Hello!
Context:
My wife (Tomoko) is Japanese and we have just sold our house in the UK. I have just retired from work and plan to settle in Japan. Tomoko is over there now. I will travel over in a few months once Tomoko has found dog-friendly rental accommodation – I’ll stay with the dogs in the UK until we can get them over. CoE is sorted.
Once I’m in Japan, we plan to buy a house.
Question:
The money from the sale of our UK home is in my UK bank account. What is the best way to move this money to a Japanese bank without incurring tax?
Should I transfer to Tomoko’s bank account now? Note that she moved to Japan about 4 days before the sale of the house. I’m not sure if that risks gift tax or income tax?
Should I wait until I’m over there and open a Japanese bank account in which to transfer the money? I believe I would have to be resident in Japan for up to 6 months before I can open an account. This way seems the safest, but means we can’t buy a house for up to 6 months after I arrive.
I’d appreciate any advice or hear from others who’ve been through similar.
Thanks!
4 comments
This is not the place to ask that question friend. I work in the finance field, you need to speak with a tax professional in the UK. I would not recommend following any advice you receive here without consulting that person first.
You will get more useful answers in /r/JapanFinance.
>I believe I would have to be resident in Japan for up to 6 months before I can open an account.
Japan Post Bank will allow recent arrivals to open a bank account pretty much straight away. They’re a fairly bare bones bank though.
For the rest of your questions I’ll echo the others… r/Japanfinance will have people with more of a finance/tax background (although some of them pop up over here from time to time). I wouldn’t expect you to owe additional taxes on the money you’ve already earned and is sitting as cash in your personal account. I wouldn’t risk transferring it to your spouse if I were you though. But yeah… Check with professionals to be sure.
Pretty sure any money remitted to Japan is liable to JP tax… But not sure if you would then receive UK tax credit.
You said you’re retired, so assume you’re getting a spousal visa… Do you still require a CoE as part of that?