Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the possibility of changes to the Land Code here in Thailand. For those who are unaware, there are many restrictions on foreign nationals as it pertains to property rights in Thailand; many of those restrictions are codified in the Land Code. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in The Chiang Rai Times, that is chiangriaitimes.com, the article is titled: Thailand Targets Nominee Property Deals, Foreign Buyers Face Rising Legal Risk in 2026. Quoting directly: "At the same time, proposed changes to the Land Code may allow the state to take property obtained through illegal nominee deals, without paying compensation. Violations under the Foreign Business Act (FBA) can bring fines of up to 1 million Baht, jail terms of up to three years, and daily fines if the breach continues. In some cases, the Anti-Money Laundering Office may also freeze or seize assets if FBA offenses count as predicate crimes." So I just want to reread that though: "At the same time, proposed changes to the Land Code may allow the state to take property obtained through illegal nominee deals." 

As I have discussed in other videos, Authorities here in Thailand are cracking down on nominee deals; I'm kind of of two minds about it. My personal opinion is look, the Foreign Business Act has been what it has been. To be in compliance with the Foreign Business Act, 49/51% structures have been set up in the past. There are many that are perfectly legitimate and I look at this, the big difference though to my mind, and I think it's exemplified in what you are seeing out there and even Thai authorities are sort of hinting at it, if not overtly saying it, that the main thrust of this has to do with ownership of land through a company so as to allow a foreign national to contravene the restrictions under the Land Code and they are talking about making changes so that they can even seize that land. 

So the thing to take away from this video is to understand that that is a possibility; there could even be criminal penalties associated with utilizing a corporation to own land, and the authorities now have the tools to efficiently ascertain who may be utilizing a structure that way and proactively go after them. So I can't stress enough, if somebody is looking at getting set up into something that looks even slightly suspicious through one of these corporate entities, you may want to contact a legal professional. You also may want to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance if you are already in one of these structures because there may be a way to mitigate your losses or there may be a way to maybe restructure things in such a way that they are in line with Thai law - again depending on circumstances - and there are only a limited narrow number of circumstances where one can get oneself restructured back into Thai law. 

But that being said, at the end of the day, again it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed lest you find yourself in a situation where your asset is seized, corporate structure is dissolved and you are facing the possibility of not only economic loss, but possible criminal fines and penalties as well.