RetireJapan

Thanks for the answers and feedback to my UK pension/ WISE question. Thus far I've only used WISE to send money to the UK. This would be the first time that I am thinking about using WISE to receive money in Japan. Here's a question: if I proceed to use WISE to receive my UK pension through the virtual UK bank account, is there any problem or difficulty in transferring the funds from my WISE account to my Japanese bank account? I mean, does this raise red flags with the Japanese bank/My Number/Japanese tax, etc.?

novalis wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2023 11:02 am Thanks for the answers and feedback to my UK pension/ WISE question. Thus far I've only used WISE to send money to the UK. This would be the first time that I am thinking about using WISE to receive money in Japan. Here's a question: if I proceed to use WISE to receive my UK pension through the virtual UK bank account, is there any problem or difficulty in transferring the funds from my WISE account to my Japanese bank account? I mean, does this raise red flags with the Japanese bank/My Number/Japanese tax, etc.?

My simplistic understanding is... Assuming you are properly tax resident here.
https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Residency_for_tax_purposes
You need to report your UK pension as income in Japan. (Even if you don't repatriate* the funds to Japan.)
https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/United_Kingd ... ndividuals

So no need to worry about red flags and such. You are just moving your money from one pocket to another. (In my case, from my pocket to my "bread-losers'" pockets. A collective term I use to describe the people choosing to depend on me.)
Of course, if using a provincial bank there could still be questions as they take KYC to the level of a Cornish fishing village or the Island in The Prisoner! But I digress..

And as with high fibre diets, so long as your movements are regular, you won't fall foul of holding limits.
currently: https://wise.com/help/articles/3GBSRou4 ... e-in-japan

* yes. "repatriate".
Am I sure I'm using that expression correctly? No.
Do I care? Also no.

If you just want to cash a check though, you can open an account in Prestia and they will cash it for you and put it in a English Pound account, so you could invest it and keep it in the original form without changing it to yen, if this is what you want to do. They do charge to cash it though and it takes about a month, so not sure if you want to deal with this or not. I was thrilled last year to be able to cash a US dollar check and keep it in dollars, which I can get interest on.