(edit title) Moving Money To Sweden ...for house purchase! Options

[timmah]

Hello! I am looking at buying a house somewhere in Sweden and want to move a chunk of money (savings + cash from house sale in UK) into Sweden to buy somewhere. Do I need to be careful how to do this to avoid tax? Can I do this avoiding tax? If so is there something special I need to do to avoid this? Thanks!

[Mo]

are you resident in Sweden / a Swedish tax payer ?
For large amounts of Money you will get a better rate via a foreign exchange broker such as caxtons or hifx

[Hede]

if its to much I dont know but you can bring a lot through the airport they wont search for any money and if you are more then one then even better .

[Johno]

If you were really asking how to avoid tax you would get little help, at least from me. But why do you think you will pay tax? Certainly at the Swedish end you might pay tax with a house only when you sell. Now there are restrictions on how much cash you can transport across borders, but transferring electronically is no problem and safest. Transferring direct to the estate agent is fine. Getting a Swedish bank account is a different topic. And if its your own house you are selling in the UK there is no capital gains tax.

[Yorkshireman]

For largish bank transfer from foreign banks to Swedish accounts the Bank by Law has to notify Skatteverket (Tax authorities). They will may, or may not, contact You with regards to the source of the monies with a view to deciding if it is taxable or not, and also is part of the EU Money Laundring directive...

In addition to this, the EU Directive on money laundring also states that Banks, Real Estate Agents and other kinds of companies have a duty to report to authorities any transaction in cash that exceeds 15.000 Euro.

Just transfer it electronically, and let them decide if it is taxable or not ...will save a lot of pain later!

[timmah]

Thanks for your replies!

Mo: Yes & yes, thanks!

Johno: Just trying to avoid unnecessary taxation! I paid tax on this money once at least in the UK! Fortunately already have bank accounts in Sweden, so electronically can happen.

Yorkshireman: Great, thanks for this. I was going to move it in separate amounts as it is coming from multiple accounts. I will note to keep transactions under this value for a slightly easier life!

[Bender B Rodriquez]

Yorkshireman: Great, thanks for this. I was going to move it in separate amounts as it is coming from multiple accounts. I will note to keep transactions under this value for ... (show full quote)

Yorkshireman: Great, thanks for this. I was going to move it in separate amounts as it is coming from multiple accounts. I will note to keep transactions under this value for a slightly easier life! ... (hide full quote)

Doesn't matter. The banks are required to report all foreign transactions if the total sum is over 150,000 SEK in a year, so transferring several smaller amounts from different accounts will not make a difference.

However, if the money does not derive from salary or profits that you made while being a Swedish resident or tax subject, it is not taxable anyway. If you were a Swedish resident when you earned these money, you may be liable to pay Swedish tax, but in that case you can subtract already paid foreign tax.

[as8]

Hello! I am looking at buying a house somewhere in Sweden and want to move a chunk of money (savings + cash from house sale in UK) into Sweden to buy somewhere. Do I need ... (show full quote)

Hello! I am looking at buying a house somewhere in Sweden and want to move a chunk of money (savings + cash from house sale in UK) into Sweden to buy somewhere. Do I need to be careful how to do this to avoid tax? Can I do this avoiding tax? If so is there something special I need to do to avoid this? Thanks! ... (hide full quote)

If it's just a savings transfer, you aren't liable to pax tax. I did this shortly after I moved and the amount did show up on my tax statement, but it just asked for clarification. I simply wrote that it was savings rather than income and that was the end of it.

as8

[Essingen]

Make sure that the UK bank sends the money as GBP and that the Swedish bank converts it to SEK. Don't let the UK bank do the conversion, unless you want to support their profitability.

[timmah]

Thanks for the tips everyone!

[Amorphia]

Transferring the money in smaller amounts is not necessarily optimal. If you use a broker (rather than just getting your bank to do it) you will get a better exchange rate, and the larger the sum you transfer the better the exchange rate you will get, because of the broker's economies of scale.