Can accounts be kept in English or in a foreign currency?

Statutory records are maintained in Thai and in baht. We keep the underlying ledger in a way that produces both the Thai statutory output and an English management report, so head office reads figures it recognises while the filed records satisfy the registrar and the Revenue Department.

Do I need to be VAT registered?

Registration is compulsory once annual revenue passes the statutory threshold, and voluntary below it. Voluntary registration is often sensible for a business with significant input VAT or corporate customers who expect tax invoices, but it commits you to monthly filings and to strict invoice discipline from the first month.

What happens if returns have not been filed for a year?

The exposure is fines plus a monthly surcharge on tax that should have been paid, and continued silence makes it worse. We reconstruct the records, quantify the liability, then file in a controlled sequence. Voluntary correction is treated more favourably than an assessment that the Revenue Department initiates.

Can the same firm do the bookkeeping and the audit?

No. The auditor signing the statutory financial statements must be independent, so we prepare the accounts and coordinate with an independent licensed auditor. That separation is a legal requirement and also a practical protection for the directors who sign the accounts.

Bookkeeping and monthly compliance

In Thailand the accounts are not a report you produce at year end. They are a filing calendar you either keep or fall behind.

Foreign directors are often surprised that a small Thai company with almost no activity still owes a stack of monthly returns, a half-year tax estimate, an audited financial statement and a shareholders' meeting. Dormancy is not a defence. Most of the penalty exposure we clean up came from a company that was trading modestly, doing nothing wrong commercially, and simply missing dates nobody had explained.

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Short answer

Every Thai company must keep statutory accounting records, appoint a qualified bookkeeper, file monthly withholding tax and, if VAT registered, monthly VAT returns, submit a half-year corporate income tax estimate, hold an annual general meeting, and file audited financial statements with the Department of Business Development and the Revenue Department. Monthly returns fall due in the first half of the following month; annual filings follow the meeting date. Late filing brings surcharges and fines that grow with time, and unlike a commercial dispute they are not negotiable.

The compliance calendar, month by month

Withholding tax returns cover the tax you deducted when paying service providers, rent, professional fees and certain other payments, and they are filed monthly whether or not anything was withheld. VAT registered companies file output and input VAT monthly against the tax invoices issued and received in that month, which is why a missing supplier tax invoice is a cash problem and not just a filing problem. Payroll brings personal income tax withholding and social security contributions for every employee, including foreign staff on work permits.

Twice a year the picture widens. The half-year corporate income tax estimate requires a genuine forecast of full-year profit, and understating it by more than the tolerated margin attracts a surcharge on the shortfall — one of the most common avoidable costs we see in companies that treat the estimate as a formality. At year end the accounts are closed, signed off by an independent licensed auditor, put to the shareholders for approval, then lodged with the registrar as well as the Revenue Department.

None of this is difficult when the source documents arrive each month. It becomes difficult when three months of receipts arrive together in April, because reconstructing VAT position after the filing date means amendments, surcharges and an audit trail that looks careless to an inspector.

What a bookkeeper is actually responsible for under Thai law

Thai accounting law requires the company to appoint a person with the prescribed qualifications to prepare the accounts, and it requires records to be kept in Thai baht, in the Thai language, and retained for at least five years. The records themselves must be supported by documents that satisfy the Revenue Department, which in practice means proper tax invoices, receipts bearing the supplier's tax identification, withholding tax certificates issued to your suppliers, and evidence connecting each expense to the business.

That last point decides most tax assessments. An expense the directors know was for the company but which is documented with a cash slip and no supplier detail will be disallowed, increasing taxable profit. We therefore set the document standard at the start of an engagement, tell staff which receipts are useless before they collect them, and where the business is cash intensive, put a simple daily record in place that an inspector can follow.

For companies with foreign shareholders there is an extra layer worth planning: related-party transactions, management fees paid abroad, interest on shareholder loans and thin capitalisation all attract attention, and transfer pricing documentation obligations begin at a defined revenue threshold. We flag these while structures are being set up rather than during an audit.

How we run the work, and what you see each month

Documents come to us digitally or in a monthly pouch. We post the entries, reconcile bank accounts, prepare and file the returns, issue withholding tax certificates for your suppliers, run payroll with payslips and social security submissions, and send you a short English summary: what was filed, what tax was paid, what is outstanding, and anything in the month's paperwork we could not use.

Because the same office holds the legal file, questions that cross the boundary get answered once. Whether a payment to an overseas parent needs withholding, whether a director can be reimbursed for a lease in a personal name, whether a new activity requires an amended objects clause or a separate licence — these are legal and accounting questions at the same time, and splitting them between two providers is how companies end up with an answer that satisfies neither authority.

For companies that arrive with a backlog we do a remediation engagement first: reconstruct the records, quantify the exposure, file what is missing in a controlled order, and only then move to a normal monthly cycle. Coming forward with corrected filings is materially better than waiting to be assessed.

How the work runs, step by step

Step 1
Opening review
We read the registration documents, the VAT status, the last audited accounts and the filing history, and list what is missing.
Step 2
Document standard and handover
We set out which documents we need, in what form, and by which day of the month, and take over from the previous bookkeeper cleanly.
Step 3
Monthly cycle
Posting, bank reconciliation, VAT and withholding returns, payroll and social security, plus a short English summary each month.
Step 4
Half-year estimate
A forecast built from actual results rather than a placeholder, to keep the estimate inside the tolerated margin.
Step 5
Year-end close, audit and filing
Closing entries, audit liaison, shareholders' meeting documents, and filing with the registrar and the Revenue Department.

What you send us

Company registration documents, objects clause and shareholder register.
VAT certificate and any Revenue Department correspondence.
Bank statements for every account, monthly and complete.
Purchase tax invoices and receipts with the supplier's tax identification.
Sales invoices, receipts and tax invoices issued to your customers.
Employment contracts, payroll data, work permits and social security registrations.
The previous year's audited financial statements and trial balance.

Where things usually go wrong

Treating a dormant company as exempt

A company with no revenue still files monthly returns, holds a meeting and submits audited accounts. Inactivity does not suspend the calendar.

A half-year estimate pulled from the air

Where the estimate falls short of the permitted variance, a surcharge is charged on the difference. Build it from actual first-half figures.

Expenses documented with unusable receipts

Without supplier tax details the cost is disallowed and taxable profit rises. Fix the receipt standard before the spending happens.

Paying an overseas parent without checking withholding

Management fees, royalties and interest paid abroad often carry withholding tax, reduced by treaty only if the paperwork is in place beforehand.

Government fees and professional fees, separated

The ranges below reflect what our own files cost so you can budget before committing. An itemised quote is issued before work begins.

Item	Official fee	Our fee	Note
Monthly bookkeeping and filings	No government charge for filing on time	Quoted on transaction volume and staff numbers	Scope is agreed in writing so nothing is assumed to be included.
Statutory audit	No government charge	Quoted by the independent licensed auditor	The auditor must be independent of the bookkeeper; we coordinate but do not audit our own work.
Late filing of returns	Statutory fines and monthly surcharge on unpaid tax	Quoted for remediation work	Surcharge accrues monthly, so early correction is materially cheaper.
Backlog reconstruction	Depends on what has to be amended	Quoted after we see the filing history	We quantify exposure before doing the work, not after.

Questions foreign clients actually ask us

Can accounts be kept in English or in a foreign currency?: Statutory records are maintained in Thai and in baht. We keep the underlying ledger in a way that produces both the Thai statutory output and an English management report, so head office reads figures it recognises while the filed records satisfy the registrar and the Revenue Department.
Do I need to be VAT registered?: Registration is compulsory once annual revenue passes the statutory threshold, and voluntary below it. Voluntary registration is often sensible for a business with significant input VAT or corporate customers who expect tax invoices, but it commits you to monthly filings and to strict invoice discipline from the first month.
What happens if returns have not been filed for a year?: The exposure is fines plus a monthly surcharge on tax that should have been paid, and continued silence makes it worse. We reconstruct the records, quantify the liability, then file in a controlled sequence. Voluntary correction is treated more favourably than an assessment that the Revenue Department initiates.
Can the same firm do the bookkeeping and the audit?: No. The auditor signing the statutory financial statements must be independent, so we prepare the accounts and coordinate with an independent licensed auditor. That separation is a legal requirement and also a practical protection for the directors who sign the accounts.

Send the registration documents, the last audited accounts and the recent filing history. We will tell you what is outstanding, what the exposure looks like, and what a clean monthly cycle involves for a company your size.

Contact our office