The Thai company compliance calendar

The monthly rhythm

Whatever the financial year end, four recurring filings anchor every month for an active company. Deadlines below are the standard paper-filing dates; e-filing typically earns roughly eight extra days.

Companies making cross-border payments may also file PND 54 and PP 36 for withholding and reverse-charge VAT on overseas services. Dormant companies still file nil returns if registered for the relevant taxes; registration, not activity, creates the obligation.

The annual cycle for a December year end

Most Thai companies close their books on 31 December. For them, the annual cycle runs as follows; shift everything proportionally for a different year end.

First years and non-December year ends

A new company chooses its accounting year end at incorporation; the first period may be shorter than twelve months but not longer. The statutory meeting obligations start from registration, so a company incorporated late in the year can face its first filings before it has traded meaningfully. Nothing requires a December close: subsidiaries often align with a foreign parent's year end, and every deadline above simply shifts with it, four months to the AGM, one month to the accounts filing, 150 days to the PND 50. Changing an established year end later requires Revenue Department approval, so the choice deserves five minutes of genuine thought at the start.

What missing a deadline costs

• Late monthly tax filings: a fixed fine of a few hundred baht per return, plus a surcharge of 1.5 percent per month on unpaid tax until settled.
• Late PND 50 or PND 51: fines up to two thousand baht per return, the same 1.5 percent monthly surcharge, and for PND 51 a penalty of up to 20 percent where the half-year estimate understated full-year profit by more than a quarter without reasonable cause.
• Late audited accounts or shareholder list: DBD fines assessed against the company and separately against each director, rising with the length of the delay to tens of thousands of baht.
• No AGM within four months: fines on the company and directors, and a compliance record that surfaces at exactly the wrong moments, bank reviews, visa renewals, and due diligence on a sale.
• Persistent non-filing: the registrar can strike the company off, which does not extinguish director exposure; our separate briefing on closing a Thai company properly explains why abandonment is the worst option.

Work permits and Non-B extensions lean on this calendar too. Immigration expects to see the company's filed accounts, tax returns and social security records; a compliance gap becomes a visa problem within the year.

Keeping it boring

The goal is a calendar so routine it never generates news. That takes a competent accountant, an auditor engaged before March rather than April, and someone accountable for the DBD filings that fall outside the accountant's tax brief, which is where most misses actually happen. Asia Global Partners maintains this calendar for client companies as part of ongoing administration, so principals hear about their filings once a year, at the AGM, and not from a penalty notice.

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.