|
Somphob Tax and Law Office Limited is a Thai law firm located in the central business district of Bangkok, Thailand.
THE TEAM
The firm was established in 1993 by Mr. Somphob Kongwan after working for several years as legal counselor at the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie. He specialized in commercial law as well as corporate and investment law. Shortly before he left to form his own company he was promoted to counselor in charge of immigration and nationalization matters.
ADMIN STAFFThe firm currently has a staff of about twenty people including 12 qualified lawyers.
We are committed to providing foreign clients with prompt, effective and personalized services. Our partners and associates are well trained, with experience in international law. Most of them speak English fluently.
Somphob Tax and Law Office Limited are members of The American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand, The Australian-Thai Chamber of Commerce, The Thai-Canadian Chamber of Commerce, The Singapore-Thai Chamber of Commerce, and The Law Society of Thailand.
LEGAL SERVICES:
LEGAL SERVICES
We provide legal and consulting services for foreign clients and foreign investors doing business in Thailand, specializing in:
FOREIGN INVESTMENT: Advising on the forms of business entities available under Thai laws foreign investors i.e. public company, private company, foreign fully owned company, foreign minority owned company with fully control mechanism, company under the protection of the Thai-U.S. Treaty Protection, representative office, branch office, regional office, regional operating headquarter (ROH); and preparation of a joint venture/shareholders agreement and associated documents, giving advice on shareholding structure of a foreign company to be eligible to carry on business in Thailand, recommendation for investment incentives under the Investment Promotion Act and processing of application for promotion from the Board of Investment (BOI) ; Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT), giving advice to foreign investors on how to acquire/ own land or take on a long-term lease (e.g. 30 or 60 years), assisting in establishing a factories and acquisition of relevant permits, import and export regulation and license.
INCORPORATION SERVICES: Registration of public company, private company, transformation from a private company to a public company, corporate changes on company name, seal, address, director, power of director, company objectives, shareholders, capital increase or decrease, preparation of minutes of the Board of Director's meeting in relation to interim and/or annual dividend payment, general shareholders meeting, and extraordinary shareholders meeting, dissolution of a company and also filing a bankruptcy case, if necessary, company amalgamation, including corporate secretarial services on preparation of notice and minutes of annual general (ordinary or extraordinary meeting of shareholders, updating corporate registration documents, maintaining and keeping share Holder Register, Share Certificates and Share Register Book.
M&A/CORPORATE RESTRUCTURING: The firm advises on the forms of M&A or corporate restructuring, acting as a representative or joining with a client when negotiating a deal, preparing an MOU to acquire shares or business of a target company, conducting legal due diligence review of a target company, preparing share sale agreement or asset purchase agreement, advising and preparing of legal documents or other relevant documents necessary to complete the deal e.g. novation agreement, transfer of right, transfer of BOI Certificate or other licenses, transfer of employees, registration of transfer of immovable property or long-term lease, etc.
PROPERTY AND REAL ESTATE: Advice on preparation of legal documents and registration of sale of land/or building, sale and purchase of condominium, mortgage of land and/or building, advice and assistance in applying for a license to develop land and/or housing/villa project under the Land Appropriation Act or building construction license, advice o condominium development, setting up a condominium juristic person and its regulations, preparation of legal documents to implement tax planning for real estate project e.g. set up two companies to separately own land and construct a house.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION: IPP and licensing; anti-counterfeiting; marketing, including: advertising and consumer protection, distribution, sales and sale agency arrangements, franchising, labeling and packaging and food and drug regulation, product liability trade practice including copy rights, trade mark, patent registration, litigation against infringement of foreign intellectual properties.
LABOR PROTECTION AND EMPLOYMENT: The firm advises and assists clients on every aspects of employment and labor law, including preparation of employment contract, secondment agreement, termination of employment, dual employment contract, employee transfer, work regulations, unfair dismissal, compensation claim, settlement of labor dispute including litigation for severance pay and all remuneration related to employment contract.
INTERNATIONAL CONTRACTS: The firm assists clients in negotiating and drafting of international sale and purchase agreement, lease agreement, shareholders/ joint venture agreements, management service agreement and licensing agreement, distributorship contract, franchise agreement, employment agreement, confidential information agreement, share or asset purchase agreement, and all kinds of agreements including legal consulting services in all other general commercial matters.
TAXATION: The firm advises corporate and personal income tax, stamp duties, value added tax, customs duties, and other central government and local duties and charges and also tax and other revenue law advice on the structuring of investments and operations in and with Thailand, and advice on tax and revenue law in connection with takeovers, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and sale of companies and business and tax litigation.
IMMIGRATION & NATIONALIZATION
IMMIGRATION & NATIONALIZATION: Assisting inbound executives with work permit, processing for visa formalities to live and stay in the country and procurement of legal status for experts/ technicians and family members under the Board of Investment, assisting business people to obtain permanent residence for Thailand and nationalization.
LITIGATION AND ARBITRATION
LITIGATION AND ARBITRATION: The firm assists clients in negotiation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution i.e. conciliation, arbitration, and all type of commercial litigation i.e. employment dispute, corporate disputes, minority shareholder's action, contract and tort liability claims, joint venture dispute, malpractice, including business rehabilitation and bankruptcy proceeding; enforcement of foreign judgment and/ or arbitral award.
THE PARTNERS:
Mr. Somphob Kongwan, The Firm's Founder
 Somphob Kongwan is a qualified Thai lawyer with experience in a wide range of legal practices including corporate & commercial, M&A, properties, real estate, leasing business, intellectual property, litigation and arbitration.
He founded his own law practice in 1993 and before this he worked for the international law firm, Baker and Mckenzie in Bangkok.
His offices are located in Silom Road, the Bangkok central business district.
Areas of Expertise:
- Commercial Practice: Representing clients for JV projects, commercial contracts
- M&A: Representing clients for a number of assets acquisitions, construction projects, and assisting clients for their hotel and leasing business
- Representing clients for trademark, franchising as well as intellectual property issues
- Advising clients for matters involving commercial contracts, drafting commercial contracts, i.e. distributorship agreements, know-how licensing, and various technology related contracts
- Real Estate & Construction: epresenting clients for acquisition of buildings, condominiums and other property
- Dispute Settlement: Representing clients in labour dispute matters including litigation and arbitration proceedings and matters of IPIT court
Education: LL.B. from Thammasart University and LL.M. from Chulalongkorn University with academic partnership with University of Victoria, University of British Columbia and Kyshu University. He has practiced law for more than 20 years.
Languages: Thai and English
 Ms. Supawadee Chaibunchakij is a qualified Thai lawyer specializing in Immigration and Naturalization laws. She has practiced law for over 15 years.
Areas of Expertise:
- Representing clients to apply for work permits
- Advising and helping foreign business people to get a visa
- Representing various BOI promoted companies to bring in experts and families into Thailand
- Helping foreign business persons to obtain Thai permanent residence, and Thai Nationality
- Advising clients on various issues involving immigration matters
Legal Education: LL.B. from Thammsart University
Languages: Thai and English
Khun Nugool Khongrod, Legal Director
Qualifications:
Khun Nugool Khongrod has more than fifteen years of experience in legal, tax and business areas. He initially worked for Bangkok Attorney (an international law office), and then joined the legal & tax firms i.e. PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte respectively. At Deloitte, he was a Legal Director who led, managed and developed the legal team/services of the firm.
Admitted to practice law in the state of Michigan in 1984, in the state of Illinois in 1984, and in the state of California in 1986
Mr. Suttipong Srisaard, Tax Partner
Qualifications:
Master of Taxation (International Taxation)
University of Technology, Sydney Australia
Career Credentials
- Instructor : Taxation Course for Sukhothai Thammathirat University and Kasetsart University, Sriracha Campus
- Instructor : Taxation Course for Revenue Department's officers on the personnel development programme
- A delegate to taxation study at the Australia Taxation Office, Canberra, Australia
- A delegate to present a speech on Thai VAT at the International VAT symposium, held by the Revenue Department of China in 1997
- Author of taxation articles for domestic and international tax journals
Experience and Specialties:
- 17 years in the Revenue Department with experiences in the fields of tax compliances, tax policy, international tax relations and tax structure analysis.
- More than a decade as a tax practitioner and a business consultant.
- International tax planning, cross-border transaction contracts analysis, corporate tax planning, value added tax, expatriate tax compliance and planning, foreign investment consulting and business restructuring.
- Taxation instructor for government and public academies
- Author on tax analysis for domestic and international journals
Responsibilities
- Tax advisory
- Providing tax advisory to clients and handling all tax matters in relation to domestic and cross-border transactions
- Tax planning consultation, ie.Corporate income tax,VAT, SBT,
- Liaison with the Revenue Department in all tax related matters and compliances
- Analysis and opinions to significant issues
- Providing analysis and opinions to interesting tax issues, new law / regulation, tax ruling or Supreme Court Judgement.
- Actively provide / support to service lines the developed products
- Technical and professional counselling
- Provide technical and professional (in-house) advisory to all levels of staff in relating to tax laws and tax planning.
- Professional efficiency development
- Technical and Professional Database Improvement
- Updating professional database, e.g. new laws and regulations
- Technical and professional information analysis in significant applications, e.g. selected interesting topics or issues relating to tax advisories
- Report on interesting business development, including information regarding new issues, practices and movements
Somphob Tax and Law Office Limited : Jointly invested with an international audit firm, TCG International Ltd, and established CKS and Somphob Business Consultants Ltd to provide professional auditing, accounting, taxation, and business advisory services for our clients.
Contact Information:
Head Office : Vanissa Building, 11th Floor, Room 11 C
29 Chidlom Road, Ploenchit, Phatumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Telephone : +66 0 2254-1481-2
Facsimile : +66 0 2254-1483
Branch Office : 17th Floor, Unit 1, Silom Complex Building
Silom Road, Bangrak, Bangkok 10500, Thailand
Telephone : +66 0 2632-1051-4
Facsimile : + 66 0 2632-1055.
Responsible Partner: Mr. Sopon Bunyarattapun; Audit Partner
Qualifications:
- M.S. (Accounting), and BA. (Accounting), Thammasat University
- CPA
FEES:
We normally charge on a time spent basis for our professional services, at rates which reflect such factors as complexity, monetary value and special input, and will take into account urgency and inherent risks and the use of techniques, expertise, research and know-how developed within our organization. Hourly rates vary according to legal experience of engaged attorneys. Specific rates will be quoted on request. For certain type of legal service we charged on a fixed fees i.e. incorporation, immigration/ work permit and trademark registration.
Somphob Tax and Law Office Limited are members of
|
