international transfers

[StockBeard]

I have had experience of transferring large amounts of money to Japan when I brought over my deposit for my house about a decade ago, lots of questions from the Japanese bank, also the tax office were asking questions.

Curious as to how the tax office knew about this money transfer, if you know? I've made lots of large money transfers to Japan from abroad in the past and never had to answer any question from the tax office on those topics. (Questions from the bank on the other hand, asking where the money comes from and what I intend to use it for, yes.)

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

I have had experience of transferring large amounts of money to Japan when I brought over my deposit for my house about a decade ago, lots of questions from the Japanese bank, also the tax office were asking questions.

Curious as to how the tax office knew about this money transfer, if you know? I've made lots of large money transfers to Japan from abroad in the past and never had to answer any question from the tax office on those topics. (Questions from the bank on the other hand, asking where the money comes from and what I intend to use it for, yes.)

As I said I did this about 10 years ago. I have no idea how they found out about it, but the sum was 10 million yen for the deposit for my house. I told them what it was for, and I didn't hear anymore from them. The first and last time I have brought money into Japan. I have always sent money from Japan with Shinsei.

[Beaglehound]

I have read that banks are required to report large incoming overseas transfers to the tax office, but not sure what the threshold is. Whether the tax office checks it out may well be a game of chance. I have sent large sums over a couple of times in recent years but no tax queries as yet.

[RetireJapan]

I believe the tax office is notified of any transfers over 100,000 yen or so, incoming and outgoing. They can then call people in to explain if they feel that is necessary (a friend of mine was summoned when he transferred money to Japan to buy a house).

[mule96]

100,000 JPY sounds like a really low number...

[tokyoal]

A couple of links here related to transfers:

https://medium.com/@sticpay/internation ... d77722adb6
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/ ... tXq6MZS_OQ

I also read that anything over ¥100,000 is subject to extra scrutiny by banks to prevent money laundering and funding terrorism under The Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds (2007). They are also required to verify customer data, prepare customer ID records and make transaction records.
If the bank finds the transfer suspect in any way then they report it to the FSA.
Might it be that different banks interpret this in different ways? A bit like getting different info at the ward office or immigration depending on who you speak to...

[eyeswideshut]

A couple of links here related to transfers:

https://medium.com/@sticpay/internation ... d77722adb6
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/ ... tXq6MZS_OQ

I also read that anything over ¥100,000 is subject to extra scrutiny by banks to prevent money laundering and funding terrorism under The Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds (2007). They are also required to verify customer data, prepare customer ID records and make transaction records.
If the bank finds the transfer suspect in any way then they report it to the FSA.
Might it be that different banks interpret this in different ways? A bit like getting different info at the ward office or immigration depending on who you speak to...

I think the rule of thumb limit for banks is 1 million JPY. Amounts under that do not get flagged (at least in my experience). Amounts above that may get flagged but all you need to do is answer a few questions from the bank regarding the purpose of the funds and their sourcing before they will accept the transfer.

[tokyoal]

Just transferred more than that yesterday through Go Remit, so let's see if anyone calls.

Speaking of which, I was surprised to see a ¥1.2 million limit on Go Remit for the year!
I saw you can apply for a larger amount, has anyone tried that with success?

[tokyoal]

More on GoRemit.
It took 7 weeks for the application to go through despite already having a Shinsei account, which is ridiculously long.
I then transferred money and it arrived $18 dollars short. I asked them about it and they said it was an intermediary bank. So I contacted the US brokerage firm I was transferring to and they said there were no charges from their holding company or bank.
So, I asked GoRemit where the intermediary bank was. They finally answered that they use Citibank as an intermediary for overseas transfers from yen savings accounts and the fee is $18.
¥2000 yen + $18 dollars, not so cheap after all.

This fee isn't mentioned anywhere on the website and although there is a page explaining that intermediary banks may charge extra, Citibank and the $18 (which seems to be a fixed fee) isn't mentioned at all. Very shady.
As a result my final amount was below the amount that would have allowed me a full rebate on the wire transfer (a special offer from the brokerage firm).

All very vexing. Anyone found a better service?

[adamu]

The only one that doesn't charge mysterious fees is Transferwise.