Withholding tax for small Thai companies: which payments, what rate and which documents
The payments a small Thai company must withhold on, the rates you meet most often, the withholding certificate, and the monthly returns.
Zura Labs & Business Hub Co., Ltd.
When a company pays for services, contract work, rent, advertising, professional fees or salaries, it must withhold income tax at the type-specific statutory rate, issue a withholding certificate to the payee, and remit it with a monthly return — PND.1 for payroll, PND.3 for individual payees and PND.53 for corporate payees. Fail to withhold and the company usually ends up absorbing the tax itself.
Reviewed 2026-09-14 by the Zura Labs corporate services team.
- General services and contract work
- Commonly 3% for payees in Thailand
- Rental of property
- Commonly 5%
- Advertising fees
- Commonly 2%
- Transport fees
- Commonly 1% for registered transport operators
- Monthly returns
- PND.1 payroll, PND.3 individual payees, PND.53 corporate payees
- Remittance deadline
- By the 7th of the following month, with the announced extension for online filing
How this works in practice
- 01
Classify the payment before you transfer
Before transferring, identify whether the payment is a service fee, contract work, rent, advertising, transport or professional fee, because rates and forms differ. A contract or quotation with a clear scope makes classification correct from the start.
- 02
Withhold and issue the certificate immediately
The certificate must show payer, payee, income type, amount and tax withheld, and should be issued on or near the payment date because the payee credits it against their own tax.
- 03
Record and reconcile monthly
The withholding recorded in the books must equal the amounts on the returns and the cash remitted. Differences left unresolved become year-end and audit issues.
- 04
File and remit on time
File the monthly return matching the payee type and keep the remittance evidence with the certificates. A month with no withholdable payments needs no return, but note the reason so it can be traced later.
Reasons this gets delayed or rejected
Skipping withholding to keep a supplier happy
On assessment the payer is liable for tax that should have been withheld, and recovering it from the payee afterwards rarely works.
Wrong income type, wrong rate
Jobs mixing goods and labour must be split in the documents; a single lump sum is usually treated as contract work in full.
Batch-issuing certificates at year-end
Payees miss their own filing cycle and the monthly returns stop matching the certificates.
Answers to the questions we hear most
Do I withhold on foreign platform advertising?
Cross-border payments have their own rules depending on the income type and the recipient country's tax treaty, and some require remittance under the foreign-payment provisions. Check case by case before transferring, because fixing it later is much harder.
What rate for a Thai freelancer?
General services are usually 3%, but certain independent professional fees and salary-like arrangements follow different rules, so look at the actual nature of the work rather than applying one rate everywhere.
The payee refuses to be withheld from
The duty sits with the payer by law and cannot be waived by agreement. The workable path is agreeing the net price clearly in the quotation and issuing the certificate so the payee can credit the tax.
I already paid without withholding
In practice you remit the tax that should have been withheld with the applicable surcharge, then fix the payment approval process so income type is checked before every transfer.
How long must I keep the documents?
Keep accounting and tax records for at least the period required by the accounting and tax laws — generally five years — and store them so a single month can actually be retrieved.
Is this part of your monthly accounting?
Yes. We classify income types, compute the withholding, issue certificates, file the monthly returns and reconcile with the books. Fees are quoted per case based on document volume.
This is general preparation information, not case-specific legal or accounting advice. Government fees, processing times and conditions change with official announcements. We review each guide on a schedule and show the review date on the page.