Should a company ever pay a corporate supplier into a personal bank account?

Changing a bank account sounds administrative.

In reality, a request to pay a supplier’s invoice into a director’s, employee’s or other individual’s account can create several risks at once:

• fraudulent account-change instructions;
• later arguments that the company was never paid;
• difficulty proving authority;
• tax and audit inconsistencies; and
• weak internal controls.

The source matter behind this note involved a company service provider whose proposed payment account belonged to an individual. The review required a corporate account or a separately reviewed corporate authorisation for any exception. The source did not establish that payment to the personal account actually occurred. fileciteturn9file0L19-L22

A company has signed a service agreement with a corporate supplier.

The supplier issues an invoice in the company’s name, but shortly before payment an employee of the supplier sends new bank details:

“Please pay this invoice to our director’s personal account.”

Accounts Payable asks whether the payment can proceed.

The answer should not come from the email alone.

Section 315 provides that payment should be made to the creditor or a person authorised to receive payment on its behalf.

The key issue is therefore authority—not merely whose name appears on the bank account.

Use a known telephone number or existing verified contact rather than replying only to the message containing the new account.

For a personal-account exception, the verification standard should be higher.

• the invoice;
• the personal-account holder;
• the bank details;
• the reason for the arrangement; and
• confirmation that payment to that account fully discharges the customer’s obligation to the supplier.

The document should be signed in accordance with the supplier company’s authorised-signatory rules or otherwise supported by appropriate authority.

For a VAT-registered supplier, Revenue Code section 86/4 requires the tax invoice to identify the registered operator issuing it, including its name, address and tax identification number.

A personal bank account should not be allowed to blur the identity of the supplier for tax documentation.

That is an internal risk-control decision.

We review the service agreement, invoice, tax invoice, supplier company affidavit, authorised signatories, written payment direction, bank-account evidence, independent verification record, withholding-tax treatment and vendor master data.

Typical mistakes are treating the request as automatically unlawful, accepting an email from an unverified address, paying first and asking for corporate ratification later, and issuing tax records to the individual simply because the money went to the individual’s account.

Use an exception checklist:

corporate creditor → reason for personal account → authorised instruction → independent call-back → discharge wording → tax documents → senior approval

If any link is missing, pay the company account instead.

• Thai Civil and Commercial Code, section 315, on payment to the creditor or a person authorised to receive payment.
• Revenue Code, section 86/4, on mandatory particulars in a full VAT tax invoice.
• Revenue Department Order No. Por.86/2542, on particulars and preparation of tax invoices under section 86/4.