Best time for moving savings from overseas to the UK

wmb194

dan_first_time_buyer said:

Thanks to all the people helping out, I feel I may be getting somewhere: it doesn't really matter if I transfer the money before or after moving back to the UK, but it'd be advisable to do it as close as possible to that date, so that the transfer is clearly linked to my bringing back money earned while abroad.
It'd probably be more suspicious if I were to transfer that money, say, after a couple of years, as it may look like  either earnings made abroad while being a UK resident (that should be therefore be taxed in the UK) or some money-laundering activities.

What people think of this thought?

I don't think the timing matters. If you transferred the money in ten years' time you can still produce the payslips and bank statements that explain where it came from. Do you want to keep the money in Italy, though?

subjecttocontract

dan_first_time_buyer said:

subjecttocontract said:

I worked in Europe for a few years and was able to transfer a large sum to my Lloyds account in the UK. I contacted them and told them to expect a large deposit from my overseas bank. I had no problem.

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience!

Could you remember if you make the transfer before or after your move?

I don't remember.
I didn't use Wise, don't think they were around at the time.

subjecttocontract

dan_first_time_buyer said:

subjecttocontract said:

I worked in Europe for a few years and was able to transfer a large sum to my Lloyds account in the UK. I contacted them and told them to expect a large deposit from my overseas bank. I had no problem.

Did you use Wise (or a similar service) or did you do a direct transfer from your European bank to the UK one?

Fairly sure at the time I did a direct transfer between the banks.

For what it's worth, I'm currently selling property in Spain so will be needing to transfer a few hundred thousand Euro to the UK. I'll be using Currencies Direct this time.

TheGreenFrog

dan_first_time_buyer said:

Thanks to all the people helping out, I feel I may be getting somewhere: it doesn't really matter if I transfer the money before or after moving back to the UK, but it'd be advisable to do it as close as possible to that date, so that the transfer is clearly linked to my bringing back money earned while abroad.
It'd probably be more suspicious if I were to transfer that money, say, after a couple of years, as it may look like  either earnings made abroad while being a UK resident (that should be therefore be taxed in the UK) or some money-laundering activities.

What people think of this thought?

I think it makes no difference.  Banks only report interest to HMRC, not capital receipts (which fall more into the money-laundering regime).