Question about Receiving Large Amount of Bank Transfer from Abroad

RoseLondon

My parents want to support us to pay off some mortgage by selling the house in their hometown (abroad). The sum we are looking to receive would be roughly just over £200,000.

We are anxious about the implications of receiving such a big sum in our bank account, even though we can prove the source of the cash with the legal document of the sales of the house.

I've heard people got their account frozen by the anti-money-laundering division of the government (or something like that) and some even had been banned from openning account with certain bank in future. Some says it would do little help trying to engage with the bank upfront, as the anti-money-laundering division is a completely independent branch of the bank/government (something like that)and they don't communicate directly with the customer service of the individual banks. Are these all true?

What shall we do to go through the process without surprises?

Also, do we need to declare income with HMRC? Do we need to pay tax on this financial support?

Anxiously awaiting some advice...

Many thanks.

Linton

There is no tax on gifts in the U.K. You dont declare gifts to HMRC.

RoseLondon

Thank you, Linton. That's a relief.

Anyone can advise on the bank transfer side of it? Is there anything I can do to declare this upfront with proof so that wouldn't get caught after receiving the money?

Lungboy

It's always a good idea to let your bank know of any unusually large transactions that are about to happen. I did it for my house purchase for example.

AnotherJoe

About the only thing you could do is go into your bank beforehand and let them know you are expecting this.ive done this with my bank before. No idea if it made any difference and it was only 1/4 your amount.

Will you be usinga specialist fx transfer company for this ? You probably ought to to get a better exchange rate , and if so, if it's a U.K. company possibly that will help, eg instead of foreign bank -> your bank you have uk company -> your bank.

xylophone

I would go into the branch and ask to see a customer service adviser - you could then explain about the expected payment and show the related documentation.

eskbanker

RoseLondon wrote: »

My parents want to support us to pay off some mortgage by selling the house in their hometown (abroad). The sum we are looking to receive would be roughly just over £200,000.

Whereabouts 'abroad'? Transfers from some countries are likely to be more problematic than others, so you may experience a different response if your parents' house is in, say, North Korea, versus an EU country!

MarcoM

telling the bank won't make an inch of difference.
There are automated processes which flag unusual transactions and no call centre or bank clerk can override these. Also factor in that each bank deals with this sort of thing differently.
Just keep an audit trail of the transfer and on the day you are expected to receive the money keep checking the account.

EachPenny

RoseLondon wrote: »

My parents want to support us to pay off some mortgage by selling the house in their hometown (abroad). The sum we are looking to receive would be roughly just over £200,000.

In addition to speaking to your bank in advance (which I agree is no guarantee that the system won't flag the deposit up) I would also ensure I had a current account (containing a few thousand pounds) with at least one other banking group prior to the transaction taking place. That way if the bank decides to freeze your account whilst it investigates this 'suspicious' transaction you will at least have access to spending money in a different account.

An alternative (though possibly risky approach) would be to open a new account with a different bank to your own day-to-day one and use this new account to receive the payment. During the application process you normally get asked what you intend to do with the account - so you could say the expected funding was £200k and this was a gift from your family. This would prime the bank to expect a large deposit, but may still trigger the alarms especially as the account would be a relatively new one. The advantage of doing it this way round though is your day-to-day account should be unaffected by any freezing/investigation.

ivormonee

Won't your parents be liable for CGT on the sale of the property? It's not their primary residence and I assume they are UK resident for tax purposes. Also as a gift to you, does it not then become a PET for IHT purposes which may be subject to tax? If on the other hand they live abroad in that country and are resident there, and the property is their primary residence, then UK CGT would not come into it; and probably IHT won't either, but it's a complex area.