Every Thai company must keep proper accounts, have its financial statements audited by a licensed auditor, approve them at a general meeting and file them with the Department of Business Development within one month of that meeting. The same audited figures then feed the corporate income tax return filed with the Revenue Department.
A Thai company chooses its accounting period, usually a calendar year or a fiscal year ending on another date, and keeps the same period unless it formally changes. At the end of the period the bookkeeper closes the accounts, the auditor examines them, the board approves them and the shareholders adopt them at the ordinary general meeting. The Code requires that meeting to be held within a fixed number of months after the period ends.
Within one month of the meeting the company files the approved balance sheet, profit and loss statement and notes with the DBD, together with the auditor’s report. In parallel, the corporate income tax return (PND.50) is due within 150 days of the end of the accounting period. Plan the audit so that the figures are final before that date.
Because the dates interlock, a delay in the books pushes everything back. Many companies discover too late that an auditor’s calendar is fully booked in the months after year-end, so appoint and brief the auditor early.
The auditor must be a licensed certified public accountant and is appointed at the statutory meeting or the annual general meeting. The auditor tests the accounts: confirming bank balances, checking that sales and purchases are supported by documents, examining fixed assets and verifying that the closing balances are reasonable.
You supply the trial balance, the ledgers, the bank statements and reconciliations, the invoices and contracts, the payroll records and the tax filings made during the year. An auditor who has to chase missing documents charges for the time, and a qualified opinion or a delayed report are the consequences of poor preparation.
Auditors are independent. They will not prepare your books and then audit them, so if your bookkeeping is in-house or outsourced, keep a clear line between that function and the audit.
Most private companies prepare statements under the Thai Financial Reporting Standards for Non-Publicly Accountable Entities, which is simpler than the full standards used by listed companies. The statements include a statement of financial position, an income statement, a statement of changes in equity where applicable and notes on accounting policies and significant items.
Related-party transactions, loans from directors and shareholders and contingent liabilities are the notes that auditors and readers examine most closely. Describe them clearly and keep the underlying contracts. Directors’ loans, in particular, should be documented rather than recorded as informal cash movements.
Remember that the accounts, once filed with the DBD, become public. Bankers, suppliers and competitors can request them, so be deliberate about how the company’s position is presented.
Failing to keep books, failing to appoint an auditor or filing late can result in fines on the company and its directors. A pattern of missing filings can affect the company’s standing with banks, with tenders and with the authorities who decide whether to open an inquiry.
The tax side is separate: inconsistencies between the audited accounts and the tax return are a typical audit trigger. Reconcile the two and keep a bridge schedule showing the adjustments between accounting profit and taxable profit.
If the company is dormant, it still has to file statements. A dormant company is not exempt from the audit requirement, and ignoring its filings will accumulate fines.
Keep a folder of the year’s PDF invoices, which you can issue and archive with 4invoices. Use 4softerp for multi-company books if your accountant works across several entities, and keep HR records in 4softhr as a reference for payroll accruals. These tools help you present documents in order.
They do not prepare financial statements in the DBD format, audit your accounts, submit anything to the DBD or file the PND.50. The audit, the filing and the tax return are done by your auditor, your accountant and you with the relevant authorities.
Start the year-end close in the last month of the period, not after it. Count stock if you hold any, reconcile every bank account, list unpaid invoices on both sides and agree intercompany balances with related parties. A trial balance that is already clean at the cut-off date saves the auditor and your accountant a week of questions.
In the first weeks after year-end, finalise accruals and depreciation, reconcile VAT and withholding tax accounts to the filed returns and prepare the payroll summary. Then hand the auditor a single indexed folder. Documents delivered in a messy bundle tend to be requested again, and each round costs both time and fees.
Once the report is signed, the board approves the statements, the meeting is called with the notice period the articles require and the signed accounts are filed. Keep the final PDF of the filed statements, the minutes and the DBD receipt together, since lenders and tender committees often ask for exactly this set.
If you expect a tax payment, plan the cash early. The corporate tax is paid with the return, and a company that has spent the money elsewhere has to borrow at the wrong moment.
Finally, hold a short review with the auditor after the report. Ask which documents arrived late, which accounts needed the most adjustment and what the auditor would change in the process. Fixing two or three of those points each year makes the next close noticeably shorter and cheaper, and it gives the board something concrete to act on.
The auditor is appointed late and the report is not ready for the tax filing date.
Put the auditor’s engagement and a document hand-over date in the calendar at the start of the year. Nothing in the system reminds you of these dates automatically.
Supporting documents are scattered, so the audit takes weeks of extra fees.
Keep the year’s invoices in the archive and the purchase documents in a single folder organised by month, then hand the auditor a complete index.
Directors’ loans are recorded as cash movements without a contract.
Document each loan with a signed agreement and record it in the ledger of the ERP with your accountant, so the note in the statements can be supported.
Within one month after the ordinary general meeting that approves them, and that meeting must be held within the period the Code sets after the end of the accounting period. The corporate income tax return follows on its own timetable, due within 150 days of the period end. Confirm both dates with your accountant at the start of every year and put them in a shared calendar.
Yes. A private limited company must have its financial statements examined by a licensed auditor regardless of its size, and an auditor must be appointed at the statutory or annual meeting. Small companies may use simpler reporting standards, but the audit itself is not waived for a company of this form.
A person who holds a licence as a certified public accountant and is registered to sign audit reports. The auditor must be independent of the company, so a director or an employee who prepares the books cannot do the audit. Shareholders approve the appointment at the general meeting, and the same auditor may be reappointed year after year.
Yes. Statements submitted to the DBD form part of a public register, and anyone can ask for a copy and pay the fee. Banks, suppliers, tender committees and competitors do this routinely, so review how the numbers and the notes will read to an outsider before the board approves and files them.
It still has to keep books, have the accounts audited and file the statements with the DBD, and it still submits the corporate income tax return, even if the figures are small. A quiet year does not remove the duties. Prepare the same package as usual and let the notes explain clearly why the company was inactive.
Multi-company books and a PDF invoice archive. The audit and the filing are done by licensed professionals.
