How to Register a Company in Thailand: Complete Guide

Starting a business in Thailand can be an exciting chance. However, the registration process needs careful attention to legal rules and steps. It is important to know the right steps and possible problems. This helps your company start well and avoid costly delays or legal issues during the company registration process.

Registration is one step in the wider process covered in our guide to setting up a business in Thailand.

Last reviewed: 30 August 2026. Sections 1096, 1097, 1098, 1105, 1107, 1108, 1110, 1111, 1111/1 and 1112 of the Civil and Commercial Code were each read against the Thai text in our own annotated Code. Sections 14 and 36 of the Foreign Business Act B.E. 2542 were read in the Thai original, and sections 94, 96, 97 and 98 of the Land Code in the Council of State text. Supreme Court Decisions 6412/2560, 1038/2538 and 2252/2560 were each read in full in Thai. The government fees are those in the Department of Business Development’s current registration guide, and the Thai shareholder evidence requirements were read from the primary text of Central Registrar Order 2/2569. The tax deadlines in Step 5 were not re-verified against the Revenue Code in this review, so confirm them with the Revenue Department when you file. Re-read on 5 October 2026: Step 5 no longer tells a new company to apply separately for a tax ID (its DBD registration number is its tax number); the seven-day item in the deadline list now runs before the statutory meeting, as section 1107 says; two FAQs (the order of the steps, and the Foreign Business Act licence a representative office needs) were corrected; Dika 159/2566 and 17923/2557 were read in the corpus and match what the page says of them.

Understanding the Basics: Thai Limited Company Structure

The most popular business structure for foreigners in Thailand is the private limited company (บริษัทจำกัด). This structure provides limited liability protection for shareholders while offering flexibility in operations and the ability to obtain work permits for foreign employees.

Key Requirements for Thai Limited Companies:

• Minimum of 2 shareholders, of any nationality. Section 1097 of the Civil and Commercial Code required three promoters until the Civil and Commercial Code Amendment Act (No. 23) B.E. 2565, published in the Royal Gazette vol. 139 part 69 Kor on 8 November 2022 and in force on 7 February 2023, rewrote it to read “any two or more persons”. The Code does not require any of them to be Thai.
• At least 1 director (can be Thai or foreign national)
• You need enough registered capital for your business. Usually, this means 2 million baht for one work permit. This amount is higher under the Treaty of Amity
• Thai business address (virtual offices are permitted but VAT registration need a physical office)

Foreign Ownership Rules and Capital Requirements

One of the most important aspects for foreigners to understand is Thailand’s ownership restrictions. Under the Foreign Business Act (FBA), a company counts as foreign once foreigners hold half or more of its capital (section 4), so in restricted sectors the foreign holding stays below 50%. Most companies set it at 49%. However, there are legal pathways to achieve majority or even 100% foreign ownership through:

• Board of Investment (BOI) promotion
• Foreign Business License (FBL)
• Treaty of Amity (for US citizens only)
• Certain non-restricted business activities are necessary for limited liability companies in Thailand.

Capital Requirements by Business Type

The capital requirements vary significantly depending on your business structure and staffing plans:

• Thai-majority company: No legal minimum, but practically at least 100,000 THB
• Companies employing foreigners: Minimum 2 million THB per foreign employee
• Foreign-majority companies: Minimum 2-3 million THB plus FBL requirements

Registered capital is not the same as cash in the bank on day one. Section 1105 of the Civil and Commercial Code sets the floor: the first payment on each share must be at least 25% of its nominal amount, and under section 1110 the directors must call for that payment before they apply to register the company. The balance can be called later. What the capital figure decides immediately is what the company can do, which is why the work permit and Foreign Business Act figures above are worth settling before the memorandum is filed rather than after.

Step-by-Step Process to Register a Company in Thailand

Step 1: Company Name Reservation (1-3 Business Days)

The registration process begins with reserving your company name through the Department of Business Development (DBD). Key points to remember:

• Submit 3 alternative names ranked by preference
• Company name must end with “Limited” (จำกัด)
• Names must be distinct from existing registered companies
• Approval typically takes 1-3 business days
• Critical timing: Approved names are valid for only 30 days with no extension possible

Step 2: Draft and File Memorandum of Association (1-2 Days)

The Memorandum of Association (MOA) serves as your company’s foundational document and must include:

• Approved company name
• Province where headquarters will be located
• Detailed business objectives
• Amount of registered capital and share structure
• Names, addresses, and details of all promoters
• Registration fee for the memorandum: see the government fee list under Step 4. These are fixed sums set by ministerial regulation, not a percentage of your registered capital, so confirm the current schedule with the DBD when you file.

Step 3: Convene Statutory Meeting (Minimum 7 Days Notice)

This formal meeting is crucial for finalizing your company structure:

Required Business to Register a Company in Thailand:

• Adoption of Articles of Association
• Election of initial directors and auditors
• Ratification of promoter expenses
• Approval of share allocation and structure
• Determination of director powers and responsibilities

What the seven days actually is. Section 1107 of the Civil and Commercial Code requires the promoters to send every subscriber a certified statutory report at least seven days before the day of the meeting. It is notice of the meeting, not a waiting period between the meeting and your filing, and a copy of the same report goes to the Registrar as soon as it has been sent to the subscribers.

The three-month cliff. Under section 1112, if registration does not happen within three months of the statutory meeting the company is not formed at all, and every baht received from subscribers must be repaid in full without deduction. Directors still holding that money three months after the meeting are jointly liable to repay it with interest.

You can often skip the seven days entirely. Section 1111/1 lets the directors register the memorandum and register the company together on the same day the promoters sign the memorandum, provided four things are done that day: subscribers have been found for the whole of the shares the company is to register; a statutory meeting under section 1108 is held with the promoters and all subscribers present and all of them approving its business; the promoters hand the whole of the business over to the directors; and the directors call for payment of the shares under section 1110 paragraph two and that payment is completed. Where the shareholders are all available and the money is ready, this is what turns a multi-week registration into a single filing. It is the provision most English guides to Thai company registration leave out.

Step 4: Submit Company Registration Application (1-7 Days)

The final registration must be completed within 3 months of the statutory meeting. Thailand’s e-Registration system was withdrawn on 16 January 2025 and replaced by “DBD Biz Regist”, so the platform had been running for about eighteen months before the counter closed. How long a filing takes depends on who is in the company rather than on the platform. Section 1111/1 of the Civil and Commercial Code lets the directors register the memorandum and the company on the same day the promoters sign the memorandum, provided every share the company will register is subscribed, the statutory meeting is held with all promoters and subscribers present and in agreement, the promoters have handed the business over to the directors, and the share money called under Section 1110 has actually been paid. And for any company with a foreign shareholder or a foreign authorised director the evidence burden became heavier on 1 August 2026 under Order 2/2569.

Government fees. The Department of Business Development publishes these in its own company registration guide. The incorporation fee is a flat sum and does not scale with your registered capital, which is the point most often got wrong:

• Registering the company: 5,000 THB
• Registration certificate: 100 THB per copy
• Company affidavit: 40 THB per item certified
• Certified copy of a filed document: 50 THB per page
• Memorandum filing: 500 THB, and stamp duty: 200 THB. Neither of these two appears on the DBD list above, so treat them as indicative and confirm them when you file.

⚠️ An older fee table is still circulating online and it is out of date. It charges incorporation on a sliding scale, 500 THB for every 100,000 THB of registered capital with a 250,000 THB ceiling, so on that table a company with 10 million THB of capital would pay 50,000 THB. The copy we found carries a file date of 2014. The DBD’s current guide gives the flat 5,000 THB above, whatever your capital. If a quote you are given scales with your registered capital, ask which schedule it is based on.

Step 5: Tax Registration

A company no longer applies separately for a tax ID: its 13-digit DBD registration number is also its tax identification number from the day it is registered. What remains is:

• Use the company registration number on tax returns, withholding certificates and invoices
• VAT registration required if annual revenue exceeds 1.8 million THB
• VAT registration must be completed within 30 days of exceeding threshold

Step 6: Open Corporate Bank Account (1-5 Days)

Opening a company bank account has become increasingly challenging due to stricter banking regulations. Requirements include:

• Presence of the authorised directors who will sign for the account
• Complete company registration documents
• Work permits may be required for foreign signatories
• Letter of recommendation from legal service provider often helpful

What Mistakes Cause Delays When Registering a Company in Thailand?

Document Translation and Certification Issues

Poor translation quality or improper certification is one of the most common causes of registration delays. Filings at the DBD are made in Thai, so every foreign-language document has to arrive with a Thai translation, and a document issued abroad also has to carry whatever legalisation its own issuing authority and the Thai embassy or consulate require. Most of the delay we see comes from the translation rather than the legalisation.

Common translation problems that cause delays:

• Inconsistent name romanization across documents
• Incorrect legal terminology usage
• Missing official seals and stamps in translations can complicate the company registration in Thailand.
• Using uncertified translators whose work gets rejected by authorities

The consequences of improper translation can be severe, potentially making the entire registration legally invalid and requiring complete resubmission.

Thai Shareholder Financial Documentation

Since 1 August 2026, the Order of the Central Partnership and Company Registrar No. 2/2569 requires a company or partnership with a foreign shareholder or partner below 50 per cent, or with a foreign authorised director, to document that each Thai shareholder or partner paid the capital they subscribed from their own account. It expressly repeals two earlier orders, No. 2/2568 of 1 December 2568 and No. 1/2569 of 16 March 2569, and it is wider than either of them: it covers amendment filings as well as the original registration.

Incorporation: who clauses 2 and 3 cover. The initial-registration evidence requirements apply in either of these situations:

• A foreign shareholder or partner holds less than 50% of the registered capital.
• There is no foreign shareholder at all, but a foreign director holds sole or joint authority to sign for the company. This is the limb applicants almost never expect.

Incorporation: what has to be filed. The prescribed Investment Explanation Letter must be supported by the Thai investors’ payment-account statements and the receiving-account evidence described below:

• Bank statements covering the three months preceding the subscription, showing withdrawals that match the contribution.
• Statements of the receiving account, showing the money arriving from each shareholder.
• The prescribed Investment Explanation Letter, tracing the flow of funds.

Order No. 2/2569 prescribes documents and payment evidence. It does not itself state that every mismatch must lead to outright rejection without an opportunity to correct the filing. Reconcile the records before submission and respond to any registrar query.

Amendments use a different form. Clause 4 requires an Investment Confirmation Letter for the specified changes introducing foreign participation or changing previously all-Thai authorised signatories to include a foreign signatory. Clause 5 adds an Investment Explanation Letter and bank evidence of paid-up capital only where the entity was incorporated on or after 1 August 2026 and the qualifying amendment is filed within one year of incorporation. Read clauses 2 to 5 and the annexed forms.

Not providing enough documentation can lead to checks for illegal nominee arrangements. Section 36 of the Foreign Business Act B.E. 2542 reaches both sides of that arrangement: the Thai national or Thai-majority company who holds shares on a foreigner’s behalf, and the foreigner who lets them. The penalty is imprisonment not exceeding three years, or a fine of 100,000 to 1,000,000 baht, or both. The part that is usually left out is what follows the sentence: the court must also order the shareholding or the joint business to be unwound, and defying that order carries a further fine of 10,000 to 50,000 baht for every day the breach continues. See our guide to the 2026 nominee enforcement campaign.

Timing and Deadline Management

The registration process involves multiple strict deadlines that, if missed, can force you to restart portions of the process:

• Name reservation: Valid only 30 days, no extensions
• Statutory report to subscribers: at least 7 days before the statutory meeting (section 1107), unless everything is done on one day under section 1111/1
• Registration submission: Within 3 months of statutory meeting
• VAT registration: within 30 days of turnover passing 1.8 million baht

Capital and Employment Compliance

Miscalculating capital requirements is a frequent error that can prevent hiring foreign employees or obtaining work permits. The figure to plan around is 2 million baht of registered capital for each foreign employee you intend to put on a work permit, alongside the Thai-to-foreign employee ratio. This is the single most common thing to get wrong at registration, because the capital is fixed when the company is formed and increasing it later is a separate shareholders’ resolution and a separate DBD filing. A company registered on a token capital because nobody asked about work permits has to be amended before it can make its first foreign hire.

DBD Biz Regist: New Companies Since 1 July, All Applications From 1 November 2026

The channel changed in two stages. New partnerships and private limited companies became online-only on 1 July 2026. From 1 November 2026, every application type concerning those entities must be submitted through DBD Biz Regist, including later amendments, dissolution and liquidation filings.

The Two-Stage Closure of Walk-In Filing

The “DBD Biz Regist” platform has been the only route for establishing a new partnership or private limited company since 1 July 2026. The later DBD announcement completes the transition on 1 November 2026: all application types for partnerships and private limited companies must then be filed through the platform. Paper walk-in filing will no longer be available for changes to directors or signing authority, registered office, capital or objects, or for dissolution and liquidation registrations. The platform allows:

• Identity verification without flying in, for a foreign founder: the DBD e-Service app runs e-KYC from a photograph of your face and your passport. The alternative is to appear in person before an officer. Those are the only two channels the department lists for a foreign national
• Electronic signing, for a foreign founder through the DBD e-Service app or a username, password and OTP. A Thai national can also use ThaID or Paotang, and has four verification channels rather than two

One instruction from the department catches people out, and it applies to Thai and foreign founders alike: whoever registers to use the system must verify their own identity, and verification cannot be delegated to anyone else in any case. A lawyer or an accountant can file for you; nobody can be you at the verification step.

The announcement itself is narrower than most English summaries of it. The Lopburi Provincial Commerce Office reproduced the department’s notice on 29 May 2026 in these words:

DBD ยุติการรับจดทะเบียนจัดตั้งห้างหุ้นส่วนบริษัทแบบ Walk-in (ยื่นกระดาษ) ทั่วประเทศ (เฉพาะจดทะเบียนจัดตั้งใหม่)

In translation, the May notice ended paper walk-in filing nationwide only for establishing new partnerships and companies. The later DBD announcement removes that limitation from 1 November 2026 and covers every application type for partnerships and private limited companies. The change concerns the filing channel. It is an official administrative requirement, not an amendment to the Civil and Commercial Code or the Foreign Business Act.

The Date That Moved Three Times, and Why Older Guides Disagree

Guides written at different points in 2025 and 2026 give different dates for this change, and most of them were right when they were written. The department moved the deadline three times, and each announcement was reproduced by provincial commerce offices as it was issued:

• 17 March 2025: a countdown to closing walk-in business registration counters nationwide by 1 July 2025, with counters to stay open to advise on documents and on completing the electronic forms.
• 17 June 2025: walk-in filing extended to the end of 2025, with Biz Regist to be the only channel from 1 January 2026. The same notice cancelled cross-district filing of new establishments from 1 July 2025, so a new entity had to be filed in the province of its head office or online.
• 26 June 2025: the department confirmed that extension in its own words, moving the single-channel date from 1 July 2025 to 1 January 2026.
• 29 May 2026: walk-in filing of new establishments ends nationwide on 1 July 2026.

So a guide that tells you the switch happened on 1 January 2026 is quoting an earlier extension. New establishments became online-only on 1 July 2026, and DBD’s latest announcement extends the online-only rule to all application types from 1 November 2026. File through the DBD Biz Regist portal. Our glossary entry for the Department of Business Development carries the same dates in short form.

What the Old Rulebook Said, and What It Means for a Foreigner

The department has not published a rulebook for DBD Biz Regist that we can read. What it has published is the regulation governing the system Biz Regist replaced, and reading that shows which door opened for foreign founders and which one closed.

The Central Registrar Regulation on the registration of partnerships and companies through the electronic juristic person registration system (e-Registration) B.E. 2564 came into force on 8 March 2021. It was made under clauses 3 and 4 of the Ministerial Regulation of B.E. 2549, which is the enabling power behind every Central Registrar regulation and order in this family, including Order 2/2569 above. Its clause 10 set out four ways to verify identity:

• In person before an officer with an unexpired Thai identity card, or for a foreigner an unexpired passport or an identity document issued by a Thai government body (clause 10(1.1)).
• e-KYC through the system, and clause 10(1.2) confined that route to Thai nationals, using a Thai identity card and nothing else.
• An electronic certificate issued by a certification authority (clause 10(1.3)).
• A power of attorney given to a Thai natural person to carry out the verification instead (clause 10(1.4)).

Set that against what the department publishes for Biz Regist and two things have moved in opposite directions. A foreign founder can now verify by app, which clause 10(1.2) did not allow. And nobody can have verification done for them, which clause 10(1.4) expressly allowed. The route opened for the founder and closed for the agent.

On signing, clause 4 of the same regulation defines signing as creating a Digital Signature under the law on electronic transactions, either through the username and password issued under the regulation or through the system’s own identity verification. That is the reason a password and a one-time code bind you to what was filed in your name.

Treat the 2564 Regulation as history rather than as the current rules. e-Registration was withdrawn on 16 January 2025. Whether the department has since issued a positive regulation for Biz Regist, or whether the platform runs under the general Central Registrar Regulation of B.E. 2561 that clause 6 of the 2564 Regulation makes the fallback, we have not been able to establish from a published source, and this page will not guess.

Who May File for You, and What Nobody Can Do for You

Under the 2564 Regulation a founder could appoint a representative to do the filing: to complete the application, lodge it, comply with the registrar’s orders, pay the fee, and certify that what was filed matched the founder’s intention. Clause 4 named six categories of person who could act in that role: a bookkeeper, the head of a certified accounting office, a signature certifier for public limited companies, a security enforcer, a certified public accountant, and an ordinary or extraordinary member of the Thai Bar Association.

That is the provision a foreign founder cares about, because it is the one that puts a Thai lawyer or accountant in charge of the filing. What no representative could do then, and what the department says nobody can do now in any case, is verify your identity for you. Read together, the two rules give the practical answer. Your lawyer can do the paperwork, and you still have to show your face, to the app or to an officer. Our guide to setting up a company in Thailand as a foreigner covers the choices that come before the filing, and appointing and removing a director covers who ends up holding the signature afterwards.

Where Order 2/2569 Fits, and Why a Foreign-Linked Filing Is Not a One-Day Job

Order 2/2569 of the Central Partnership and Company Registrar was signed on 15 July 2026 and came into force on 1 August 2026, four weeks after the counter closed. Its scope and its documents are set out above. What matters for the channel is that those documents are uploads: the Investment Explanation Letter and the bank statements go into the platform with the application. That is what turns the same-day registration section 1111/1 permits into a longer exercise for a company with a foreign shareholder or a foreign authorised director, and it is the reason the timeline depends on who is in the company rather than on the software. The order itself is published by the department, and our page on the 2026 nominee crackdown sets it in context.

Do not read the digital rollout as a general loosening. For foreign-linked filings, 2026 moved the other way. Order 2/2569, in force since 1 August 2026, adds the three-month bank statement trail, the receiving-account statements and the Investment Explanation Letter described above. The order prescribes documents and attaches no consequence to a discrepancy: its clauses contain no rejection wording and no referral wording at all. Reports that a mismatch between declared and actual transfers is refused outright describe how the requirement is being applied in practice, not what the order says.

What the Register Proves, and What It Does Not

The platform records the structure you type into it. It does not approve that structure, and two provisions of the Civil and Commercial Code set the limits.

Section 1023 provides that until the contract, document or particulars that must be registered have been registered, the partners, the partnership or the company may not take advantage of them against a third person, while a third person may take advantage of them. The asymmetry is deliberate: registration exists for the protection of people dealing with the company, not for the company’s own convenience. Section 1023/1 closes the obvious move, providing that a partnership or company may not set up section 1023 against a third person acting in good faith in order to escape liability by alleging that a partner, the partnership, the company or a director had no authority to act.

Two Supreme Court decisions show what that means in practice.

In Dika 159/2566 a creditor sued a company on a guarantee signed by its authorised director. The company’s registered objects did not include guaranteeing another person’s debt. The Court held that under section 66 a representative binds a juristic person only by acting within its objects, so the guarantee did not bind the company. It also rejected the argument that the director’s signature was itself a ratification: ratification by its nature comes after the act, and if signing could be its own ratification then every act outside a company’s objects would bind the company and giving juristic persons objects at all would serve no purpose. The claim against that company was dismissed. The objects you type into the platform are not boilerplate.

In Dika 17923/2557 two foreign buyers bought land and asked the court to order the seller to transfer it to a Thai limited company that would hold it in name on their behalf. The Court held that the object of the contract was expressly forbidden by section 86 of the Land Code, a provision of public order carrying a penalty under section 111, so the sale was void under section 150 of the Civil and Commercial Code. It reversed the Court of Appeal and dismissed the claim. The company was properly registered. That did not make the purchase lawful.

Neither decision is about electronic filing, and that is the point. The register shows what was filed. What was filed still has to be lawful, which is why the shareholding, the objects and the signing authority deserve more thought than the platform does. Once the company exists, the next deadline is tax: see registering a tax ID number, and if you are American, the Treaty of Amity route changes the ownership question entirely.

If Your Company Will Ever Hold Land, the 49% Rule Is Not the Only Test

Most 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.

Section 97 of the Land Code treats a limited company as a foreigner for land purposes in either of two cases: foreigners hold more than 49% of the registered capital, or 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 is still treated as a foreigner for land purposes, because two of its three shareholders are foreign and either limb of section 97 is enough on its own.

Section 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.

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.

How the courts have actually decided this. Three Supreme Court decisions, read in the Thai original, set the boundaries better than any summary of the rule:

• Dika 6412/2560. 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 capacity 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.
• Dika 1038/2538. 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. 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.
• Dika 2252/2560. 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.

What changed at the counter in May 2026. 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.

None 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 covers what it takes to unwind it later.

The Value of Expert Legal Assistance to Register a Company in Thailand

Navigating Thai-Language Complexities is vital when trying to register in Thailand.

The Thai bureaucracy operates primarily in Thai language, and even small translation errors can derail the registration process. Legal professionals experienced in Thai company law provide invaluable assistance by:

• Ensuring accurate translation of all legal documents
• Understanding nuanced regulatory requirements that aren’t obvious to foreign entrepreneurs
• Filing in the form the registrar expects, which is what actually prevents a rejection and a second submission
• Preventing costly mistakes that could require restarting the entire process

Understanding Cultural and Administrative Nuances

Thai business culture emphasizes hierarchy, proper procedures, and relationship-building. Experienced legal counsel helps foreign entrepreneurs navigate these cultural expectations while ensuring compliance with complex regulations that can change without much notice.

Risk Mitigation and Compliance

Professional legal assistance becomes especially crucial when dealing with:

• Shareholder compliance: Ensuring Thai shareholders meet genuine investment requirements
• Foreign Business Act compliance: Determining if your business activities require additional licenses
• Ongoing obligations: Meeting annual filing requirements and maintaining good standing

Cost Considerations and Planning to Register a Company in Thailand

Beyond the basic registration fees, entrepreneurs should budget for comprehensive setup costs:

Initial Registration Costs for setting up a company in Thailand:

The DBD fee to register the company is 5,000 THB, flat, whatever your registered capital, plus the memorandum fee and stamp duty set out in Step 4. Our company formation package is a fixed 45,000 THB and includes those government registration fees. See the company registration cost page for what is and is not included.

Annual Maintenance Costs:

Work permits: 3,000 THB per foreign employee annually

Accounting services: 5,000+ THB monthly are essential for foreign companies operating in Thailand.

Mandatory auditing: 20,000-50,000 THB annually

Corporate income tax: 20% of net profits

FAQS About Registration of a Company in Thailand

Conclusion

Registering a company in Thailand requires meticulous attention to detail, proper documentation, and adherence to strict timelines. Even though digital systems have made the process easier, Thai regulations are still complex. Mistakes can have serious consequences, so getting help from a lawyer is very important.

The key to successful registration lies in thorough preparation, understanding cultural expectations, and ensuring all documentation meets Thai legal standards. With good planning and expert help, foreign entrepreneurs can start their Thai companies. They can also navigate the company registration process easily. They can start building successful businesses in one of Southeast Asia’s most active economies.

Remember that registering your company is just the start. You also need to keep up with ongoing obligations. Understanding tax requirements is important too. Navigating employment laws is key for long-term business success in Thailand.

• Department of Business Development

How much does it cost? See the full company registration cost breakdown (2026) or all our fixed fees on the legal fees page.

Our company registration fee

Our standard Thai private limited company registration package costs 45,000 THB, including government DBD registration fees. Before payment, we confirm the proposed activities, ownership, registered office and work included.

This estimate covers the agreed registration work. It does not promise that banking, tax registrations, licences and immigration arrangements will all be completed within the same period.

What to send before we confirm the scope

Tell us what the business will do, who will own and fund it, each shareholder’s nationality and percentage, the proposed directors, registered-office location and intended starting date. Explain whether any foreign nationals intend to work for the company.

For registration preparation, we also need three proposed company names, identification details, capital and share allocations, signing powers and the relevant office documents. We confirm any further evidence needed for your filing.

If you need advice before choosing the structure, book a business consultation.

The company registration package covers the scope described above. For other services, see all our fees. We confirm any additional work and charges before you commit.