Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Amity companies. For those who are unaware, there is a bilateral Treaty between the United States and the Kingdom of Thailand which stipulates that Americans doing business in Thailand will be accorded “national treatment”, so they will be treated as if they are Thai for corporate purposes when setting up things like a corporation. What does that mean?

It means notwithstanding the Foreign Business Act in Thailand, which oftentimes creates a situation where folks, especially foreigners coming into Thailand set up a 49/51 structure with a Thai counterpart, Americans don't necessarily have to go through that. The National Treatment clause if you will, allows Americans to go ahead and own their companies 100% in Thailand. So if the company is certified under The Amity Treaty it's considered effectively a Thai Company and its American shareholders are going to be treated as if they are Thai under the National Treatment provisions of that agreement. As a practical matter that's a major benefit to Americans looking to do business here. They can do business and own their company a hundred percent.

What I would tell people is, especially in light of recent news reports that we have seen a lot of where they're talking about issues with nominees etc., one, Amity gets you completely out of the nominee issue because there's no nominees. That being said, the reason for the video, I made another video contemporaneously with this one talking about standard Thai Companies - the sort of 49/51 set up for foreigners - where I basically explain like look that structure is still the most optimal way and the most in line with the Immigration Act of 1979 as any mechanism can be for maintaining long-term work authorization in Thailand, as well as being on track for things like Permanent Residence and ultimately citizenship. So as a practical matter, corporate setup is the most optimal and the most compliant or in compliance way of basically a foreigner doing business in Thailand; that's basically how that comes out. 

Now that said, there are still restricted occupations in Thailand. Notwithstanding the provisions of the Amity Treaty you have to be very careful of those and the reason that the Thais are tightening up and cracking down on nominee companies is one, a lot of folks are using corporations to own land and that's a big deal; that's even criminal. That's a real problem. Thai Government doesn't like that, and they are actively looking for those companies in order to dissolve them in most cases and take back the land if it's determined that the corporation purely exists so that a foreigner can own land. So understand that to begin with. Now the other big reason that they are looking at these sort of structures is restricted occupations. Things that are restricted to only Thai nationals being able to undertake. You don't have to quite worry about these issues as much with an Amity Company because again it's owned outright; it's treated with national treatment, but even the Treaty itself stipulates its own restrictions. So not everything can be done in Thailand even under an Amity Treaty. You have to be aware of that when you're doing business here. 

Now that said, if what you're looking to do, things like business consulting, or setting up a small business of some kind, retail food and beverage, these kind of things; tech industry is being highly sort of promoted at the moment by various bodies here in Thailand. Again, these can be things that foreigners can engage in and in fact Thais are encouraging foreign business engagement in, but that said there are still restrictions even under the Treaty. However, I would still continue to say that the Treaty and Treaty companies can be a very effective path for an American to come to Thailand, set themselves up, do business, be able to do so legally. It's oftentimes more optimized especially going into this nonsense tax stuff we're dealing with going into the future, it's way more optimized for being in compliance without having to deal with a bunch of that nonsense. It's a way better option than a lot of others for most of the folks that want to be a long-term expat here in the Kingdom of Thailand.