Transfer huge amount (> 50000 EUR)

[Magdeburger 0]

Hello everybody,

I am planning to buy an apartment in my country (non-EU), therefore would like to transfer money from my german bank account to my father's bank account in my country. The amount is quite huge (around 50000 eur), therefore not sure how to make the process as smooth as possible. 
I already talked with Deutsche Bank and there is no maximal limit. There is also no limit with my local bank (beneficiary bank) as well. 
My questions: 
1. Is it advisable to split sum in several parts like 20000 and 30000 or it is OK if transfer in one transaction?
2. I know that I need to inform Deutsche Bundesbank about the transaction. Is it the only step I need to do? Should I inform Finanzamt or somebody else? 

I would like to hear your advice,

Thanks in advance, 

[dstanners 1,486]

Well, it is likely to depend upon where you are sending the money. You might be able to use wise.com (formerly Transferwise). I use them all the time and it has always worked fine for me, including for large transactions: in fact, using them for larger transactions will save you a significant sum. 

 

[yesterday 1,897]

Seconded use wise

 

It would be better if you have your own bank account in the destination country, if you transfer it to your fathers account the powers that b may think its  a gift and want to charge TAX on it.

 

Whenever I transfer money with wise I normally enter the destination countires bank account details into wise, then send like 100 euros. I check that transaction occurred correctly. when I am happy that everything worked correctly then, the larger sum I wanted to transfer.

 

Sometimes, I get problems to send large sums, because the bank blocks large sums leaving my bank, you may need to remove those blocks, or the transaction will fail.

 

[Magdeburger 0]

13 minutes ago, yesterday said:

Seconded use wise

 

It would be better if you have your own bank account in the destination country, if you transfer it to your fathers account the powers that b may think its  a gift and want to charge TAX on it.

 

Whenever I transfer money with wise I normally enter the destination countires bank account details into wise, then send like 100 euros. I check that transaction occurred correctly. when I am happy that everything worked correctly then, the larger sum I wanted to transfer.

 

Sometimes, I get problems to send large sums, because the bank blocks large sums leaving my bank, you may need to remove those blocks, or the transaction will fail.

 

Thank you very much for your response,

Regarding gift tax: You mean German's Finanzamt could charge me or my own country's tax office? I think it should not be related to German tax authorities or I am wrong?

Unfortunately Wise is not the case for me(country is not supporting), I am planning to make classical "bank überweisung" filling paper formular which I will get from Bank itself similar to https://www.yumpu.com/de/document/read/15769006/zahlungsauftrag-im-aussenwirtschaftsverkehr-herunterladen,  so Deutsche bank will be aware of this transfer from the first time and if there will be blocks or something they could directly inform me. At least  I hope.    

[GaryC 331]

I am not a lawyer but as I see it the challenge is that if you transfer the money to your father's account, then legally, it becomes his and you will have made a gift of that amount with any impact on you, as the giver of the gift, and him, as the recipient, under the rules in each country (income, capital, gift or inheritance tax).  Then, when your father transfers the money to you, or settles a debt for you, the legal ownership of the money changes again, with similar tax considerations.  That would not be the case if you have your own bank account in your home country as legal ownership of the funds would not change...

[Magdeburger 0]

1 hour ago, GaryC said:

I am not a lawyer but as I see it the challenge is that if you transfer the money to your father's account, then legally, it becomes his and you will have made a gift of that amount with any impact on you, as the giver of the gift, and him, as the recipient, under the rules in each country (income, capital, gift or inheritance tax).  Then, when your father transfers the money to you, or settles a debt for you, the legal ownership of the money changes again, with similar tax considerations.  That would not be the case if you have your own bank account in your home country as legal ownership of the funds would not change...

Thank you very much,

I checked the tax laws of my country: According to it my father is considered is so called "family member", and the family member is exempted from gift tax/inheritance tax. 

My main concern is: What do I need to do in Germany: should I inform Finanzamt or other authorities if I am sending money abroad? I know that I need to inform Bundesbank since it is over 12500 euro but not sure about Finanzamt. Probably, I am dramatize it, but it is the first time I am sending huge amount abroad and would like to avoid mistakes.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

[Magdeburger 0]

Hello everybody again, 

I decided to flight to my country and open bank account there and send money to that account instead of to my fathers account. Now I am curious, should I inform Finanzamt regarding bank account in foreign country? Also, is having bank account in foreign country country oblige me to make tax declarations? I did not do them till now. 

[optimista 5,783]

Yes.

[GaryC 331]

I am not sure about Germany but in the UK simply having a bank account does not mean you have to notify HMRC.  It is only if it generates income in the form of interest that they are concerned.  You would have to tell the bank that you are tax resident in Germany but that is for Common Reporting Standard/FATCA reasons. 

[Magdeburger 0]

On 10/2/2022, 7:26:53, optimista said:

Yes.

Thanks for the answer, should I need immedietely directly to Finanzamt about foreign bank account which I am still planning hopefully to open, or it need to be done while tax declaration 2022 in the next year? I want to emphasize that this will be only a current account and did not bring me any interest. It is only for collecting money from the German bank account. 

[Magdeburger 0]

On 10/2/2022, 11:39:14, GaryC said:

I am not sure about Germany but in the UK simply having a bank account does not mean you have to notify HMRC.  It is only if it generates income in the form of interest that they are concerned.  You would have to tell the bank that you are tax resident in Germany but that is for Common Reporting Standard/FATCA reasons. 

Now I am completely confused. What I want is simply transfer my money from German bank account to my country bank account. Then I read about CRS, and since I am tax resident in Germany I will need to fill the form. And the data will share with German authorities later. If I then send money to this new bank account Finanzamt could think that is tax evasion since they are not informed that I sent this money from my German bank account... How can i prove later that the source of money in foreign country bank account is money which I sent from Germany? Is simple bank statement about transfer enough for this?

[yesterday 1,897]

I am no expert on this ....

 

But I think you should ring up the Fininazamt for your town and ask them, if its ok to do what you are suggesting. 

 

I know lots of people who transfer large amounts of money from Germany to the UK and back, they do it and do not inform the tax people. You only have to fill in a reason for the transfer, ie School fees for kids or whatever. I do not see any problem for you to transfer the money to your home country from a TAX point of view, if you transfer it through your bank, and its the same name in both countries.  But I am not a tax expert, maybe your destination country has special rules, I do not know.- I would try to verify this.

 

Make sure you keep all records of the transfer, so you can prove what you did.

 

As already said, it costs nothing to ask the finanzamt, I would do it, you have nothing to lose.

 

Make sure you send a small amount, to verify the transfer procedure works before you send the bigger amount

 

 

[Magdeburger 0]

Hello everybody, 

Some news:

I opened current bank account on my name in my country, and already transferred 1000 euro as a test, now would like to know your suggestions about big transactions, is it OK if I transfer 10000 euro per month? Then i hope to finish transfer in 5-6 months.

More bigger transfers are not a big problem in my country. The only thing is banks become more suspicious.

 

Not sure about German banks though. Any opinions?

[snowingagain 5,019]

Ask your bank.   My UK bank allows 20,000 GBP without fees.  I transferred it here via Transferwise as their fees and exchange rates were much more favourable than anything they were offering.  It was seemless once I had set it up.  All in a day, or next day. Make sure you use reputable company whose transfers are guaranteed.

[Magdeburger 0]

14 minutes ago, snowingagain said:

Ask your bank.   My UK bank allows 20,000 GBP without fees.  I transferred it here via Transferwise as their fees and exchange rates were much more favourable than anything they were offering.  It was seemless once I had set it up.  All in a day, or next day. Make sure you use reputable company whose transfers are guaranteed.

Thanks for your response. For Wise, Western Union and other services there is monthly limit 5000 euro in my country.   Therefore, I am able to use only Swift transfer(Bank to bank transfer)

I filled paper Überweisung form last time.  Fees for 1000 euro was 41.5, so i paid 1041.55 to get 1000 euro(Deutsche Bank). But 40 euro is standard fee for every transaction, and I paid 0,15٪ for 1000 euro. 

Did you also reported Bundesbank for 20000 GBP?

[snowingagain 5,019]

What country are you referring to?  Are you sure there are no alternatives to Western Union?  Really, really?   They are expensive and have crap exchange rates.

 

And yes I told Bundesbank when bringing money inwards.  Easier to do than find out if  you have to do it.

 

Good luck.

 

[Gambatte 878]

I hate this artificial "fee" concept, that it comes up at every discussion on currency exchange.

 

Example:

Bank A charges a 1% fee. And the exchanges rate is 1 £ = 1.37 Є.

Bank B exchanges ZERO fee. And the exchange rate is 1 £ = 1.35 Є.

 

Question:

Would you say bank B is a better deal when selling £ for Є because of no fee? Many people would.

 

Answer:

never ever look at this fee nonsense, it's the whole package that counts.

The only outcome of looking at the "fee" is that the chance of reaching a wrong conclusion increases.