00e9er une entreprise en Tha\u00eflande<\/h2>\n\n\n\nComprendre les complexit\u00e9s de la langue tha\u00eflandaise est essentiel lorsqu'on tente de s'inscrire en Tha\u00eflande.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nL'administration tha\u00eflandaise fonctionne principalement en tha\u00ef, et m\u00eame de petites erreurs de traduction peuvent compromettre la proc\u00e9dure d'enregistrement. Les professionnels du droit sp\u00e9cialis\u00e9s en droit des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s tha\u00eflandais apportent une aide pr\u00e9cieuse\u00a0:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Garantir la traduction exacte de tous les documents juridiques<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Comprendre les exigences r\u00e9glementaires nuanc\u00e9es qui ne sont pas \u00e9videntes pour les entrepreneurs \u00e9trangers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Entretenir des relations avec les fonctionnaires qui peuvent acc\u00e9l\u00e9rer le traitement<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- \u00c9viter les erreurs co\u00fbteuses qui pourraient n\u00e9cessiter de recommencer l'ensemble du processus<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Comprendre les nuances culturelles et administratives<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nLa culture d'entreprise tha\u00eflandaise met l'accent sur la hi\u00e9rarchie, les proc\u00e9dures \u00e9tablies et le d\u00e9veloppement des relations. Des conseillers juridiques exp\u00e9riment\u00e9s aident les entrepreneurs \u00e9trangers \u00e0 s'adapter \u00e0 ces attentes culturelles tout en veillant au respect d'une r\u00e9glementation complexe et susceptible d'\u00e9voluer rapidement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Att\u00e9nuation des risques et conformit\u00e9<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nL'assistance juridique professionnelle devient particuli\u00e8rement cruciale lorsqu'il s'agit de :<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Conformit\u00e9 des actionnaires<\/strong>: S'assurer que les actionnaires tha\u00eflandais r\u00e9pondent aux v\u00e9ritables exigences d'investissement<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Conformit\u00e9 \u00e0 la loi sur les entreprises \u00e9trang\u00e8res<\/strong>D\u00e9terminer si vos activit\u00e9s commerciales n\u00e9cessitent des licences suppl\u00e9mentaires<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Obligations continues<\/strong>: Respecter les obligations de d\u00e9claration annuelle et maintenir une bonne r\u00e9putation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\u00c9volutions r\u00e9centes : La transformation num\u00e9rique en 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe “DBD Biz Regist” platform has been the required route since 1 January 2026<\/strong>. It allows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- Inscription \u00e0 distance compl\u00e8te<\/strong> pour les investisseurs \u00e9trangers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- capacit\u00e9s de signature \u00e9lectronique<\/strong> pour tous les documents<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- V\u00e9rification d'identit\u00e9 num\u00e9rique<\/strong> par le biais de diverses plateformes<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Acc\u00e8s instantan\u00e9<\/strong> aux documents d'entreprise certifi\u00e9s<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"Comment](\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/register-a-company-in-thailand.jpeg\")