Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggest, we are discussing Amity Certification. For those who are unaware, pursuant to the US-Thai Treaty of Amity, American Businesses in Thailand can operate with what's called National Treatment, meaning that notwithstanding the rules under the Foreign Business Act, which generally require basically Thai shareholders in certain types of businesses, Amity Certification would allow a company to be 100% American owned under otherwise similar circumstances. Again, it is a privilege accorded to Americans pursuant to our Treaty, again the latest iteration ratified in 1966, but the Treaty relationship goes back over 190 years as of the time of this video, and it's pretty substantial. 

I thought of making this video initially after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Phuket Police bust Belarusian-run illegal car rental business. Quoting directly: "Police have arrested two Belarusian nationals for operating an unlicensed car rental business using Thai nominees." Quoting further: "Under Thai law, foreigners are prohibited from engaging in certain businesses listed in Schedule 3 without proper permits. Using Thai citizens as nominee shareholders to evade these restrictions constitutes a criminal offense." 

Yeah look, again this pertains to Belarusian Nationals and obviously the US-Thai Treaty of Amity is a bilateral treaty between the United States and Thailand. So I'm only using this particular citation to provide basically an example for a teaching point on the lack of need for nominees under an Amity setup. If you set up a company under the US-Thai Treaty of Amity, and you are an American, you can basically own your company outright, again notwithstanding the rules regarding restricted occupations in Thailand as well as the rules pertaining to the Foreign Business Act and pertaining to the percentage of ownership that one may have to deal with in order to do certain types of business here in Thailand. The Amity Treaty basically overcomes all of that, if the type of business is something under which the Amity Treaty covers, and there are exceptions, most notably things like land and land trading and things are not permitted under the Amity Treaty but again if it is something that would otherwise be permitted and you gain certification and therefore that company is treated with “National Treatment” regarding the proposed business activities, it's well within the scope of that business to do business here in Thailand, notwithstanding the fact that under other circumstances folks might have to use "nominees" or think that they should. 

Again nominees are illegal in Thailand, but it doesn't mean a bunch of people don't try to use them. Again, I've talked about in other videos I think digitization increasingly is going to lead to scenarios where again that's going to be caught, more called out if you will more and more as time goes on. But that said, again Amity Treaty Certification just obviates the need for all of that. So something to keep in mind for those who are seeking to do business here in the Kingdom of Thailand.