durham_lad

Absolutely no problem in transfers of large amounts from the US to the UK. This year I transferred $50k in a lump sum to buy a new car and do some house improvements.

If you then transfer the money back to take advantage of moving exchange rates then you may be subject to taxes on exchange rate gains but I have no idea what gap is needed between transfers to avoid that.

Hanco

I’ll start by saying I’m not a financial expert. I do know that if you have money in non US accounts but you live in the US, then you may have tax to pay in the countries where the money is (on interest earned), and you are expected to declare the accounts and values held in a Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR)

You are required to file FinCEN Form 114 (an FBAR) if the combined balance of all the foreign accounts you own or have a financial interest or signature authority is more than $10,000 at any point during the calendar year. Look up FBAR in a search engine for more info.

If it’s money in a UK account paying interest, then you may need to pay tax to UK HMRC. You report the income in a self assessment tax return in the UK. You may have been taxed at source by the bank/financial institution but you can have that stopped if you live outside the UK and then pay the taxes due when you file your UK return (if you earn enough to require a payment of tax to HMRC). I believe that if you do pay tax on the interest in the UK, then you report that payment in your US IRS tax return because a dual taxation treaty exists and the IRS won’t expect US taxes to be paid on income you already paid tax on in the UK.

I think that’s the layer of complexity you mentioned? Others may have additional information or corrections!

See Pulaski’s reply above for thoughts on financial gain from selling GBP for USD. In my scenario I earned money in USD, and I’m making a one time move from USD to GBP for a financial transaction in the UK (to pay off a debt at the end of a loan period). In my case I believe no “gain” to report as income, in terms of the purchase of GBP using my USD.

durham_lad

You should not be paying UK tax on bank interest and can file a form with the bank (R43?) if you are not resident in the UK to stop them deducting taxes.

If you need to reclaim taxes already paid on bank interest then I don't believe you need to file a self assessment with HMRC but instead can send in form R40 to get that tax refunded. You can do it by post or online if you have a UK Government Gateway account.
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...nvestments-r40

Hanco

To be clear, I was not saying you definitely need to pay tax to HMRC. You’re right about the stopping of tax deductions by the bank, but just to be clear, that does not mean you don’t have to pay tax to HMRC.

For example, if you have a UK income, such as salary or property rental income. If your total income exceeds the lower earnings limit, including any interest earned on UK accounts, then you have a UK tax liability to pay, even if you’ve informed your bank you’re non resident and they stop deducting the tax at source.

I don’t think durham_lad is saying that you won’t have taxes to pay on interest earned. I’m just making it clear I wasn’t saying you must pay tax on it, but it depends on the total income you have in the UK.

durham_lad

Yes, I should have been more clear. Thanks for the correction.

More info here

https://www.gov.uk/tax-uk-income-live-abroad

Nypool1e

I wanted to transfer funds from my bank in the US to my bank in the UK. My bank sent me instructions saying I should use Zelle international transfer, unfortunately all I could see was for domestic transfer within the US, I shall keep trying.

Glasgow Girl

Use Wise.com, it’s easy and has the best rates.

Nypool1e

Thanks for your response Glasgow girl. I noticed one of the other posters on here durhamlad uses Wise. May I ask, how does Wise work? Do I go on their website & open an account & then transfer funds to Wise? Before I go down that route I’m going to give my bank another try as I’ve sent significant amounts of money to the UK before & because I’m a preferred account holder they never charge a fee to transfer. Once again, thanks.

Hanco

Zelle is not an option as far as I know.

WISE is good. Open an account, download the Wise.com app too. Follow their process. It’s good, secure, and fast.

Pulaski

Your bank may have "never charged a fee", but the exchange rate applied to your transfer may be disadvantageous, or worse.

I have heard that HSBC is like that, and that you end up with more currency at the other end if you use a transfer service like Wise, than using a bank transfer "with no fee charged".

This may not be true if you're transferring big bucks, say $100k+ at a time, and your bank is applying a "dealing desk rate", which is often competitive with online FX broker-remitters.

To get a definitive answer you would need to set up two transfers side by side at the same time, then see which one will put more money in your account, and only click to accept the one that credits your account with the most money.

tht

With HSBC it depends on 2 things:

- what time you do it, you get a worse rate evenings and weekends.
- the amount, worse rate, but no fees so vs one with a fixed / minimum fee it can work out cheaper for small transfers.

for larger payments a better rate will make up for any fixed / minimum fees.

the upside with HSBC is it’s instant, send on US account, refresh’s and it’s in UK, unlike an ACH which may take longer.

have had no need to do any significant transfer in years now, mainly class 2 nic so use HSBC, but would compare the rates / fees vs Wise if I was going to: https://atlantic.money/gb

durham_lad

Exactly. I have done this many times with 2 windows open at the same time, HSBC and Wise. Wise is always significantly more GBPs into my UK HSBC account.

using the Wise app is also almost instantaneous these days. In fact I just did a transfer today. I initiated a transfer a couple of days ago with my brokerage. I can choose my HSBC US account or my Wise account, and I chose my Wise account, ACH transfer. I got a notification from my Wise app that money had arrived into the account so a few clicks later and the transfer to my UK HSBC account was initiated and it took about 10 seconds to arrive.

Dan725

Totally agree that Wise is the way to go - I've used them ever since they were a startup and they have since matured into something much more than just a straightforward foreign exchange co. Its very easy to hold multiple currencies within the account for instance, and transfer between these sub accounts as you like (although I never hold too much in it....as they do say, they are not a bank and not FDIC insured). They also have a debit card (which I typically use when I'm back in UK on visits which is well integrated with the phone app), they allow direct payments from other people or businesses in several major currencies direct into your Wise account, and even have some investment options and business account services (neither of which I am likely to make use but may be interest to some). Their apps and tech integration seems to be top notch, and its nice to see the level of innovation they have come up with over the last decade or so to set themselves apart from others.

I'd also echo the above posters warnings about those 'we never charge a fee' big banks....yeah sure they don't...instead they absolutely batter uniformed people on the exchange rate and to add insult to injury sometimes come up with all manner of interesting wire fees when money is in transit.

vespucci

True.

Sq25394

Liz is starting to saying 'no commitment '