Currency conversion before permanent move abroad.

mlaf

I'm repatriating to Canada permanently after 13 years in the UK, so I will be converting my GBP savings to CDN. I'm thinking I'd like to set up an HSBC CDN bank account now and start converting GBP to CDN before I go back. Then I can simply transfer the CDN to CDN when I move next year.

I'm confused as to whether I will need to pay Capital Gains Tax on the currency conversation. From what I understand, I'd only need to pay CGT if I sold the CDN for profit, but I won't be doing so, I'm permanently moving to Canada. I suppose in that regard technically when I moved here 13 years ago I purchased GBP with my CDN and would now be selling it back to CDN - does that count as CGT? I'm not sure how best to handle the currency conversion to avoid paying taxes either here or in Canada. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Jeremy535897

Straightforward foreign currency bank accounts are no longer subject to UK capital gains tax. For more detail see:

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/capital-gains-manual/cg78321

royalmike

Try https://wise.com/ca/
used them when I came back to UK from Canada musch better exchange rate than the big banks