Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing steps to take before investing in Thailand. What are we talking about here? Well I am not really talking about like major, massive investment, foreign direct investment, major corporate investment, we are more talking about SME investment in Thailand. The reason for that is generally speaking, major investors in Thailand, especially like foreign direct investment level investment, they are going to handle a lot of this stuff in house. 

A lot of folks that come to Thailand make a lot of presumptions when they are looking to invest. By invest, I generally mean like buying a business or buying an operation, you might not actually buy the corporation but you have seen an operation you like and you want to get into that, you basically want to do it yourself based on your observations. Now I can't stress this enough, due diligence is absolutely important. Due diligence is very necessary when it comes to the corporate side of things especially from a tax compliance standpoint. You want to make sure everything is in line with respect to a Company's taxes especially if you are going to buy out the corporation. There is an extra level of due diligence associated with business due diligence which is ascertaining whether or not that business is actually operating at the levels one thinks that it is going to be operating at. What I mean by this is, this isn't so much something we have seen in the last few years but years ago kind of a classic con or scam if you will was basically people would have their group of friends often times populate a bar and basically they would make that bar, this is kind of in the bar scene, just as one example, although it could kind of working in the food and beverage context; there are multiple ways I could see this operating but basically folks would, they would have all their friends at the bar. Any time they have a prospective investor or a buyer come by the bar would always be hopping and then the minute it was purchased, that crowd just moved along because they were following the owner basically. They knew the owner and the owner often times would then go and set up right across the street or right down the road. Sometimes they already had that sort of the next lily pad if you will already staked out. Again on the business side, it is also a good idea to be looking at due diligence as well as the legal side. 

When you are dealing with anything associated with landownership or property, ongoing property rights for example long-term Leasing and things, again due diligence very much in order. You will often times see a lot of people here in Thailand make extraordinary claims about the amount of rights they have in a particular piece of property, usually in the context of Leasing, and you want to ascertain whether or not that is actually the case. And again, it is probably not a bad idea especially with respect to property due diligence, as well as corporate and tax due diligence, probably a good idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.