Thailand BOI: Enhanced Incentive Packages and Special Incentives for Targeted Activities

BOI Seminar Summary

BOI has 2 types of investment incentives which are the standard incentives and additional incentives. The standard incentives consist of activity-based with less than or equal to 8 years of CIT (corporate income tax) exemption and technology-based (Nano tech, Digital tech, Bio-Tech, Advanced material tech) with less than 10 years of CIT exemptions. The 3 types of additional incentives are merit incentives, area incentives, and agenda incentives.

• Merit-based incentives are based on your cooperation that benefits the public interest in accordance with the BOI.
• Area-based incentives are based on the location of BOI-registered companies.
• Agenda-based incentives consist of Investment Stimulation Measure, Productivity Enhancement Measure, Measures to support Grassroots Economy Development.

BOI incentives scheme for productivity enhancement is geared to making Thailand’s supply chain more competitive. The supply chain includes:

1. Adoption of automation/machinery upgrade,
2. Industry 4.0 Transformation,
3. Adoption of digital technologies and
4. Invest or spend in R&D/advanced engineering designs.

The eligible applicants are companies that are engaged in businesses in the BOI activity list.

In addition, BOI will provide tax incentives for companies that meet the Automation and Robotic Industry 4.0 transformation standard by an additional 3 days tax holiday. Companies that create carbon footprint may adopt the sustainability and decarbon standard to calculate their carbon footprint and reduce it with paper evidence of the decrease after adjustments to get more tax incentives.

Currently, BOI is focused on creating an ease of doing business by changing most paper-based processes into digital-based format. BOI e-services, custom service unit, and government data exchange (GDX) are now available in the system, however, in mid-2022 BOI planned to make e-certificate available for service as well.  Adopting e-services for BOI registration procedures to submit data online where companies registered under BOI after June last year will have to use the e-filing process. 

BOI also simplified access of skilled labor into one window for Visa & Work Permit development. In the future, Smart Visa and LTR Visa will be included in the Single Window.

Long-term Resident Visa (LTR) is the newly issued work permit visa where the visa will be granted 5 years at a time and can be renewed every 5 years if qualifications are met. The visa type is 10 years renewable for applicants and a maximum of 4 dependants including spouse and children (under 20 years old). It also allows access to immigration and work permit services at One-Stop Service Center for Visa and Work Permit with exemption of employment quota. The usual 90-day report will be extended to 1-year report and exemption of re-entry permit. 

The LTR visa will become effective 90 days after the MOI (Ministry of Interior) announcement is published in the Royal Gazette around May 2022.

There are 4 targeted groups in total.

Wealthy Global Citizen

• no age requirement, former Smart 1 applicant
• personal income no less than $80,000 per year in the past 2 years.
• Investment of no less than $500,000 in any of the following: Thai government bonds with over 5 years of remaining maturity, direct investment as an individual investor, or real estate (with proof of transfer)

Wealthy Pensioner

• 50 years of age or more with regular pension income, former retirement visa applicants
• personal income no less than $80,000 per year in the past 2 years.
• personal income is less than $80,000 but not less than $40,000 in the past 2 years, applicant MUST have investment of no less than $250,000 in any of the following: Thai government bonds with over 5 years of remaining maturity, direct investment as individual investor, or real estate (with proof of transfer)

Work-from-Thailand professional or a remote worker who works for an overseas employer

• personal income no less than $80,000 per year in the past 2 years. In cases where the annual personal income is less than $80,000 but not less than $40,000 in the past 2 years, the applicant must have a master degree or above or IP ownership or received Series A funding to mee the condition of this group. 
• applicant has to have at least 5 years of working-experience in the relevant field to the current employment 
• current employer must have either a public company listed on the Stock Exchange in any country or a private company that has been in operation for at least 3 years and has total combined revenue of more than 150 million USD in the last 3 years.

High-skilled professional working, former Smart T and E applicants, experts in targeted industry/high skilled professional in targeted industries in Thailand, working for Thai government agency/ higher education institution, research center, or specialized training institution in Thailand.

• with personal income no less than $80,000 per year in the past 2 years. In cases where the annual personal income is less than $80,000 but not less than $40,000 in the past 2 years, applicants must have S&T a master’s degree or above or have special highly skilled expertise relevant to the job assignment in Thailand. 
• Applicants must have at least 5 years of working experience in the targeted industries except for applicants working for a Thai government agency or a state-owned higher education institution or research center or specialized training institution in Thailand or applicants with a doctorate degree. Any applicant who meets the exception will also be exempt from personal income conditions.
• No minimum personal income for experts working for a Thai government agency/ higher education institution, research center or specialized training institution in Thailand.

For all types, the health insurance policy of no less than $50,000 coverage through the entire period of stay in Thailand or social security healthcare, which insures hospitalization treatment in Thailand.

High Skill Workforce Development Platform

BOI is promoting enterprises that identify workforce demands with manpower training grants where the BOI will pay for training expenses for Thai employees in targeted industries such as smart electronics, auto and robotics, medical hub, digital economy, and others. The conditions are that the training must be completed within 2 years with no less than 100,000 baht per employee and no less than 5 million baht per company. The training courses are Advanced Technology Skills Development Courses which are approved by MHESI (Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation). The employee must be a Thai citizen, vocational qualification or higher and the training participants must not be less than 10% of the total number of employees or at least 30 employees. 

For External type of training, BOI will pay for no less than 50% of the cost by external providers. 

For In-house type of training, BOI will cover no less than 50% of the training expenses.

Area incentives

Science and Technology Park

Any BOI promoted company located in the Science and Technology Zones may receive additional incentives if they attend the eligible activities such as research and development, electronics design of 50% for 5 CIT Reduction years to top-up the standard benefits.

R&D (research and development) tax incentives – increase the maximum percent to 5 years.

 

Please feel free to contact us for more details.

 

Category: Business in Thailand, Thailand BOI