Recieving large BACS transfer - anything I should know?

energy · 25 Apr 2011 at 22:25

Hi,

I'm due to recieve a (very) large bank transfer from abroad within the next few months. Its a gift - I am guessing HMRC or the bank will be questioning this - does anyone have experience recieving large sums i.e. do I need to tell HMRC about this? If so, what sort of declaration will I need from the sender?

I'll be asking the bank at some point, but if anyone here's got any info that would be great.

Thanks

deusexlumina · 25 Apr 2011 at 22:27

worst "i'm getting money" thread ever.

PapaLazaru · 25 Apr 2011 at 22:29

Is it in Ugandan Dollars?

Pez · 25 Apr 2011 at 22:32

Entirely depends on your account activity history, and the country the funds are coming from.

Beansprout · 25 Apr 2011 at 22:35

How large is (very) large?

>10k and you get into money laundering laws and so on, and there's limits on how much can be sent as a "gift". I'd probably call your bank perhaps...

matthab · 25 Apr 2011 at 22:47

You havnt accepted money from this guy have you?

Sounding like this:

HangTime · 25 Apr 2011 at 22:48

Might help if you define what order of magnitude "(very) large" is. When I bought a house I was shifting fairly big sums (~£90k) through and did get questioned by the bank cashier, had to answer a whole load of questions about where the money came from, what accounts I had with them, what direct debits I had bla bla. Didn't hear anything of HMRC. From the tone of your post I'm guessing it may be a much bigger sum though.

Also one thing you may want to look at is a different method of transfer, instead of BACS it may be worth paying for CHAPS, normally this comes to around £20-40 but you will get immediate confirmation of transfer and if the sum is large enough you may make that back on interest compared to waiting a few days for BACS to clear (assuming no faster payment). In fact come to think of it I seem to remember when it came to online transactions some banks wouldn't let me transfer over £10k in one transfer, I had to split it into multiples.

Sayso · 25 Apr 2011 at 22:55

Matters what sort of amount anything over 10K will get flagged it matters what bank your with whether they take it further.

Van Hellseek · 25 Apr 2011 at 23:00

I fancy boys said:
worst "i'm getting money" thread ever.

Barks · 25 Apr 2011 at 23:01

one billion dollars

CharlieAlbert · 25 Apr 2011 at 23:09

Well firstly if it's over 10k it will be chaps so be aware of charges as you're receiving a payment from abroad, also difference in exchange rates; buy/sell rates. So check what currency it's being sent in. You can lose hundreds in a rate change believe me!
In regards to the amount, merh it won't matter. No money laundering etc markers will be placed unless you start sending bits to other people in quick succession.
Don't tell the bank they will just try and sell you stuff.

[FnG]magnolia · 25 Apr 2011 at 23:15

OP , get an Accountant. Ask him, not us.

shine · 25 Apr 2011 at 23:20

You should consult a specialist Tax Advisor if it's a large sum - they will much better able to advise you then most computer geeks.

Having said that publicwhobreach covers what I was going to say.

[TW]Sponge · 25 Apr 2011 at 23:22

I just wanna know how much monies.

[FnG]magnolia · 25 Apr 2011 at 23:31

[FnG]magnolia;18986702 said:
OP , get an Accountant. Ask him, not us.

Further to this, we transferred x hundreds of thousands of pounds from the UK to NZ and, incredibly, did not get arrested.

Why are you even asking this on a hardware forum?

qqg3 · 25 Apr 2011 at 23:48

[FnG]magnolia;18986816 said:
Why are you even asking this on a hardware forum?

Because there is a lot of people here, albiet a lot are pure bred geeks there is a huge variety in backgrounds. Firsthand advice is always very helpful. Plus we try not to mention "hardware" in GD.

Dr House · 26 Apr 2011 at 00:01

Ok here is my understanding (I have not live in the uk for years so it my have changed).

Any gifts received from a non-relatives are tax free upto 50k, over that you pay income tax.

any gift from a relative is tax free however if they die within 7 years you will be liable for inheritance theft err sorry tax.

All wedding gifts are tax free so if you are planning to get married soon and you think you may have a tax liability you may want to consider them waiting to give you the money.

If you are going to receive over 50k as a gift from a non family member I would suggest you look very carefully at your options as there are ways of doing things.

Also as someone mentioned check what currency the money is being sent it, if for example they are sending you the money in euros I would consider getting a specialist money exchange company do the exchange for you or open a euro account with your bank and just hold it in Euro until you are ready to change it.

A2Z · 26 Apr 2011 at 00:04

...how much?

[TW]Fox · 26 Apr 2011 at 00:07

[FnG]magnolia;18986816 said:
Further to this, we transferred x hundreds of thousands of pounds from the UK to NZ and, incredibly, did not get arrested.

Why are you even asking this on a hardware forum?

It'll turn out that the the amount is 100 quid, but this is super loads cos its almost enough for a graphics card.

energy · 26 Apr 2011 at 00:08

I fancy boys said:
worst "i'm getting money" thread ever.

I knew it was only a matter of time before someone said that! Oh well it beats random photos with stacks of 50s "accidentally" in shot like one member did many years ago!

Moses said:
How large? In the grand scheme of things 15k isn't that much, but I paid a cheque for that in relatively recently and heard nothing about it. As it's international, it might be worth just popping into your local branch and having a word, tbh.

£60,000. I do intend on checking with a reliable source, but 10pm on a bank holiday Monday isn't the ideal time! I was just wandering if anyone happened to know.

Pez said:
Entirely depends on your account activity history, and the country the funds are coming from.

I don't know what you mean by my account activity - I've recieved about 16 transfers of £3000 from the sender before, over a 4 year period, country of origin is Greece.

matthab said:
You havnt accepted money from this guy have you?

No s'ah, thats a lot of 1p and 2p coins!

HangTime said:
Didn't hear anything of HMRC. From the tone of your post I'm guessing it may be a much bigger sum though.

Also one thing you may want to look at is a different method of transfer, instead of BACS it may be worth paying for CHAPS.......... I seem to remember when it came to online transactions some banks wouldn't let me transfer over £10k in one transfer, I had to split it into multiples.

Sorry, I said BACS out of habit - I meant a bank transfer of any sort. No problem about the 10k limit as the transfer will be done in person at a bank rather than online (it is my Dad after all, he doesn't have a clue about technology).

publicwhobreach said:
Well firstly if it's over 10k it will be chaps so be aware of charges..... No money laundering etc markers will be placed unless you start sending bits to other people in quick succession.
Don't tell the bank they will just try and sell you stuff.

Thanks for the info :cool:

shine said:
You should consult a specialist Tax Advisor if it's a large sum

Definately, I'll be speaking with the bank direct but just wandering in the meantime.

[FnG]magnolia;18986816 said:
Why are you even asking this on a hardware forum?

Its not a hardware forum - One thing I've learned over the 8 or 9 years I've been a member here is that OcUK posters come from all walks of life. There is knowledge on this forum that is sometimes astonishing. Take a look for example at the Cars section (where I normally post) - theres people there who know more about a particular make and model of car than the manufacturer themselves.

After all, current threads on this "hardware" forum include:

- name my kitten
- 8 weeks smoke free
- paypal buyer protection
- Stolen Bengal cats

qqg3 said:
Because there is a lot of people here, albiet a lot are pure bred geeks there is a huge variety in backgrounds. Firsthand advice is always very helpful. Plus we try not to mention "hardware" in GD.

Amen.