Hiring and paying freelancers in Thailand: contracts, invoices, rates and how the money arrives

Short answer. Hire the freelancer under a simple contractor agreement, ask for an invoice in dollars or baht with their tax ID and bank details (Bangkok Bank, Kasikornbank (KBank), Siam Commercial Bank), and pay the invoice from your Storspay balance: the exact baht figure lands usually within minutes at the mid-market rate for 1% all-in, and both sides get a receipt with the invoice number. The freelancer needs no account and no app.

Who hires in Thailand

Companies in the US, Canada, the UK and Europe hire Thai developers, designers, writers, analysts, support agents and virtual assistants — the sectors are software and design studios (Chiang Mai is a developer hub), tour operators and hotels, auto-parts, electronics and food manufacturers, exporters of rice, rubber and packaged food, medical and wellness providers — mostly in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pattaya and Khon Kaen. The freelancer is a sole trader: they invoice, you pay, they handle their own tax.

The three documents

A contractor agreement (scope, rate, intellectual property, termination), a monthly or milestone invoice with the freelancer's tax ID and bank account, and the Storspay receipt that matches it. That is the file your accountant wants and the file the freelancer's bank may ask for.

Paying ten freelancers at once

Run Payroll pays the whole list in one batch — type each amount or upload a CSV — with one fee line and one statement. Each freelancer receives their own transfer, in baht, with their own invoice reference. If one of them is also on Storspay as a sole trader, that payment is free and instant.

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

Should I pay in dollars or baht?

Agree the rate in whichever currency the contract uses; Storspay shows both figures before you confirm, so a dollar-denominated invoice lands as the right number of baht at the mid-market rate.

Is there withholding tax?

For an independent contractor in Thailand, you pay the invoice in full and the freelancer handles their own income tax locally. If your home tax authority requires a form from foreign contractors (for example a W-8BEN for US payers), collect it at onboarding.

Can the freelancer hold dollars instead?

Yes, if they open a free Storspay sole-trader account: then they get USD account details in their own name, hold dollars, and cash out to their Thai bank whenever they choose. See Storspay for freelancers.

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.