Hiring in Thailand: the annual employment compliance calendar

01What has to be done every month

"What do we have to do to hire someone in Thailand" cannot be answered in one sentence, because it is not one task — it is a set of separate deadlines run by four different authorities. They do not notify each other and none of them covers for the others; when something gets missed, it is usually not because it was hard, but because nobody knew the requirement existed. This page lays it out as one table.

• Social security: filed and paid monthly, split between employer and employee. The minimum and maximum wage bases used for calculation have both been adjusted in recent years, with the maximum rising in stages — if payroll is still running on the old base, contributions are underpaid and the budget is understated too.
• Employee Welfare Fund (EWF): applies to employers with 10 or more staff that have not set up a provident fund (PVD) or equivalent welfare plan. Contributions are due by the 15th of the following month, with a monthly penalty for late or incomplete filing.
• Payroll tax withholding: filed in the month of payment, a monthly obligation triggered by paying wages, the same as social security.

Social security is not the whole picture. When calculating total employment cost, add up social security, the Workmen's Compensation Fund (rated by industry risk classification), and the Employee Welfare Fund or provident fund together. Counting social security alone always understates the real cost.

02What has to be done every year

Every January: the annual employment report. Employers with 10 or more staff must file this with the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare. This requirement recently changed from "only on written demand by a labour inspector" to a mandatory annual filing — the change itself was not widely publicised to every affected company, and as a result a large number of Chinese-invested companies have no idea it exists.

Annual personal income tax and year-end settlement filings run alongside the tax-compliance line.

03What has to be done on every staff change

On hiring: register the employee for social security within the specified deadline.

On resignation, dismissal or contract termination: where the Employee Welfare Fund applies, the employer must file the change-of-employment form by the 15th of the following month. Failing to file the list or update information on time, or submitting false information, can carry fines or imprisonment.

Once a foreign employee's work permit is issued: the notification of hiring a foreign employee must be filed within 15 days.

When a foreign employee resigns: notification is due within a specified number of days before employment ends — this cannot be filed after the person has already left.

04Foreign staff carry three further, independent lines

These three run separately from the monthly and annual obligations above:

• Visa expiry: an extension for occupational or work purposes requires a valid work permit and must be filed at least 15 days before expiry.
• Work permit expiry: if the work permit lapses, the visa extension lapses with it — the two are tied together.
• The 90-day report: triggered once continuous residence exceeds 90 days, a rolling cycle. The online filing can only be submitted within 15 days of the due date, and filing early is rejected. This still applies under special-law one-stop channels — there is no exemption.

In addition, confirm the re-entry permit before every departure — leaving without one voids the current visa, and this line has to be restarted from scratch.

05Three "15 days" that are not the same thing

The employment and residence lines share three separate 15-day rules, running in different directions — confusing them causes mistakes:

• Employee Welfare Fund contribution and change filing: by the 15th of the following month (a fixed date).
• Visa extension: filed at least 15 days before expiry (the earlier the safer).
• 90-day report: can only be filed within 15 days of the due date (too early is rejected by the system).

06The three items most often missed entirely

Three items get missed more than any others, and each has a distinct reason:

• The annual employment report — never filed simply because nobody knew it existed.
• The Employee Welfare Fund — assumed to be covered once social security is paid; if neither a provident fund nor this fund has been set up, neither obligation is actually met.
• The 90-day report — assumed to be waived once the company holds a promotion status. It is triggered by an individual's length of residence, not by the company's status.

07Taking this off human memory

• One rolling table: monthly duties repeat every month; annual duties are fixed in January; staff-change duties are triggered by the hiring or exit process itself, not by remembering to check.
• One row per foreign employee: visa expiry, work permit expiry, next 90-day report date, and whether a re-entry permit was obtained for the most recent departure.
• Assign ownership: write down who files each row and who checks the receipt. Obligations that cross authorities are the ones most likely to fall through, each side assuming the other is handling it.

It should be noted that the specific amounts, rates, day thresholds and effective phases above are updated by official notice and vary by company size and industry; this page sets out the structure and deadline logic only, without listing specific figures. We recommend the advisory team turn this into a dated checklist based on your company's headcount, whether a provident fund is already in place, and whether foreign staff are posted, and track it on your behalf — problems on this line are almost never because it is hard, but because it is split across four authorities with nobody assigned to own the whole picture. See also the four-stage process for sending staff to work in Thailand and the 90-day report, re-entry permit and extension.