RetireJapan

novalis wrote: ↑Mon Jun 28, 2021 7:08 am I want to make transfers from my UK bank to my Japanese bank. I want to swift savings, so they transfers would be fairly large. Does anyone have advice about doing this without incurring Japanese tax penalties? Thanks!

Transferring money is not, in itself, a taxable event. As long as the money is just savings that are sitting around in cash not earning any interest, or you have already declared and paid any relevant taxes, moving any amount of money is fine.

It’s basically impossible to do without getting fleeced somewhere along the line by either the Banks or the taxman.

I’m not sure what you need the money for but there is a absolutely free way to get your money into the country: Apply for A high credit limit credit card with no foreign transaction fee and a legitimate FX rate In the UK. Set up your credit card to make automatic payments from your bank in the UK. Then use credit card in Japan for all of your purchases.

I’m not sure about the UK but for US currency I end up saving about 10% on all of my purchases due to the FX rate.