Receiving a large cheque from the USA

battyg123

A wealthy friend in the USA wants to send me a large cheque as a gift (100,000)  from the United States. What are the implications to me as regard to receiving this money into my UK account. 
Will they take a large chunk off me as tax ?

PRAISETHESUN

You'll likely need a letter from your friend stating it is a gift to document the money and avoid any potential issues WRT money laundering, but otherwise I'm fairly sure receiving gifts like this isn't taxable. There may be tax implications for your friend for gifting away such a large sum though, but that isn't really an issue for you.

Banking a cheque will give you a very poor exchange rate however and take forever to clear. I'd suggest asking your friend to look into currency transfer services such as Transferwise or any US equivalent. You'll get the money much quicker and you'll end up with more GBP at the end of it.

Sandtree

Nothing with be taken as "tax"... there is no tax on gifts (given or received) unless the giver dies relatively soon afterwards. In the UK the gift may become subject to inheritance tax if they die within 7 years but as the giver in this case is in the USA it would be subject to their local laws.

The bank is likely to charge fees however, some will be overt in the form of a declared charge and others will be covert by giving you a poor exchange rate. There are often other transfer services that will give you a better rate on conversion than putting a cheque (or check seeing as its coming from the USA) in your bank but given its a gift you maybe should just be happy with what you get rather than ask them to sign up to other services etc so that their $100,000 turns into more £

Given the sums involved it is very possible that it will trigger anti-money laundering systems and they may ask evidence both as to why the money has come to you and how the giver came into the money in the first instance.

born_again

I would 1st find out if you bank will take a foreign cheque. As many will not.
Then ask what ort of charges you would be looking at & their timescales.
Then go back to your friend and get them to send it via one of the above payment methods. That will be cheaper & faster.