Hi There

If you transfer money from your bank in the uk to canada once it gets to canada can you access is straightaway or is there a hold or time limit before you can access it.

I am talking about a large amount say £250,000.

Also does the bank take tax of the money or do you have to declare it on your tax return.

Any help would be appreciated

Typically it takes a few days for the banks to process Wire transfers (maybe 5 days from leaving one account to arriving at the other!). Personally I cant think of any good reason why this happens, other than the bank can make some money on it in the mean time.

Once its at your branch in Canada there should be no further hold on it, but I do seem to recall that some banks will put a hold period on all deposits by a new account holders regardless (yes, even cash), so make sure you discuss this in advance with them if you need immediate access.

There is no tax on a personal transfer, and you do not need to declare it as its assumed you paid tax on it at source. The bank will do the necessary notifications for the money laundering declarations etc, so you should have to do nothing.

Agree with iaink - our big transfer took about 5 days to come over, and we withdrew it the following day. (PC Financial bank.) No tax issues.

The bank will report the transfer to the govt. They will not withhold tax on it.

If you live in Canada and are a tax resident, you held the funds when you filed your last tax return, you may have been required to report it as foreign assets ($100k+). If so, failure to do so can be expensive if you get found out.

Other tax implications may be a capital gain/loss on the FX converted rate between when you became a tax resident and when you converted the funds. CRA use Bank of Canada rate prevailing on the day you became tax resident. Other implications depend on your tax residency status and the source of funds. Any interest accrued on the funds since becoming a tax resident are also taxable, whether earned in the UK or Canada.
Funds may be taxable depending on source of funds and when you acquired them. If they are from the proceeds of the sale of a primary residence, then likely not, if from the sale of an investment or investment property then quite possibly subject to CGT at your marginal rate.

Hi canlovedorr and other expats,

Did you have success with your transfer? I ask because I am trying to transfer 250K from the Halifax bank in the UK to the TD bank in Canada and have run into problems. I live in Canada so I can’t walk into a UK branch. Halifax will only let me transfer a maximum of 25K per day via phone or internet banking i.e. it would take me 10 days to transfer all the money to a broker elsewhere in the UK who will then transfer to Canada. This seems utterly ridiculous and I’m considering flying to London at short notice. There is some urgency here because I need the money to buy property in Canada and I don’t want to lose the house.

If anyone has any advice or suggestions that would be really helpful. Thanks!

Banks are a bother but I don't see why you'd be at risk of losing the house. You make an offer with a token amount attached, say $5,000, and a closing date of your choosing; a month hence would be a "short closing". If the offer's accepted you've that time to shift the cash.

Thanks for the reply. I've already made the offer and given a small deposit. The big chunk of money I am concerned with now is for the downpayment. My closing date is in June but I only sold the UK place last week. The mortgage broker needs proof of funds in a Canadian bank account. I knew the timing would be tight and it would be a risk but the house is pretty special. I guess I just naively assumed that in this internet age these things would be quick. Last resort is to try to renegotiate the closing date. Thanks anyway for your help.

I would call the Halifax and tell them they are not reading their own documentation - and ask them to look at it again.

According to the Halifax website and pdf, there is no upper limit on International Electronic Funds Transfers. You need to set it up via phone or online and complete a form. Full details in the pdf: http://www.halifax.co.uk/onlinebanki...s-brochure.pdf

Conditions: http://www.halifax.co.uk/onlinebanki...ms-conditions/

I am attaching a snapshot of the relevant page.

Thanks very much. There seems to be much confusion at Halifax - have spoken to four telephone banking people and got four different answers. My next action will be to call the branch where my account is held and speak to the manager who will hopefully be more aware of the policies.

If you sign into your Halifax account online, I believe you can do it directly without having to contact the branch to ask.

You can see the demo on how to do an International Electronic Funds Transfer here: http://www.onlinebankingdemo.co.uk/l...x.html?ibdm=11 - click on making payments and then International Payments.

From what I saw, they will need to call you for authorisation and will give you a code to input to complete the transaction; you will also need to know the account details, SWIFT/IBAN code etc.

HTH's

Thanks for all your comments.

In the interests of giving back to the online community, I would like to explain how I got the transfer done in the end. I called the manager of the Halifax branch where my account was held. He was willing to authorize a large transfer if I faxed him:

- A certified copy of my passport (signed and stamped by a representative of my bank in Canada)

- A letter signed by me instructing the Halifax bank manager of

-The exact amount to be sent

- My full account details

- Bank name, bank address, sort code and account number of the foreign exchange specialist in the UK

Once the bank manager had the documents, he compared my signature on the letter to the one he had on file for me and then called me to ask me some security questions to verify my identity.

Once he was satisfied that everything was in order, he initiated a CHAPS transfer for same-day delivery.

I still find it incredible that a fax was the solution and that this level of scrutiny was necessary for a transfer within the UK. The transfer from the UK FX specialist to TD in Canada is much easier!