The first twelve months of a new Thai company

Group the work in three. First, open a bank account in the company name and move the share payment into it so it matches what was declared at registration. Second, apply for credentials on the Revenue Department's online filing system and the DBD submission portal, since approval takes several working days and nobody wants that queue near a deadline. Third, start the document file: keep the registration fee, company seal and professional fee receipts together, because those formation costs are deductible in the first period once the evidence is complete.

A company must have a qualified bookkeeper in place from the day its first accounting period opens, and that bookkeeper registers the engagement with the DBD within the window the ministerial regulation sets. Your job as owner is to confirm someone genuinely holds that role from month one rather than hunting for help in December, because reconstructing a whole year loses evidence and costs more than recording as you go.

Employer registration and enrolment of the insured person are both due at the Social Security Office inside thirty days of taking on staff. Contributions are then remitted each month, due on the fifteenth day of the month that follows. Two things trip people up: counting only rank-and-file staff and forgetting that a director drawing a salary is also covered, and assuming a single late month is harmless when a statutory monthly surcharge applies. Pair the reminder with your payroll run.

The first period may run up to twelve months from registration and may be shorter. Ending in December aligns you with the calendar year and makes benchmarking easy; ending just after your peak selling season leaves less stock to count and closes faster. Note that a short first period does not pro-rate the profit bands used for rates and reliefs, and changing the year-end later needs approval, so settle it at the outset.

Yes. Filing duties attach to your registered status, not to revenue. If you are VAT registered you file every month even at zero. If you paid for something within the withholding net, such as office rent or contract work, you remit the tax withheld the following month. Once registered as an employer you remit contributions even for a single salary. Filing nil returns on time is what gives you a clean taxpayer record from year one.

If the first period runs a full twelve months you file as normal, within two months of the last day of the first six months. Where the opening period runs shorter than a full twelve months, it is exempt from that estimate. The expensive trap for new companies is understating estimated profit by more than twenty per cent without reasonable grounds, which carries a surcharge on the shortfall. Build the estimate from actual first-half sales plus confirmed pipeline, not the business-plan figure.

Yes. The law requires the financial statements of every limited company to be audited and opined on by a certified public accountant, with no exemption based on size or transaction count. A company with no trading at all still prepares statements, has them audited, and files them. A first-year audit takes less time than a full trading year, but the auditor still needs evidence of the share payment, complete books, and support for the formation costs.

An annual meeting to approve the accounts falls due inside four months counted from the period end, with notice issued in advance as the law and the company's articles require. You need the notice, minutes recording the approval resolution, the shareholder list as at the meeting date, and financial statements already signed by the auditor. New companies often invert the order by closing late and missing the meeting window, when the correct sequence is close, audit, then convene.

File electronically through the DBD portal within one month of the approval meeting, and lodge the shareholder list within fourteen days of that meeting. The upload comprises the signed statements, the notes, the auditor's report, and the bookkeeper's details. New companies stall for two avoidable reasons: credentials never activated before the deadline, and a signatory in the portal who does not match the authorised director on the affidavit. Check both at least a fortnight ahead.

Yes, where the cost was incurred directly to set the business up, the payment evidence names the payee clearly, and the company adopts the liability by resolution or assignment — registration fees, advice on drafting the articles, or an office deposit transferred to the company. What cannot come across is a founder's personal spending unconnected to the business, or an invoice in a personal name with no assignment. Where the bill is in a founder's name, document the reimbursement with full support from the start.

Books and their supporting documents carry a minimum retention of five years counted from the closing date; where an examination is under way an authority may direct a longer period. Electronic storage is acceptable when the system preserves completeness, keeps a traceable log of which user altered a record and at what time, and reproduces records legibly throughout the retention period. For year one, set the folder structure by accounting period and document type in the first month — reorganising once someone asks for a file is slow and things fall through.

First, mixing customer receipts through a personal bank account, which defeats reconciliation and leaves part of the income unprovable when questioned. Second, keeping the transfer slip but never the actual tax invoice or receipt, so the expense is added back in the tax computation. Third, paying for services without withholding, and absorbing the counterparty's tax later. All three yield to one rule: money moves only through the company account, and nothing is paid before the paperwork is in hand.