Hiring foreign talent in Thailand is increasingly common for SMEs — but running payroll for a foreign employee is not the same as for a Thai national. Behind every payslip sit four interconnected compliance regimes: personal income tax withholding (Revenue Department), social security contributions (SSO), immigration and work permit rules (Ministry of Labour and Immigration Bureau), and personal data protection under Thailand’s PDPA.
What makes foreign-employee payroll different is the linkage between these systems. A late withholding tax filing is not just a tax problem — it can derail a visa extension. A salary that satisfies the tax rules may still fall below the minimum immigration expects for the employee’s nationality. Whether you manage payroll in-house or use professional payroll services in Thailand, this guide brings all four pillars together in one place.
Disclaimer: This article is general information current as of June 2026 and is not legal or tax advice. Verify against the official sources listed at the end, or speak with a qualified advisor before acting.
1. The Foundation: Visa and Work Permit Before the First Payslip
Before any salary can lawfully be paid, a foreign employee generally needs a Non-Immigrant “B” (Business) visa and a work permit from the Department of Employment. A visa alone does not grant the right to work — the work permit is tied to a specific employer, position, and workplace, and the employee cannot legally work or be paid before it is issued.
The employer must also qualify to sponsor the foreigner — if you are still at the company registration in Thailand stage, build these requirements in from the start. Under the standard (non-BOI) route, the headline requirements are paid-up capital of at least THB 2 million per foreign employee (THB 1 million if married to a Thai national), at least four Thai employees per foreign employee — evidenced through the monthly withholding tax return (P.N.D.1) and social security records — and a genuine, inspectable physical office.
Notice the pattern: the proof of the “four Thai employees” requirement is your payroll filings. Authorities read the P.N.D.1 and SSO submissions, not a company’s word. Payroll compliance is the evidence base for the entire immigration file.
Companies that complete BOI registration in Thailand follow a faster track through the One Stop Service Center, but since BOI Announcement No. Por. 8/2568 (effective for work permit renewals from January 2026), BOI companies face role-based minimum salary thresholds — for example, THB 150,000 per month for executive positions — and must submit P.N.D.1 forms for the preceding three months as salary evidence. The LTR and SMART visa regimes have their own qualifying income rules.
2. Personal Income Tax Withholding: The Employer’s Monthly Duty
Tax residency: the 180-day rule
A person staying in Thailand for 180 days or more in a calendar year is a Thai tax resident. Residents and non-residents alike pay Thai personal income tax at the same progressive rates on employment income for work performed in Thailand; residency matters most for foreign-sourced income (see below).
Progressive tax rates
Employment income is taxed at progressive rates after deductions:
| Net taxable income (THB) | Rate |
|---|---|
| 0 – 150,000 | Exempt |
| 150,001 – 300,000 | 5% |
| 300,001 – 500,000 | 10% |
| 500,001 – 750,000 | 15% |
| 750,001 – 1,000,000 | 20% |
| 1,000,001 – 2,000,000 | 25% |
| 2,000,001 – 5,000,000 | 30% |
| Over 5,000,000 | 35% |
Standard deductions and allowances apply equally to foreigners — including the 50% employment income deduction (capped at THB 100,000), the THB 60,000 personal allowance, and allowances for spouse, children, insurance, and retirement fund contributions, on the same documentary conditions as Thai nationals.
One point employers often miss: assessable income is broad. Housing allowances, school fees, cost-of-living supplements, tax equalisation payments, and most benefits-in-kind are taxable unless specifically exempt. Expatriate packages must be grossed into the withholding calculation, not paid “off payroll.”
The employer’s withholding mechanics: P.N.D.1, P.N.D.1 Kor, and the 50 Tawi
Under Section 50 of the Revenue Code, the employer must withhold personal income tax from each salary payment — typically by annualising expected income, computing the annual tax after deductions, and dividing by pay periods. The compliance cycle:
- Monthly — P.N.D.1 (ภ.ง.ด.1): the withholding tax return reporting each employee’s gross income and tax withheld. Since 2025 it must be e-filed through the Revenue Department’s system, which also extends the deadline beyond the traditional paper date of the 7th of the following month — confirm the current extended date on the e-Filing portal.
- Annually — P.N.D.1 Kor (ภ.ง.ด.1ก): the annual summary of employment income paid and tax withheld, due by end of February of the following year.
- 50 Tawi certificate: issued to each employee by 15 February, used to file their personal return (P.N.D.91 or P.N.D.90), due 31 March for paper submissions with a short extension online.
For a foreign employee, these are not merely tax documents: the P.N.D.1 history and the P.N.D.90/91 are the primary salary evidence the Immigration Bureau examines at visa extension time.
Foreign-sourced income: a moving target
Since 1 January 2024, under Departmental Instructions Por. 161/2566 and 162/2566, a Thai tax resident earning foreign-sourced income from 2024 onward is taxed on it when remitted into Thailand, whichever year it is brought in; income earned before 2024 is not caught. Foreign employees with overseas investment income, pensions, or split payroll should obtain current, individual advice — and check whether one of Thailand’s 60-plus double tax agreements applies.
3. Social Security: Registration, the 2026 Ceiling Change, and What Foreigners Get
Foreign employees are covered — registration is mandatory
Foreign employees working legally with a valid work permit are covered under Section 33 of the Social Security Act, the same as Thai employees. Employers must register the company with the SSO and register all new employees within 30 days of their start date — for foreigners, using passport and work permit details. Contributions are paid monthly on Form SSO 1-10 by the 15th of the following month.
The 2026 wage ceiling increase — the first in three decades
This is the biggest payroll change of 2026: a ministerial regulation published in the Royal Gazette on 12 December 2025 raised the maximum monthly wage for contributions in three phases, ending a ceiling stuck at THB 15,000 since the 1990s:
| Phase | Period | Wage ceiling (THB/month) | Max contribution at 5% (THB/month, each party) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan 2026 – Dec 2028 | 17,500 | 875 |
| 2 | Jan 2029 – Dec 2031 | 20,000 | 1,000 |
| 3 | From Jan 2032 | 23,000 | 1,150 |
The contribution rate is unchanged: 5% of covered wages from the employee, matched by 5% from the employer, plus a smaller government contribution. For most foreign employees — whose salaries typically exceed the ceiling — this means a maximum deduction of THB 875 per month from January 2026, matched by the employer, instead of the familiar THB 750. Payroll systems, budgets, and net-pay communications should have been updated from the January 2026 cycle. (The SSO occasionally announces temporary reduced rates — check the rate in force each month.)
In exchange, benefit ceilings rise with the wage base: income-replacement, maternity, and pension benefits all improve.
Benefits and the refund foreign employees often forget
Insured foreign employees receive the same seven benefit categories as Thai nationals: medical care, maternity, disability, death, child allowance, old-age pension or lump sum, and unemployment (subject to immigration status conditions). Employers separately fund the Workmen’s Compensation Fund for work-related injuries.
Two practical points: first, a foreign employee permanently leaving Thailand can claim their accumulated old-age contributions back from the SSO as a lump sum if they do not meet pension conditions — many departing expatriates leave this money behind because they never knew it existed. Second, the new Employee Welfare Fund, deferred to 1 October 2026, will add a further statutory cost line for employers.
4. The Work Permit Linkage: Where Payroll Meets Immigration
This is what distinguishes foreign-employee payroll from everything else, and where compliance failures actually hurt.
Nationality-based minimum salary thresholds
When a foreign employee applies to extend their one-year permission to stay based on employment, the Immigration Bureau applies minimum monthly salary thresholds that vary by nationality. Long-standing immigration practice applies these figures:
| Nationality group | Minimum monthly salary (THB) |
|---|---|
| Countries in Europe (excluding Russia), and Australia, Canada, Japan, and the United States | 50,000 |
| South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong | 45,000 |
| Countries in Asia (excluding Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam), and South America, countries in Eastern Europe, countries in Central America, Mexico, Turkey, Russia, and South Africa | 35,000 |
| Countries in Africa (excluding South Africa), Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam | 25,000 |
These thresholds apply to corporate-sector employment; some professions follow different rules, and BOI companies follow the thresholds in Section 1. Confirm the current schedule before setting an offer salary.
The critical implication: the salary on the employment contract, the salary actually paid, and the salary on the P.N.D.1 must all be consistent and meet the threshold every month. A “creative” structure reporting a lower salary to reduce withholding tax will surface at extension time — and the consequences fall on the employee’s right to remain in Thailand.
Withholding tax as the gatekeeper for extensions
Immigration offices verify salary through tax documents, not payslips alone — standard evidence includes the past three months of P.N.D.1 filings with payment receipts and, where applicable, the most recent P.N.D.91/90 and 50 Tawi. At the One Stop Service Center, extensions are accepted only where withholding tax covering the first month of the work permit has been paid in full at the required salary level. A missed or underpaid P.N.D.1 can force a foreign employee to leave Thailand and restart the visa process abroad.
The same logic applies on exit: when a foreign employee resigns or is terminated, the work permit must be cancelled, the authorities notified, and the visa extension tied to that employment ends. Final payroll must still withhold tax correctly, and in some cases a tax clearance must be settled before departure.
A practical monthly compliance calendar
A typical month: run payroll and withhold PIT per the annualised calculation; e-file P.N.D.1 and remit withholding tax; remit SSO contributions by the 15th; diarise each foreign employee’s 90-day report, visa extension, and work permit renewal; and file the receipts in the immigration evidence folder. Annually: P.N.D.1 Kor by end of February, 50 Tawi by 15 February, personal returns by 31 March (paper), plus annual SSO wage declarations. This is precisely the routine that accounting outsourcing services in Thailand are built to run — small HR teams often find that outsourcing payroll and bookkeeping removes the deadline risk entirely.
5. PDPA: Payroll Data Is Personal Data
Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562 (2019), fully in force since 1 June 2022, clearly applies to payroll processing. The employer is the data controller, and the PDPC moved to active enforcement with its first major fines in 2025. For foreign employees, the data footprint is larger and more sensitive than usual — passports, visas, work permits, dependents’ details, bank accounts, and tax IDs all form part of the payroll and HR records.
Lawful basis — consent is usually the wrong answer
A common misconception is that employers need employee consent to process payroll data. Usually they do not, and relying on consent is risky because it can be withdrawn. The appropriate lawful bases are typically contractual necessity (calculating and paying salary), legal obligation (tax filings, SSO remittances, immigration reporting), and legitimate interest for some ancillary HR purposes. Explicit consent is often required for sensitive personal data unless another lawful exception applies — and foreign-employee files routinely contain it, such as the health certificate required for the work permit and potentially biometric or criminal-record data depending on the visa route.
Core obligations, outsourcing, and cross-border transfers
In practice, an employer should have: a privacy notice issued at or before data collection; a record of processing activities; data minimisation; appropriate security measures; and defined retention periods (five years is the common baseline for tax documentation), after which payroll data should be securely deleted or anonymised. Employees, foreign and Thai alike, hold data subject rights including access, rectification, erasure, and the right to complain to the PDPC.
Two scenarios deserve attention. If you outsource accounting and payroll in Thailand, the provider is a data processor and a written Data Processing Agreement is mandatory. If employee data is sent abroad — to a regional HQ, a global payroll platform, or a parent company’s HRIS — the PDPA’s cross-border transfer rules apply: the destination must have adequate protection, or the transfer must rest on an approved mechanism or statutory exception.
Finally, breach readiness: a breach that risks data subjects’ rights must be notified to the PDPC within 72 hours of awareness, and to affected employees where the risk is high — payroll data is exactly the kind treated as high risk. Penalties include fines of up to THB 5 million per violation, plus potential criminal liability and civil damages.
6. Putting It Together: A Compliance Checklist for Employers
Before day one: confirm the role is not on the prohibited occupations list; verify employer qualifications (capital, staff ratio or BOI approval); secure the Non-B visa and work permit; set salary at or above the applicable threshold; collect payroll data under a PDPA-compliant privacy notice; obtain the employee’s Thai tax ID.
Within 30 days of starting: register the employee with the SSO; configure payroll for annualised PIT withholding including benefits-in-kind; sign a DPA with any payroll provider.
Every month: withhold and remit PIT, e-file P.N.D.1; remit SSO contributions (max THB 875 each in 2026) by the 15th; keep receipts for the immigration file; track 90-day reports.
Every year: P.N.D.1 Kor by end of February; 50 Tawi certificates by 15 February; support the employee’s P.N.D.91/90 filing by 31 March; prepare the P.N.D.1 evidence pack ahead of each visa extension; review PDPA records and vendor agreements.
On departure: run final payroll with correct withholding; cancel the work permit and notify the authorities; flag the SSO old-age lump-sum refund; apply retention and deletion rules to their data.
Official References
For current forms, deadlines, and announcements, consult the primary sources:
- Revenue Department (กรมสรรพากร) — income tax, withholding, e-Filing: www.rd.go.th
- Social Security Office (สำนักงานประกันสังคม) — registration, ceilings, benefits: www.sso.go.th
- Department of Employment (กรมการจัดหางาน) — work permits, prohibited occupations: www.doe.go.th
- Immigration Bureau (สำนักงานตรวจคนเข้าเมือง) — visa extensions, salary evidence: www.immigration.go.th
- Personal Data Protection Committee (สคส.) — PDPA guidelines, breach notification: www.pdpc.or.th
- Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) — work permit criteria incl. Announcement Por. 8/2568: www.boi.go.th
- Royal Thai Government Gazette (ราชกิจจานุเบกษา) — official publication of laws: www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th
AO Accounting & Advisory is an accounting company in Bangkok providing accounting and tax services in Thailand to SMEs — from payroll services in Bangkok and nationwide to bookkeeping, accounting services for small business, and company establishment in Thailand. Hiring foreign talent and want your payroll, immigration evidence, and PDPA framework set up correctly from day one? Get in touch with our team.
Need help managing payroll for foreign employees in Thailand? AO Accounting & Advisory helps SMEs handle monthly payroll, P.N.D.1 filings, SSO registration, immigration salary evidence, and PDPA-compliant payroll records.
This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or immigration advice. Figures and rules are current as of June 2026 and subject to change.
