Bringing money into the country

kyzia

Hi,

First off, sorry in advance if this is the wrong place to ask this.

Next, I'm looking for advice either on the subject at hand which I'll outline below, or alternatively on who would be an appropriate source of such advice..


My wife is not native Irish (she's Irish now, through naturalisation), and she has a sum of money in a long-term savings account in her home country. It will mature in about 2 years time, and we would like advice on the most cost-effective (and legal) way to get it into Ireland and into our bank account.

Thanks,
Andrew

Odats

Anti Money Laundering legislation come into place and would be best to get legal advice on the subject. Most a person can bring in or out of the country without declaring it is €10,000 or another currency(ies) to the same value.

kyzia

Yes, I was aware of the limit above which money brought in must be declared.

There's nothing to suggest what they'll do with your declaration, though, only what you might face for not declaring.

Do they charge duty or tax? Does it depend on the source of the money?

..and who would (professionally) offer that sort of advice? A solicitor? Accountant?

hinault

kyzia wrote: »

Yes, I was aware of the limit above which money brought in must be declared.

There's nothing to suggest what they'll do with your declaration, though, only what you might face for not declaring.

Do they charge duty or tax? Does it depend on the source of the money?

..and who would (professionally) offer that sort of advice? A solicitor? Accountant?

There are various ways in which you can bring money in to the country.

You do not need to bring the entire lump sum in, in one transaction.

You could arrange to transfer the amount in to an Irish bank account on a piecemeal basis thus avoiding having to declare the total amount?

To do this, you need to open an irish bank account and then start transferring amounts from the foreign account in to the Irish bank account
in small amounts.

SaschaKyiv

The funds may be simply transfered from your wife's foreign bank account to her domestic account.

The issue at hand is a taxation one.

Determining whether or not the foreign income will be taxable in Ireland depends on your wife's residence, ordinary residence and domicile.

Issues that spring to mind are:

-although the funds will not mature for another 2 years, your wife may be taxable, in Ireland, on any interest income being earned on the foreign account.

-when it comes to transferring the funds to Ireland you wife may be taxable on any remittances of foreign sourced income into Ireland.

-Depending on the location of the foreign account relief may be availble under a Double Taxation Agreement.

The above will depend very much on your wife's residence, ordinary residence and domicle status. (If reading up further on these you can assume that your wife is non-Irish domiciled).

Although not specific to your particular query you may be interested in reading Revenue's guides, "Irish Tax Implications of Foreign Income and Assets" and also "Coming to Live in Ireland?"

You may also wish to post your query in the Taxation forum so as to reach a wider audience.

Hope this has been of some help.

Regards,

Sascha.