Hi everyone my mother and father-in-law live in England and we are just waiting for the Canadian government to issue them permanent residence through the family and grandparents sponsorship program. Hopefully within a year they will be living here. They have questions about how to bring money over into Canada when they sell their house. Is there a professional we should be speaking to? We live in Nova Scotia Canada. They want to use that money to purchase a home here but we're just not sure how to bring such a large sum into the country appropriately?

They need to speak to their bank about exchanging their GBP for CAD and wiring the proceeds to their account in Canada. They need to ask their bank for a "dealing desk rate" (use those words) for the foreign exchange, which will get them a real time rate, which is what businesses get for large exchanges (a much better rate than the tourist rate posted in branches for people buying cash for their holiday spending money), and it varies throughout the day.

Once they have opened a bank account in Canada to receive the wire (they will need to do that ahead of sending the wire) they should tell the bank (ask branch/phone customer service to document the information in the customer file) that the account will be receiving approximately CAD x,000's as banks do not like large, surprise wires arriving from overseas, especially into a newly opened account.

There is nobody else they need to speak to, just their bank.

I have read previously on this forum that there is a capital gain (or loss) on the difference in the exchange rate between the date you arrive in Canada and the date your money arrives (if a different date). Is this true or just an urban myth? I am unable to find anything in the tax rules about this.

Section 39(1.1) of the Income Tax Act.

Many thanks.