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How Do I Bequeath My Thai Company in a Will?
Transcript of the above video:
As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question, how do I leave my Thai Company to someone in a Will? This could pertain to either a standard Thai Company or what we call an Amity Treaty Company. That's a company that is certified pursuant to the terms of the US-Thai Treaty of Amity which allows American citizens to own their companies outright here in Thailand.
Now the question posed, how do I bequeath my company? Well, a lot going on there. Again, somebody that lives here and may be operating under the Foreign Business Act, maybe they are not American - they have to operate where they are a 49% shareholder - they have a Thai partner - but effectively day-to-day operations operate within the bailiwick of that foreign shareholder. Again, you can't bequeath the whole company notwithstanding the fact you're running it day to day. 1) you are likely a director, 2) you are a shareholder. Now you can bequeath the shares to whomever you want via a Will but as far as the directorship or the entirety of the Company itself, that may not be appropriate under the circumstances because you may not actually own the whole company; again, you may only have 49%. In the case of an Amity Treaty Company, you may have 100% or near 100% of the shares depending on the rules and therefore yeah, you've got a situation wherein you can bequeath the shares but again the company itself, yeah it's its own entity; it's a corporate entity; it stands alone. So, shareholder bequests, yes or share bequest of shares in a company, yes. The actual directorship cannot be conferred in a Will, that has to be dealt with in Corporate meetings etc.
So long story short, while it is effectively possible to transfer the equity in a Thai company via a Will here in Thailand, it's not going to be possible to transfer a Company itself per se, because again a Thai Company is its own Incorporated entity, and it would be inappropriate to leave an entire Incorporated entity to someone else in the form of a Will.