What the BOI is
The Board of Investment is the state agency charged with attracting investment Thailand wants: technology, advanced manufacturing, regional headquarters, digital services, and the rest of a published list of promoted activities. It attracts them by suspending, for approved projects, most of the frictions this firm spends its days navigating.
Who realistically qualifies
Promotion is granted to projects, not people. The project must fall within a promoted activity category, meet a minimum investment, typically ฿1 million excluding land and working capital, and satisfy the conditions of its category on technology, process or value added. In practice we see three profiles succeed: genuine operating businesses in technology and services, manufacturing ventures with real capital expenditure, and regional structures placing management or trading functions in Bangkok. The current incentive window, refreshed for applications through 2027, is the most generous in years.
Who does not qualify is equally useful to know early: passive holding structures, businesses outside the promoted lists, and projects whose substance exists mainly on the application form. The BOI audits what it promotes.
The benefits, itemised
| Benefit | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Corporate income tax exemption | Three to eight years for most categories; up to ten to thirteen years, uncapped, for top-tier technology activities |
| 100% foreign ownership | Promoted companies operate foreign-owned even in activities otherwise restricted by the Foreign Business Act |
| Land ownership | A promoted company may own the land its business operates on, the main exception to Thailand's land rule |
| Import duty relief | Exemptions on machinery and on materials for export production |
| Visas and work permits | One Stop Service processing measured in hours, relaxed staffing ratios, and positions approved by the BOI |
For most private clients the ownership and immigration privileges prove more valuable over time than the tax holiday: they remove the two structural compromises, shared ownership and staffing ratios, that shape every non-promoted foreign business here.
The realities, stated plainly
- The application is a project prospectus, not a form: business plan, financials, technology story, and often a presentation to officials. Budget two to four months to approval.
- Promotion is conditional: capital must be brought in on schedule, the promoted activity actually conducted, and annual reports filed. Certificates can be, and are, revoked.
- The tax holiday covers promoted income, not everything the company touches; accounting must separate the streams.
- Non-promoted activities inside the same company remain subject to the Foreign Business Act. Structure matters.
Our rule with clients: pursue BOI when the business genuinely is what the BOI wants to promote. As a badge of convenience it disappoints; as recognition of a real project it is the single best instrument in the Thai system.
How it changes the rest of your file
Promotion reorders every other decision in this briefing series. The ownership question resolves itself. Work permits stop being a constraint on hiring. The company can hold its premises. And the annual immigration cycle becomes an administrative task through the One Stop Service Centre rather than a season of appointments. That is why, for qualifying ventures, we assess BOI first and design everything else around the answer.
Continue reading.
This briefing is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Thai rules change frequently and individual cases differ. Verify current requirements with the relevant authorities, including the Immigration Bureau, the Board of Investment, the Land Department, the Department of Business Development and the Revenue Department, and take advice on your own facts before acting.
Where a conversation helps.
Briefings generalise; your situation will not. We work with a limited number of private partners, and if any of the above touches a decision you are actually making, we would be glad to consider it with you, privately and without obligation.
Request a private conversation