Transfering large sum to my future wife

[Frantic 58]

If I transfer a large sum to the bank account of my future wife shall she pay any taxes for this ?

We want to remain in the standard regime of community of gain but we want  to have, as a starting point, a situation resembling practically (but of course not legally) a complete community of goods. With the money transfer I would equalize the financial situation between me and her, before the marriage.

 

 

[LeonG 14,588]

3 hours ago, Frantic said:

If I transfer a large sum to the bank account of my future wife shall she pay any taxes for this ?

We want to remain in the standard regime of community of gain but we want  to have, as a starting point, a situation resembling practically (but of course not legally) a complete community of goods. With the money transfer I would equalize the financial situation between me and her, before the marriage.

 

Because she is not your wife yet, she would have to pay 30% tax on everything over 20k.  If you wait until you are married, you can give her up to 500k without her having to pay tax.  Gifts are exempt from community gain AFAIK.

 

[Frantic 58]

Transfering them after we are married will not sort the effect i want.

The money I want to transfer her will go after the marriage anyway in the shared bank account from her bank account.

What I want to achieve is that the "snapshost" of personal assets before the marriage will be in some way "equal" for both.

[JG52 872]

I think your local Finanzamt would endorse your decision.  I'm all for romantic and noble acts, but needlessly losing money to taxes is just stupid.

[penchanski 11]

I see no sense in this at all.

 

It only matters in the event of a divorce, in which case "romantic and noble acts" tend to no longer happen.

 

You can be romantic without giving up what little protection the law allows you.

[LukeSkywalker 7,275]

55 minutes ago, Frantic said:

The money I want to transfer her will go after the marriage anyway in the shared bank account from her bank account.

So, transfer money from your bank account (A) to her bank account (B) and then moved to joint account (C) instead of A—>C, right?

[Fietsrad 254]

Might we ask whether we may ask how large the sum might be?

[fraufruit 40,235]

Put a ring on it first.

[Metall 14,303]

2 hours ago, Fietsrad said:

Might we ask whether we may ask how large the sum might be?

Anything over 10k Euros between non-related (here: not yet married) persons will trigger a gift tax problem!

That isn't such an enormous sum anymore in Germany.

Meaning, it doesn't matter if it's 11k or, say, 400k.

[yesterday 1,688]

If you are transferring large sums of money about, my bank could always do with a top up   

[Frantic 58]

2 hours ago, LukeSkywalker said:

So, transfer money from your bank account (A) to her bank account (B) and then moved to joint account (C) instead of A—>C, right?

Exactly.

 

And for the other ones who write without reading first: i am asking this exactly for checking is this will trigger any tax payment. No one want to make voluntary donation to finanzamt, i guess.

 

And we don't want to go to community of gain because this woul dnot be tax favorable in some circumstances, especially in case one of the two dies and the other has to hinerit the half of a property.

[fraufruit 40,235]

I'm curious as to whose idea this was in the beginning.

 

At this stage, many people are negotiating pre-nuptual agreements so that if the marriage fails (50% do), each gets what they came to the table with.

 

I've never heard of anyone doing this no matter which party has more money.

[Frantic 58]

3 minutes ago, fraufruit said:

At this stage, many people are negotiating pre-nuptual agreements so that if the marriage fails (50% do), each gets what they came to the table with.

 

 

I germany the default option is more or less the one you describe. You join/share just the "gain" obtained while married.What you were having before that will come back to the respective owner in case of divorce.

it is quite new to me i discovered few days ago and I realized I misunderstood what the employee in the Heiratamt told me. In my country italy, if i am not wrong, the default is the joining/sharing of the goods you got before the marriage andthe ones acquired  while married.

[LeonG 14,588]

31 minutes ago, Frantic said:

 In my country italy, if i am not wrong, the default is the joining/sharing of the goods you got before the marriage andthe ones acquired  while married.

 

So if you ever get divorced, you should do it in Italy
 

But really, you should probably make some kind of prenups to nail down your wishes in case you end up getting a divorce after having moved to another country.  In your shoes, I would be asking a lawyer how you can do the transfer without being subjected to tax.  Maybe there is a loophole to give someone a tax free gift if you marry that person within a certain amount of time.  Maybe you can do the transfer on your wedding day.  But better make sure it's bullet proof because you don't want to end up subjected to 30% tax.

  

[yesterday 1,688]

17 hours ago, Frantic said:

If I transfer a large sum to the bank account of my future wife shall she pay any taxes for this ?

We want to remain in the standard regime of community of gain but we want  to have, as a starting point, a situation resembling practically (but of course not legally) a complete community of goods. With the money transfer I would equalize the financial situation between me and her, before the marriage.

 

 

Why do you not open Bank C now in your name.

 

Then transfer the money now from Bank A to Bank C, so you will not pay any tax as the names will be the same, then if you want give your future wife access to Bank C, just give her the username Password etc.

 

Of course I agree with every one else, that maybe its better to get married first and live with together for a while, to make sure you will be together for ever, before giving your wife access to the user name and password.  

 

I guess you could open bank account C, fill it with money, and let a limit on the amount that can be transfered out per day, secured with a PIN, that you hold. That way if your future wife just wants to take money out, she can only do so much per day, if you check the transactions every day, you will be able to see it 

 

[fraufruit 40,235]

Where is the future Mrs. from, if I may ask?

[LeonG 14,588]

19 minutes ago, yesterday said:

Why do you not open Bank C now in your name.

 

Then transfer the money now from Bank A to Bank C, so you will not pay any tax as the names will be the same, then if you want give your future wife access to Bank C, just give her the username Password etc.

 

Of course I agree with every one else, that maybe its better to get married first and live with together for a while, to make sure you will be together for ever, before giving your wife access to the user name and password.  

 

I guess you could open bank account C, fill it with money, and let a limit on the amount that can be transfered out per day, secured with a PIN, that you hold. That way if your future wife just wants to take money out, she can only do so much per day, if you check the transactions every day, you will be able to see it 

 

I don't think it's just about giving his fiance access to funds.  He is trying to start them out legally on an even footing where bank records will later state that when they married, they each had the same amount of money, seen going from his account into the shared account and from hers into the shared account.  The problem is that in order for money to go from her account into the shared account, he will first have to gift it to her so that she will have it in her account in the first place.  Whether he does this by transferring the money to her or by giving her access so that she can transfer it from his account to herself, it will still look to finanzamt like a taxable gift if they are not married yet.  He could even withdraw the money cash, give it to her and she can deposit the cash money into her account but it's still a gift and her bank may want to know for money laundering purposes where she got the wad of cash.

[HH_Sailor 3,167]

Here's a handy little calculator for gift tax.

 

If you give her a paper bag with cash, you have increased her wealth.

That in itself is taxable (assuming this gift is over € 20K)

 

If she doesn't declare it, that is an offense.

 

The limit for your wife / partner is substantially higher

than for "a future wife"

 

I suspect you need an expensive tax lawyer/advisor to manage what

you're trying to do without paying an awful lot of tax.

Something like a trust fund / Stiftung that stays in your name

until she's married - then it's overnight under her control.

 

[fraufruit 40,235]

Or you could make a pre-nup stating that, in case of divorce, she gets X amount over her half.

[yesterday 1,688]

I do not know does a pre-nup have a legal status in Germany ?, or does the general flow of the law have more rights ?