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On the afternoon of 22 September 2026, the Thai-Chinese Chamber of Commerce Rayong Chapter, together with six member companies, co-hosted the "Thailand Business Operations Seminar" in the first-floor meeting room of the Thai-Chinese Rayong Industrial Park. Fully non-profit and free of charge, the event drew more than 60 Chinese enterprises in Thailand and around 70 attendees, mainly company heads and finance, HR and administration managers.

Focusing on the practical pain points Chinese companies face when setting up and running in Thailand, six member firms—Times Insurance Brokers, Zhongxin Tax & Finance, Kingdee Thailand, Sinotrans, Ruichi Car and Haibei HR—shared across six dimensions: corporate insurance, tax and finance compliance, system implementation, logistics and customs, company vehicles, and talent management, forming a complete chain covering day-to-day business operations.

Zhongxin Keynote: After Obtaining the BOI Certificate, Compliant Operation Begins

In the session "Interpreting BOI Corporate Tax and Finance Compliance Rules", Dong Xin, Founder and General Manager of Zhongxin Tax & Finance Group, pointed out that BOI is not merely a tax incentive but a management framework running through the entire process of procurement, production and sales; the finance function should take the lead in rule-setting from the application stage, so that finance and audit are not pushed into a passive position later when applications are led by non-finance departments.

The presentation unfolded along four main lines:

First, compliance red lines. The investment must be completed within 36 months from the approval date; if not, an extension must be applied for (12 months each, up to 3 years). Machinery and raw materials imported duty-free must under no circumstances be used for non-BOI business. Changes to shareholders, registered capital, factory address and the like must be reported in time. Crossing a red line may lead to back taxes, fines and surcharges, and in serious cases revocation of the certificate.

Second, the start date and cap of the tax holiday. The corporate income tax holiday runs from the date the first invoice is issued for BOI-project revenue—not from the date the certificate is issued. Even sporadic invoicing, such as sample sales or scrap disposal, starts the countdown. The incentive is bounded by both a time limit and a revenue cap: whichever is reached first ends it, and any remaining cap expires without carry-over.

Third, separate accounting. BOI and non-BOI business must be strictly separated. Direct costs are traced directly, while indirect costs are allocated by the revenue ratio. Two approaches are acceptable—a "single ledger with detailed sub-accounts" or "two ledgers"—with a Sino-Thai chart-of-accounts mapping set up in advance to satisfy the Revenue Department, BOI and the Chinese parent's consolidated reporting at the same time.

Fourth, equipment and inventory. Second-hand equipment may be used in a BOI project but is not eligible for duty exemption. Before import, the item names, quantities and HS codes must be checked against the BOI filing. BOI inspections focus on the logical consistency among raw-material purchases, consumption and inventory; a serious inventory shortfall may be treated as domestic sales, which in turn affects eligibility.

A BOI compliance self-check list for finance teams was also provided on site, covering the deadline for commencing operations, quarterly and annual reporting, tax-holiday cap calculation, account-splitting rules, equipment disposal and inventory filing.

Six Topics Form a Complete Chain

Times Insurance Brokers approached the topic from six risk dimensions—people, property, liability, operations, transport and management—clarifying in particular the differences between employer liability and group accident insurance, and between cargo insurance and carrier liability insurance, and sharing cost-saving practices such as fleet packaging and multi-insurer bidding.

Kingdee Thailand explained how ERP is implemented in BOI compliance, proposing three key controls: material segregation, tight linkage between BOM and incentive caps, and audit trails, while stressing that "ERP is a tool, not compliance itself". Q&A on site also covered the choice between the domestic and overseas versions, and cross-border data compliance under Thailand's PDPA.

Sinotrans argued that companies should manage total landed cost rather than ocean freight quotes, and emphasized the importance of pre-clearance—by the time the cargo arrives in port, making customs decisions is usually already too late.

Ruichi Car began with the distinction between "buying a car" and "obtaining continuously usable transport capacity", introducing decision methods such as classifying vehicles by business purpose, designing a solution through six questions, and three-year total cost of ownership (TCO) calculation.

Haibei HR shared recruiting, retaining and motivating talent in Thailand's job market, noting that Thailand's offer acceptance rate is around 50%, well below China's 80%, and advising companies to build a larger candidate funnel accordingly; it also covered the implementation path of tiered incentives and culture building.

Six Topic Memos to Follow

Zhongxin (Thailand) CPA Ltd. has compiled the six topics into six topic memos (PDFs), which have been shared in the event group for participating companies to review and study internally.