RetireJapan

Just wanted to see if anyone has had the same experience as me when transferring money to interactive brokers - I transferred some money and was charged 800 yen- it all was very smooth and the smbc were very helpful when I spoke to them on the phone. This was two weeks ago I checked my smbc account today and saw that there was another 2500 yen charge today (外国関係)- has anyone else been charged this and is there a way to only pay the 800 yen? Or am I being a cheapskate?

Did you perhaps send the money to the wrong IBKR account?
https://www.smbc.co.jp/kojin/fee/resour ... aikoku.pdf

Here is a guide.
https://www.ysky.info/entry/2021/02/12/070000

There seem to be several stories about extra charges suddenly appearing related to transfers to IBKR (e.g. see posts on the thread: Transfering money from Japan to Interactive Brokers LLC).

It's making me nervous, and I'm still confused which is better use of funds: Using a Japanese broker with minimum charges for a few years, then taking a hit selling to re-buy when leaving Japan; Or using IBKR to avoid this final hit, but getting hit with large extra banking charge as at least anecdotally this seems to be a regular occurrence. In the case of transferring to IBKR it seems the banks are capricious, and there is no comeback or complaints procedure.

Any opinions?

For IBKR

You should have been given a Specific Account Number at

Wire Funds to:
Citibank N.A. Ltd., Yamabuki Branch
Bank / Branch Code
0401 / 802
Bank Account Title & Address
IBショウケン　コキャクウケトリコウザ
Bank Account Number
(You need to check Your Acct. No.)
The bank account number listed above is a virtual account number (VAN) assigned specifically to you. Use it exclusively for deposits initiated by yourself and do not share it with anyone else.


Than the transfer is a Japan Interbank so low cost or free...

NakaZatoHamlet wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 4:14 am There seem to be several stories about extra charges suddenly appearing related to transfers to IBKR (e.g. see posts on the thread: Transfering money from Japan to Interactive Brokers LLC).

It's making me nervous, and I'm still confused which is better use of funds: Using a Japanese broker with minimum charges for a few years, then taking a hit selling to re-buy when leaving Japan; Or using IBKR to avoid this final hit, but getting hit with large extra banking charge as at least anecdotally this seems to be a regular occurrence. In the case of transferring to IBKR it seems the banks are capricious, and there is no comeback or complaints procedure.

Any opinions?

There is no correct way to answer this other than it depends.

Relevant factors include:

- how much and how frequently you'll be investing: affects the fraction of your investments that will be lost initially to higher IBKR transaction fees
- how long you'll be in Japan: affects how much you'll be expected to lose to capital gains taxes if having to sell and re-buy again via a Japanese broker
- where you'll be moving to (whether higher or lower capital gains tax rate than Japan...)
- whether or not you'll be able to enjoy the tax benefit of internal reinvestments of dividends with products bought via IBKR
- the balance between all these factors

You could use a spreadsheet to run some simple comparison calculations for your scenario.

One thing that can be said for certain is that taking advantage of NISA/tNISA via a Japanese broker is a no-brainer. The tax inefficiency of paying
capital gains part way through is then no longer a problem.