Cash gift from Family visitor to UK

xylophone

If the grandparents are giving the money to the child (and there is no problem from the point of view of the law in their country of residence) then you should be able to invest the money in a "bare trust" for your child.
It would be wise to document that the money is a gift from the grandparents- a letter from them should be enough.

See http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/tdsi/children.htm

You could also hold investment trusts/OEICS in bare trust for a child. See here for explanation of importance of bare trust format http://www.sit.co.uk/products/investing_for_children/features/questions_and_answers/
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/individuals/savings-income.htm

Cook_County

Carrying that volume of cash would be unlikely to be insurable - so this is significant risk.

I assume that the donors have indeed given letters signed by them saying that these are gifts or loans - otherwise if I was an Inspector of Taxes I would assume this is undeclared income of the receipient.

dshart

From what I gather from the OP it appears this money is not currently in any account and exists as cash with the OP.

If my reading of this is correct then they may have difficulty explaining where this money came from as even with a letter from the parents the amount now exceeds the amount that can be brought in on one visit. They would have to explain why they have let so much cash build up over the years.

The OP also mentions that they bring between £4000 - £6000 each time and what they don't spend they leave. So how many people are we talking about as in 3 years if they brought the maximum and spent nothing it would only amount to £18000.

I do think that questions are likely to be asked when this money is deposited in a bank account. If it had been done on a year by year basis or each time they visited it would probably be more plausible.

diable

Leave your wages in the bank and spend the cash and every so often move the money to another account.

dshart

The OP should also be able to get more evidence of the source of this money from the foreign exchange transaction receipts that the parents/in-laws should have obtained in India.

Indian residents are limited to exchanging up to maximum $10000 for private travel out of India and as India does not use Sterling as currency they must have changed money before travelling and thus should have a receipt for the transaction which I believe would be accepted as proof of where the money came from.

I note in post #9 that the OP mentions that they may be best just leaving the money in their account. If the money is already in a UK bank account then there should be no issue as the bank has already accepted that the money is okay and the OP can do what they want with it and it should not attract any income tax liability.

getmore4less

dshart wrote: »

The OP also mentions that they bring between £4000 - £6000 each time and what they don't spend they leave. So how many people are we talking about as in 3 years if they brought the maximum and spent nothing it would only amount to £18000.

Where did it say they only visit once a year?

sdd7677

getmore4less wrote: »

Where did it say they only visit once a year?

they visited in total seven times to see first grand child.

getmore4less

If you are ever likely to need benifits and this is the only savings that may sway things.

if tax and ownership are an issue there are always premium bonds, not the best investments but save(idh) and almost like cash, very short notice.

diable

If the tax man ever finds out just look at the £20k and feign disbelief and tell them it must have fallen down the back of the sofa out of your pocket and you forgot about it.

It works for MP's

zerog

If you bank with a proper bank such as HSBC and moved to the UK from India (having held an Indian passport when you first came), and have had regular large deposits of cash into the account, there won't be any problems. The next time they come to the UK, bring them to the bank and deposit £10K, telling the cashier that it is from them, they can bring their passport just to show they are tourists, and then the time after that, deposit the remaining £10K. Solved.