Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Banking issues and specifically we are discussing Banking issues for Americans and sort of the tax implications from a reporting standpoint with the United States. So what are we talking about here? Well for example, let's take retirees.

Retirees who wish to retire in Thailand on for example a non-O Retirement Visa, or an O-A Retirement Visa for that matter, can choose to either utilize for example pension funds as proof of financial ability to support oneself and thereby maintain one's Retirement Visa status or a lump sum in a Thai Bank Account can also be utilized. For Americans there are specific implications for this because Americans have to maintain an 800,000 Baht, excuse me, anyone looking to maintain a Retirement Visa in Thailand has to maintain an 800,000 Baht minimum balance in a Thai Bank Account if they are going to use lump sum money to extend or maintain their Retirement Visa, so 800,000 Baht in a Bank Account; that is kind of the standard way most people maintain their Retirement Visa status. 

That creates obligations back to the American Tax Authorities most notably FinCEN which is under Treasury technically, but it requires an FBAR, Foreign Bank Account Reporting because if you have a Bank Account abroad, a Bank Account outside the United States or I should say any number of Bank Accounts that in the aggregate have a balance of $10,000, you need to go ahead and report that via an FBAR. Well 800,000 Baht right now is roughly the equivalent of about 22, 23,000 US Dollars. Therefore, American retirees in Thailand using a lump sum Bank Account balance to maintain their Retirement Visa status, they are going to have an obligation to make an FBAR filing which is not exactly part of your taxes per se, but I view it kind of as a tax matter because it is a reporting requirement back to the United States Treasury which has a tax component to it. 

So while it is not directly a tax issue, I would look at it as within the sort of neighborhood of tax, but yeah there are disclosure requirements associated with Americans banking in the Kingdom of Thailand.