Money from Abroad

The_Hyper

Dear Friends,
I am just about to enter the "completion" step. At this point I am preparing to pay the 10% deposit to my solicitor account. However, as the money comes from abroad, he refused to have the funds transferred from my investment bank abroad and his account. He knew since the beginning and I provided - as requested - documents proving the legal source of my deposit to comply with Money Laundry Regulations. He asked to bring the money to my private account here in the UK and after that, transfer to his account.

In this case, the legislation of the country where the money is will charge me higher tax on the operation as for "property acquisition" the tax is lower but funds can not be between my own accounts. It has to go directly to the seller or legal representative account.

Is there any law that prevent solicitors not to receive money from abroad?

Thanks for your comments!

AnotherJoe

There cant be because its too easily evadable, as you would be doing.

The_Hyper

My apologies but I did not understand your response.

"There cant be because its too easily evadable".
Would be able to explain it?

Regards

Comms69

Where are you transferring money from?

The_Hyper

Country of Origin is Brazil.

lincroft1710

If at a later date any irregularities are suspected, your solicitor can simply say "the money came from my client's UK bank account". Your solicitor is just protecting himself in case anything is not as it should be.

davidmcn

lincroft1710 wrote: »

If at a later date any irregularities are suspected, your solicitor can simply say "the money came from my client's UK bank account". Your solicitor is just protecting himself in case anything is not as it should be.

But the solicitor is also obliged to check the ultimate source of the funds, so they ought to know it came from a Brazilian account. What the solicitor is asking for is somewhat pointless.

Brock_and_Roll

Use a law firm in Brazil to send the money to the UK law firm - that way everyone covers their respective butts

The_Hyper

davidmcn wrote: »

But the solicitor is also obliged to check the ultimate source of the funds, so they ought to know it came from a Brazilian account. What the solicitor is asking for is somewhat pointless.

Exactly! If I provided bank statements and, most important, the Brazilian Government Tax Return statement where I reported the sources of the funds and how much tax I paid - translated - how can he refuse to receive the money because his suspicions? If so, he should suspect about the entire operation right? If I bring the money to my account and transfer to his account would I being justifying the source of the money?

The_Hyper

Brock_and_Roll wrote: »

Use a law firm in Brazil to send the money to the UK law firm - that way everyone covers their respective butts

The fund will come from the Central Bank of Brazil acting as a legal agent once I have to prove to them, as I am proving here, the source of my income. They would not allow me to bring the money if I could no prove the source. In this case, a Central Bank of any country would be more reliable than any law firm - and a law firm will have to use The Central Bank of Brazil anyway.

foxy-stoat

You can try but seeing as you have exchanged you are at the mercy of your legal professional and if they wont accept what you are saying you will have to comply or risk pulling out of the sale and getting sued by the vendors.