What does it cost to set up a company in Thailand, and how long does it take?

Key Takeaways

• The government registration fee is a flat THB 5,000, not a percentage of capital. The Memorandum of Association filing fee is a flat THB 500. Both formulas that circulate online, tied to your registered capital, are wrong.
• The Department of Business Development’s own service standard is 1 hour 25 minutes to process a straightforward registration, rising to 37 business days if the filing is objected to. That is processing time once your paperwork is in the queue, not the time it takes a Singapore owner to get there.
• Government fees are small and knowable. Professional and agent fees are the number that actually swings, quoted anywhere from roughly THB 18,000 to 350,000 depending on what is included. No single figure reconciles the two, and treating one provider’s quote as the market rate is a mistake.
• The bill does not stop at registration. A Thai company must be audited every year with no small-company exemption, on top of bookkeeping and, once you hire, social security.

In Detail

The fee everyone gets wrong

Two formulas circulate for the government cost of registering a Thai company limited: 0.5 percent of registered capital, or 0.1 percent. Both are wrong. DBD’s own fee regulation sets registration of a company limited at a flat THB 5,000, whatever the registered capital. The separate fee for filing the Memorandum of Association is a flat THB 500, not the THB 50 per THB 100,000 of capital that some sources quote.¹²

Together that is THB 5,500 in unavoidable government fees for a standard incorporation. It does not move with your capital. A company registered at THB 2 million and a company registered at THB 20 million pay exactly the same DBD fee.

How long registration actually takes

DBD publishes its own service standard for processing a partnership or company-limited registration: 1 hour 25 minutes for the general case, 2 business days where another agency has to sign off first, and 37 business days where the registration is objected to.²

That is a striking gap against the “5 to 15 working days” figure that gets published almost everywhere else, and the gap is real but the comparison is not quite fair. We could not trace the 5 to 15 day figure to any single confirmed source, so treat it as an estimate rather than a rule. DBD’s own number describes queue-to-certificate processing once a complete application sits in DBD Biz Regist. It does not include what a foreign owner does before that: reserving a name (reported at 1 to 3 business days, valid for 30 days with no extension, though we could not confirm either figure against a DBD primary page), getting shareholder documents notarised and legalised if you are signing abroad, and opening the corporate bank account that read more covers. Those steps, not DBD’s own queue, are where the calendar weeks actually go.

Government fees versus professional fees, the difference that gets lost

Government fees are the part you can rely on: THB 5,500, full stop. Professional and agent fees are the part that is genuinely variable, and the range is wide enough that quoting a single number would be misleading. Incorporation-agent marketing pages put a basic registration package at roughly THB 18,000 to 50,000, a mid-range package bundling VAT registration, a company seal and bank account assistance at THB 30,000 to 80,000, and complex work involving a joint venture, BOI promotion or a Foreign Business Licence at upwards of THB 350,000. These figures come from provider pricing pages, not an audited fee schedule, so read them as the shape of the market rather than a benchmark to hold any one quote against.

The variation is not random. It tracks what is actually being done: how many shareholders and directors need documents notarised and legalised abroad (reported at THB 2,000 to 5,000 per document set, again unaudited), whether VAT registration and a company seal are bundled in, whether the firm handles the bank account application, and whether the structure needs the bank-statement evidence that DBD Order 2/2569 now requires from Thai shareholders in most foreign-minority structures, which the beneficial ownership question covers in full. Ask a provider to itemise their quote against that list before comparing it to anyone else’s.

The capital itself is not a fee

Registered capital is money that has to actually exist in the business, not a cost that disappears into a government account. Under the Foreign Business Act, a foreigner commencing business needs at least THB 2 million, rising to THB 3 million for a business that requires a Foreign Business Licence.³ BOI’s own published minimum project capital, separate from the FBA figure, is THB 1 million excluding land and working capital.⁴ registered capital sets out how much you actually need, including the capital that scales with each foreign work permit you want to sponsor.

What it costs to keep the company alive

Incorporation is a one-time cost. Three things recur every year and Singapore owners routinely miss all three when they budget.

First, a Thai company limited must have its annual financial statements audited by a Thailand-licensed CPA, every year, with no exemption for small size, low turnover or even a dormant year.⁵ Singapore exempts a small company from audit if it meets two of three thresholds on revenue, assets and headcount; we could not independently source that comparison figure, but the underlying contrast is real and worth naming plainly: what is optional in Singapore is compulsory in Thailand, regardless of size. audit and annual filing covers the audit and filing calendar in full.

Second, the company must appoint a bookkeeper who can prepare accounts in Thai and is registered with the Federation of Accounting Professions.⁶ That is an ongoing service, not a one-time filing, and it runs alongside the audit rather than replacing it.

Third, once you hire, social security contributions become a monthly cost: 5 percent of wages from the employer, matched by 5 percent from the employee, up to the current wage ceiling of THB 17,500 a month, which caps each side’s contribution at roughly THB 875.⁷

What this means for you

Three questions do more to determine your actual cost than any incorporation quote will. Is your intended activity restricted under the Foreign Business Act, which owning a business in Thailand and read more cover? Will you need work permits, which come with their own capital and cost attached in read more? And do you need a licence or BOI promotion, which read more and the Foreign Business Licence cover and which each add months and their own fee on top of the THB 5,500 you now know is fixed? Answer those before you price a provider’s incorporation package, because the package price is the smallest number in the decision.

Before you accept an incorporation quote

• Does the quote separate the fixed THB 5,500 in government fees from the firm’s own professional fee, or bundle them into one number?
• What is actually included: VAT registration, the company seal, corporate bank account assistance, support with the DBD Order 2/2569 bank-statement evidence?
• Is notarising and legalising your Singapore shareholder documents priced separately or included?
• Does the quoted timeline describe DBD’s own processing time, or the full path from name reservation to a working bank account?
• Will your actual activity need a Foreign Business Licence or BOI promotion? Either adds months and its own fee, on top of the incorporation fee, not instead of it.
• Is the annual audit and bookkeeping cost, which recurs every year with no small-company exemption, quoted separately from the one-time incorporation fee?

Sources

7 sources for this article, 5 of them primary. Where we could not verify something, the article says so rather than estimating.

1. Department of Business Development (primary), www.dbd.go.th
2. Department of Business Development (primary), www.dbd.go.th
3. Thailand Board of Investment (primary), www.boi.go.th
4. Thailand Board of Investment (primary), www.boi.go.th
5. Samui For Sale (primary), www.samuiforsale.com
6. Acclime Thailand, thailand.acclime.com
7. BDO Thailand, www.bdo.th

This article is general information about doing business in Thailand and is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Every figure is cited with its source and its date. Thai regulation is changing quickly and rules current at publication may change without notice. Confirm anything you intend to act on with qualified Thai counsel.