Compliance when paying Thailand: purpose codes, tax IDs, export certificates and what the recipient's bank will ask

Short answer. Business payments in Thailand are legal and routine; the paperwork is about proving what the payment was for. The recipient's bank may ask them for the invoice and the purpose of the payment; you keep the invoice, the contract and the Storspay receipt. Because Storspay delivers baht through a local partner as a domestic credit, the recipient is not handling foreign currency and the questions are fewer than on an inbound wire.

On your side

Storspay verifies your business once (KYB — registration, directors, authorised signer) and every payment carries a reference you choose: the invoice, contract or fee-note number. Keep the invoice and the receipt together; that is what your accountant, your auditor and, if ever asked, your regulator want to see. Storspay screens every recipient and payment against sanctions lists and reports in Canada and the US as required.

On the recipient's side

Thai banks ask the purpose of an inbound foreign payment under Bank of Thailand rules, and amounts at or above US$50,000 equivalent require a Foreign Exchange Transaction Form completed by the recipient's bank. Because Storspay delivers baht through a local partner, the recipient sees a domestic credit and the documentation stays light: keep the invoice and the Storspay receipt, and make sure the recipient's registered company name matches the account name. Thai businesses invoice with their 13-digit tax ID; a VAT-registered recipient will issue a tax invoice in baht.

Contractor or employee?

Paying an independent contractor in Thailand is a business-to-business payment: they invoice you, you pay the invoice, they handle their own tax. If the people you pay are employees of a company you own in Thailand, that company runs payroll locally and you fund it — Storspay pays the company's account, not thirty personal accounts under a payroll you do not operate there. If you are not sure which you have, an employer-of-record or a local accountant can tell you in an hour.

What is different about Thailand

Thailand is a manufacturing and tourism economy with a deep banking system: every supplier, hotel and studio has a Bangkok Bank, KBank, SCB or Krungthai account and domestic transfers land in seconds. Thai recipients are precise about baht amounts — invoices are issued in baht and the accounts team expects the exact figure — and they are tired of inbound wires that arrive a few per cent short after the correspondent bank and the receiving bank's FX desk have taken their cut. Storspay pays the baht figure on the invoice at the mid-market rate, with the 1% on its own line.

How a payment to Thailand works on Storspay

1. Fund your balance in USD (ACH or wire), CAD (Interac e-Transfer or EFT), GBP (UK bank transfer) or EUR (SEPA) — to account details in your own business name. Funding is free.
2. Add the recipient once: their name as it appears on the account, the bank (Bangkok Bank, Kasikornbank (KBank), Siam Commercial Bank, Krungthai, Krungsri, TMBThanachart and the other Bank of Thailand-licensed banks) and the account number. Storspay checks the account name before you confirm.
3. Type the amount in either box. Enter what you want to send and see the baht that land, or type the baht figure on the invoice and see what it costs you. The rate is the mid-market rate; the 1% is on its own line.
4. Confirm. The money goes over the domestic interbank rail and usually lands within minutes — the same business day at most. The recipient gets a notification with the exact amount, and you get a receipt with the invoice reference.

Nobody in Thailand has to sign up, install an app or touch anything other than their own bank account. Everything on the recipient side looks like an ordinary domestic transfer.

What it costs

Storspay charges 1% all-in on payments to Thailand, with a minimum of US$2, at the mid-market rate. That one line covers conversion, settlement and delivery; there is no FX markup, no intermediary-bank charge and nothing deducted on the recipient side.

Rates in this guide are the mid-market rate on the day of writing (1 USD = 33.5341 THB); the calculator on the homepage shows today's. Large payments are split automatically under the local channel cap, under one reference and one fee.

See what your team in Thailand receives →

Questions businesses ask before the first payment to Thailand

Do I need a licence to pay people in Thailand?

No. You are a business paying invoices. Storspay and its licensed partners hold the money-transmission and local-payout licences.

Will the recipient receive foreign currency?

No — a domestic credit in baht. That is why the recipient's bank asks less than it would for an inbound wire.

What does Storspay report?

What Canadian and US rules require of a money-services business: verified customers, screened recipients, records kept for the statutory period. Nothing about your payments is sold or shared with anyone else.

Can you pay PromptPay?

Not yet. Storspay pays Thai bank accounts by account number today; PromptPay is on the roadmap. Every PromptPay ID is linked to an ordinary bank account you can pay now.

Will the recipient's bank ask for documents?

For most business payments, no — the money arrives as a domestic baht credit. At or above the equivalent of US$50,000 the recipient's bank completes a Foreign Exchange Transaction Form; your invoice and the Storspay receipt are what they ask for.

Can I pay a Thai hotel or supplier in baht for a quote they gave me in US dollars?

Yes. Type the dollar amount and Storspay shows the baht figure at the mid-market rate; or type the baht figure on their invoice and see the dollars it costs — both boxes are editable.

Who this is for — and who it is not for

Storspay is for businesses and organisations: companies, agencies, schools, hospitals, facilitators, foundations and sole traders paying other businesses and professionals for work, goods and services. A sole trader counts as a business and signs up in their own name.

What Storspay is not is a personal money-transfer service. We do not open personal accounts, and every payment has to be a business transaction: an invoice, a contract, a fee note, work delivered. Money to family and personal transfers are not what this is, and we would rather say so now than at verification.