How do you incorporate a company in Thailand?

Key Takeaways

• Filing has run entirely through DBD Biz Regist since 1 January 2026. Walk-in counters at the Department of Business Development are gone.
• Foreign applicants verify their identity through a narrower path than Thai nationals: two channels against four, and neither side can appoint a proxy to do it for them.
• The minimum number of shareholders dropped from three to two in February 2023, but a well-trafficked provider FAQ still tells readers they need three.
• Social Security registration is due 30 days after you hire your first employee, not “immediately on incorporation” as a lot of guides still say.

In Detail

The regime changed under you, even if you registered a company here before

If you or an adviser incorporated a Thai company any time before 2026, most of what you remember about the process no longer applies. The Department of Business Development launched its digital registration platform, DBD Biz Regist, on 16 January 2025. The original plan was to make it the only channel from 1 July 2025. DBD pushed that back six months to give people time to adapt, keeping walk-in counters open through the end of 2025. From 1 January 2026, paper and counter filing stopped. Every partnership and company registration now goes through the platform, and DBD says so in its own words, not a provider’s summary of it.¹

Cross-province filing disappeared in the same move. Under the old system you filed at the registrar for the province where you wanted to register. Under DBD Biz Regist you file online from anywhere, at any hour, into the system for the province your head office sits in.¹

Step one: reserve the company name

Name reservation is a self-service, instant check at reserve.dbd.go.th, not a queue at a counter or a wait for a clerk to phone you back.²

Commentary from company-formation providers commonly adds detail beyond that: that you can submit up to three name options so the registrar can approve whichever clears first, that a reservation is valid for 30 days with no extension, and that review typically takes one to three business days. We could not confirm any of those three specific figures on a DBD primary page, so treat them as generally reported rather than settled.

Step two: file the Memorandum of Association

The MOA filing fee is a flat THB 500. The company registration fee itself is a flat THB 5,000. Neither is a percentage of registered capital, and both figures come from DBD’s own fee regulation and its own how-to manual, not from a provider’s arithmetic.³

Your registered office address goes into this same filing. read more covers what DBD now expects you to be able to prove about that address.

Step three: the statutory meeting, then registration

After the MOA is filed, the promoters hold a statutory meeting under the Civil and Commercial Code to adopt the Articles of Association, appoint directors and an auditor, and ratify the promoters’ expenses. Where that meeting happens first and at least 25 percent of share capital is already paid up, the company registration application can be lodged the same day as the MOA. Where it is not done the same day, the completed application must still reach the registrar within 90 days of the statutory meeting.⁴

DBD publishes its own service standard for how long registration itself takes once filed: 1 hour 25 minutes for the general case, 2 business days where another agency has to sign off first, and 37 business days if someone objects to the registration.⁵

Some structures now attract an extra document at this same step: an Explanation Statement and three months of Thai shareholder bank statements, required since 1 August 2026 wherever foreign shareholding sits under 50 percent or a foreign director holds signing authority. That is the beneficial-ownership evidence read more covers in full. It is not optional paperwork you can defer to later.

The narrower path if you are not a Thai national

DBD Biz Regist gives Thai nationals four ways to verify their identity on the platform: the ThaiD app, the Paotang app, the DBD e-Service app’s face-photo E-KYC, or turning up in person at a DBD office. Foreign nationals get two: the DBD e-Service app, which checks a face photo against a passport photo, or turning up in person. Neither group can appoint someone else to verify identity on their behalf, under any circumstance.

For signing documents electronically, the gap is similar. Thai nationals get three routes (ThaiD, Paotang, or a username and password with one-time passcode). Foreign nationals get two (the DBD e-Service app, or the username-and-password route).

Shareholders and directors: what the law actually asks for

You need at least two shareholders, not three. The Civil and Commercial Code amendment cutting the minimum from three to two took effect on 7 February 2023.⁷ It is a small change but an old one now, and it is worth checking directly because outdated advice on this specific point is still common.

You need at least one director. Thai law does not require that director to hold Thai nationality or to be resident in Thailand.

On capital: at least 25 percent of the par value of each subscribed share must be paid up at incorporation. The remaining 75 percent is callable, meaning the board can call for further payment later, subject to the company’s own articles.⁸

Tax ID and VAT registration

Your company’s 13-digit DBD registration number does the job of a Revenue Department tax ID as well. Providers commonly say this needs to be verified or activated with the Revenue Department within 60 days of incorporation or of starting operations, but we could not confirm that specific 60-day figure against a Revenue Department page, so treat it as reported practice rather than a settled rule.

VAT registration is a separate threshold question. Any person or entity regularly supplying goods or services in Thailand with annual turnover above THB 1.8 million is a taxable person and must register. Below that figure, registering is voluntary.⁹ Commentary commonly adds a 30-day window from the date you cross the threshold to actually register, which is plausible but which we could not confirm on the Revenue Department’s own page either.

Social Security: 30 days, not “immediately”

Once you have an employee, you register as an employer with the Social Security Office. The deadline is 30 days from the date that employee becomes insured, and it comes directly from Section 34 of the Social Security Act itself, hosted on the SSO’s own site.¹⁰

A version of this rule circulates that says registration is due immediately on incorporation. It has no basis in the Act. The 30-day trigger runs from hiring, not from registering the company, and there is no separate earlier deadline sitting behind it.

What this means for you

The mechanics changed more than the substance. You still need two shareholders, one director, a quarter of your capital paid up, a name, a memorandum, a statutory meeting and a registration filing. What changed is the channel, the pace, and who gets to use which door. If you are the foreign shareholder signing personally, expect the platform to ask more of you than it asks of your Thai co-founder, and expect a Power of Attorney to a Thailand-based representative to still be the practical way through it.

Budget the flat fees, not the percentage formulas still floating around online. Budget the 30-day Social Security clock from your first hire, not from your registration date. And do not let a provider’s outdated “three shareholders” line talk you into recruiting a partner you do not need.

Before you file through DBD Biz Regist

• Do you have at least two shareholders and one director confirmed, with 25 percent of the proposed capital ready to transfer?
• Have you confirmed which of the two identity-verification channels you, as a foreign national, will actually use on DBD e-Service?
• If you would rather not verify identity yourself, is a Power of Attorney to a Thailand-based representative in place and signed on the correct DBD form?
• Have you asked your Thai counsel for the current document list for a corporate shareholder, since DBD publishes none?
• Do you know who your first hire will be and when, so the 30-day Social Security clock lands on a calendar rather than a surprise?
• Have you checked whether your ownership structure crosses the 1 August 2026 bank-statement trigger covered in the beneficial ownership question, before you file rather than after?

Sources

10 sources for this article, 7 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), reserve.dbd.go.th
3. Department of Business Development (primary), www.dbd.go.th
4. Chambers and Partners, chambers.com
5. Department of Business Development (primary), www.dbd.go.th
6. Ministry of Commerce (Trat) (primary), trat.moc.go.th
7. Mondaq, www.mondaq.com
8. Tilleke & Gibbins, www.tilleke.com
9. Thai Revenue Department (primary), www.rd.go.th
10. Social Security Office (primary), www.sso.go.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.