Data centers in Thailand – the three card trick.
Thailand wants the foreign direct investment (FDI) and is betting hard on ‘Digital’ as a target industry being the way forward.
Investors under the Board of Investment (BOI) promotion may get up to 8 years corporate income tax holiday. If they are applying under the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) incentives, that may be as long as 15 years. All of their equipment can be imported duty free.
Tech giants are experts at avoiding tax and blatant transfer pricing. Just go and look at your personal credit card statement and see where payments for your software are ending up.
Why would this be any different for a B2B data centre in Thailand?
A company in Singapore pays a US owned company with an office in Ireland to house its data on a Thailand server.
Does Thailand actually see the revenue?
What does Thailand see? For the startup, they get the construction work (using migrant labour) and project management. When the centre operates, it is electricity sales.
Is this really the way forward?