Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing BOI, Thai Board of Investment. For those who are unaware, Thailand's Board of Investment can grant concessions to all types of businesses, it's not just foreign businesses. Thai domestic businesses can avail themselves of Board of Investment concessions as well. But one thing especially in light of recent discussions regarding nominee crackdowns, crackdowns on foreigners who are trying to hold or utilize or effectively own property in Thailand, the issue of the BOI is something that people sometimes overlook. 

Let's go ahead and jump in here. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Nominee structures thrust into the spotlight. Very quickly before I get into this, it's important to point out the thrust of that article goes sort of a different direction than what we are talking about specifically to the BOI in this video. So I urge those who are watching this, it may not be a terrible idea to go check out that article for yourselves.

That said, this small excerpt is basically what I want to talk about. Quoting directly: "Some foreign owned businesses approved by the Board of Investment may legally hold land for operational purposes, though the land must be tied directly to the promoted business activity." Yeah, BOI does have the ability to grant the concession for a foreign business or a foreign operation to effectively, not effectively, to own land in Thailand. Now I use the modifier “effectively” because there are some provisos if you will associated with that, one of them being it has to continuously be being used for the operational purpose that the Board of Investment granted the concession for. If it fails to do that, the concession can be revoked and then that land has to basically be sold within a certain period of time lest the owner finds themselves in violation of Thai Law which can result even in criminal penalties; it could also result in just the loss of the underlying property, because it could be seized if it's not sold in time. That's presuming that the concession would be revoked. 

But again, the thing to take away from this video is it could be possible to own land per BOI concession, as long as the corporate structure, as long as the business activity that BOI granted the concession for continues to be on going. So if you have a widget factory - I am just sort of making that up - but a widget factory that's producing widgets and you get a BOI concession, they say, "yep, you can own the factory and the grounds and everything.” As long as you continue producing widgets, you can continue maintaining ownership of the land. The moment the factory closes and there are no more widgets being produced, the reason for the concession has lapsed, and at that point presumably BOI will rescind the concession, and one needs to go ahead and deal with their affairs accordingly thereafter.

So it is possible under certain circumstances for certain types of corporate structures to be able to own land and maintain land ownership here in the Kingdom of Thailand.