Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing American Retirees and US-Thai Treaty of Amity Companies. I had a couple of retirees contact me here recently or just talk to me, and basically say "Hey, I'm retired here in Thailand but I am looking to make an investment. I know under the Treaty of Amity I can have my ownership interest protected in an ongoing business here in Thailand but I also understand that as a retiree, I am on a Retirement Visa. Retirement Visas are specifically not work authorized. How can I make this work so to speak?" Well the answer is very carefully but it may be possible. Again this is going to be highly circumstantially dependent and I stress this again, “highly circumstantially dependent”. There is no one-size-fits-all to this kind of thing. 

Long story short, you are going to be looking at a situation where yes it may be possible to own an Amity Company but bear in mind your work authorization; you are not authorized to work. So again, you have to determine what is your role going to be in that Company? Are you going to be actively involved in that Company? Are you going to work there? If you are, you really need to be careful with this because work authorization is serious stuff and you don't want to get on the wrong side of Thai Labour and Immigration Authorities. That being said, there are benefits and yes merely owning a Thai Company is not necessarily considered work. Again highly circumstantially dependent.

So yeah it's possible for an American citizen, pursuant to the terms of the US-Thai Treaty of Amity which allows Americans to own their Companies 100% here in Thailand as opposed to the Foreign Business Act where a 49/51 share structure is oftentimes utilized, it is possible under the terms of the US-Thai Treaty of Amity for someone to own their Company 100%. Now whether or not they work there is a different story and that is where you are going to get into the analysis of whether or not it can be done with a Retirement Visa here in the Kingdom of Thailand.