Thailand Company Registration Fees 2026 — The Actual Line Items

Most "cost to register a Thai company" guides give you a single number — THB 7,000 if they are optimistic, "about $300" if they are pulling numbers from the wrong decade — and stop there. The actual invoice is a 30-line ledger: DBD incorporation, stamp duty, Articles of Association, accounting onboarding, VAT registration, Non-B visa, work permit, registered office, company seal, plus a paid-up capital number you do not get back without months of capital-reduction filings. None of those line items are optional. None of them appear in the cheap answer.

This is the real 2026 stack for a foreign-founded Thai limited company — every line item, what the state charges versus what you pay, and the trap inside the words "minimum capital." Our consultancy line is staffed by a 30-year Bangkok accounting and legal team. We file these every week.

Government Fees — What the State Actually Charges

The Department of Business Development charges a registration fee scaled to your registered capital, with a flat base bringing the typical total to THB 7,000 for a standard small-capital company including the company seal. A foreign company applying for a Foreign Business License on top adds a four-figure application fee and a THB 20,000 certificate issuance fee on approval.

VAT registration is a separate filing with the Revenue Department and becomes mandatory the moment annual turnover crosses THB 1.8 million — register within 30 days of crossing that line. Most founders register voluntarily on day one so they can issue VAT invoices and reclaim input VAT on their software stack. There is no good reason to wait.

The "THB 50,000 Minimum Capital" Is a Lie of Omission

Every general guide quotes THB 50,000 as the legal minimum registered capital for a Thai limited company. Technically correct. Practically irrelevant. The number you actually need depends on what you want to do next:

• Standard Thai-owned company, no foreign work permit needed: THB 50,000 paid-up is fine.
• Foreign founder who wants a work permit: THB 2,000,000 paid-up capital per work permit. If you and your co-founder both want to work in your own company, that is THB 4 million paid-up before the Ministry of Labour will issue the second permit.
• Foreign-majority company under the Foreign Business Act: THB 3,000,000 minimum paid-up plus the Foreign Business License process.
• BOI promotion route: THB 1,000,000 minimum paid-up depending on activity category. In practice, capital is usually much higher because the BOI committee looks at whether your declared capital matches the activity you are promising to run.

Registered capital is not a fee — it is your own money sitting in your own corporate account. But it is locked: paid-up is reported to the DBD and can only be reduced by a capital-reduction filing that takes months and triggers creditor-notice obligations. Plan it deliberately.

The 2026 Reality: DBD Biz Regist Is the Only Door

If you got a quote from anyone before mid-2025, the registration mechanics in that quote are obsolete. The DBD ended paper-based corporate registration submissions in 2025. From 1 January 2026, the new DBD Biz Regist digital platform is the only accepted channel for partnership and private limited company incorporation in Thailand.

For foreign founders this is good news on paper: incorporation can now happen without physical presence in Thailand. The catch is identity verification. The platform supports three methods — ThaID, NDID, and the DBD e-Service application — and for foreign nationals, the DBD e-Service app is currently the only viable option. Expect a meaningful chunk of professional time to go into getting foreign founders through that onboarding, especially on first run. We have done it enough times to know which steps blow up.

Professional Fees — Where the Real Money Goes

Government fees are the small part. The professional layer is where invoices stretch:

• Articles of Association & shareholder agreement drafting: THB 35,000 starting price, climbing past THB 100,000 for anything with vesting, founder-leaver clauses, drag/tag rights, or a SAFE/CN structure on top.
• Monthly accounting and bookkeeping: from THB 7,000/month for a company with a handful of transactions, up to THB 40,000/month and beyond once you have payroll, VAT invoicing, and foreign-vendor withholding to file.
• Annual statutory audit: THB 10,000–100,000+, mandatory for every Thai limited company regardless of size. There is no "small company" audit exemption like the UK or Singapore. This is the one that surprises founders most often.
• Registered office address: THB 2,500–8,000/month for a serviced address the DBD will accept. Your condo address will not work.
• Company seal & document printing: THB 500–1,500.

The Work Permit + Non-B Visa Stack

Government fees per foreigner who actually works in the new company:

• Non-Immigrant Visa Category B (single entry, 3-month): THB 2,000
• Non-B (multiple entry, 1-year): THB 5,000
• Standard work permit: THB 3,000
• BOI alternative stack: THB 100 application + THB 3,000 digital work permit + THB 1,900 visa extension fee, all routed through the BOI One-Stop Service Centre

These are state fees. Add a professional handler for the actual filings: usually THB 25,000–60,000 per foreigner for the full Non-B + work permit cycle, more if the company is non-BOI and capital ratios need to be evidenced quarterly.

The Real 12-Month Total for a Foreign-Founded Thai Limited Co.

Stack it up for a single-founder, foreign-owned, non-BOI Thai limited company that needs one work permit, voluntary VAT registration, and bare-minimum compliance:

Line item	One-off / monthly	Cost (THB)
DBD incorporation + seal	One-off	7,000
Articles of Association (basic)	One-off	35,000–50,000
VAT registration	One-off	~3,000 (professional)
Non-B visa (multi)	One-off	5,000
Work permit (single)	One-off	3,000
Visa + work permit handling	One-off	25,000–60,000
Registered office	Monthly × 12	30,000–96,000
Accounting + bookkeeping	Monthly × 12	84,000–240,000
Annual audit	Annual	15,000–40,000
Registered capital (paid-up, not a fee)	Locked	2,000,000

Cash spent in year one (excluding paid-up capital): roughly THB 200,000–500,000 depending on how complex the legal documents get and how transaction-heavy the operating business is. Standard corporate income tax is 20% above the SME relief threshold, with a progressive lower band for companies with paid-up capital under THB 5 million.