Sending Money out of the Philippines

[hk blues]

4 minutes ago, Gas said:

Without saying too much we or should i say my wife sold some last year and the money was sent to our daughter in Australia. There was no mention of CGT and looking at the form she didn't even fill in the section that asks the 'Purpose/Reason' for sending. 

As you mentioned in a earlier post the best option is to go in and ask at the bank. We have used BDO and Metrobank to move money abroad and it is much easier at BDO.

I used Metrobank to transfer out to HK from here - they did go through the form in detail though.  

As always here, there is no consistent application of the rules - even within the same company.

[Freebie]

4 hours ago, insite said:

My question refers to any locally accrued gain and ones ability to remit this as opposed to the original capital brought here.

I sold a condo I owned couple years back. I asked BPI to remit the funds to my HK bank. As I  ( then ) only had a tourist visa they could only send the money in lots of 5 million pesos at a time. They stated if I had ACR or SRRV visa the entire sum could have been remitted at one time.

And yes they wanted to the Deed of Sale as well as checking that the full and correct amount of tax on the sale had been made.

Edited September 16, 2020 by Freebie

[OnMyWay]

5 hours ago, insite said:

My question refers to any locally accrued gain and ones ability to remit this as opposed to the original capital brought here.

 

3 hours ago, intrepid said:

I have no idea.  So as an example.  A citizen from a country transfers P5M to buy land and house.  Several years later after some improvements, sells the house for P10M.  Now that citizen wants to transfer P10M to their home country.  Is there a capital gains tax or something like that since the money has now doubled?

 

2 hours ago, hk blues said:

Certainly in the UK the sale of your principal residence is not subject to CGT but here, i don't know if they're going to pass up the chance to earn tax revenue! 

 

2 hours ago, Gas said:

Have you actually met someone who has payed 6% CGT on a 10 million peso property in Laguna?  

What is the assessed value on the property?  

I think you might be overthinking the whole process, as what is written is never followed when it comes buying or selling in the Philippines. 

Now I am a bit worried that I will have to consider this situation, the same as Insite.  First of all, I am going to assume Insite is a U.S. citizen.

U.S. wants you to pay capital gains tax on any asset sold at a profit.  Or, you can claim a loss too.  A diamond, a property, a stock, it doesn't matter.  And I don't believe it matters where it is either.  The one big exception is the sale of your principal residence, if it meets certain criteria.  I just sold my rental house, and it did not meet that criteria, so I had to pay capital gains.

In theory, a U.S. citizen selling a property for a gain in another country has to pay U.S. tax on the gain but the tax rate would be dependent on your total income including the capital gain.  If you also paid a tax in the Philippines, say that 6%, you would receive a "foreign tax credit" on your U.S. return.

So, back to Insite's original question, I think it is actually a tax question, not a transfer question.  A large inbound transfer will need to be documented and this documentation will be available to U.S. tax authorities, in theory.  Can or will they track that back to something that could be taxed?  Unknown.  For amounts over a certain threshold ( a lot more than 10k ) they might have a flagging system.

Another consideration for me to worry about if I decide to move back to the U.S.  This is a good reason to track all financials associated with a property here.  Especially improvements.  I will ask my CPA if he knows anything about this.

[OnMyWay]

https://www.myexpattaxes.com/expat-tax-tips/expat-taxes-support/how-to-report-sale-of-foreign-home-for-americans-abroad/

[insite]

First of all, I am going to assume Insite is a U.S. citizen.

Not so , I am actually on an EU passport.

[GeoffH]

3 hours ago, hk blues said:

Certainly in the UK the sale of your principal residence is not subject to CGT but here, i don't know if they're going to pass up the chance to earn tax revenue! 

You're luckier than we are in Australia, here your principal residence (when it earns a capital gain at sale) is subject to the concessional rate of CGT at 15%, if it's an investment property then it's taxed at 30% (calculated after expenses related to the sale, ie the net sales price - previous property losses can be offset).

[hk blues]

10 minutes ago, GeoffH said:

You're luckier than we are in Australia, here your principal residence (when it earns a capital gain at sale) is subject to the concessional rate of CGT at 15%, if it's an investment property then it's taxed at 30% (calculated after expenses related to the sale, ie the net sales price - previous property losses can be offset).

Yep - CGT is payable only if we sell a property which is not our main residence.  Interestingly, us UK ex-pats can avoid UK taxes if we are not living in the UK but not for CGT on disposal of a property. 

[Gas]

2 hours ago, hk blues said:

I used Metrobank to transfer out to HK from here - they did go through the form in detail though.  

As always here, there is no consistent application of the rules - even within the same company.

Dealing with Metrobank is like going back in time 40 years. Did they make you change the pesos to US dollars then HK dollars . 

After 25 years i have got used to the inconsistency. In my neck of the woods land and property is always under valued. 

[Gas]

40 minutes ago, insite said:

First of all, I am going to assume Insite is a U.S. citizen.

Not so , I am actually on an EU passport.

The original poster was Intrepid and even i thought you were  him earlier on when you posted .

[OnMyWay]

4 hours ago, insite said:

First of all, I am going to assume Insite is a U.S. citizen.

Not so , I am actually on an EU passport.

Ahh, ok, it could be a lot different then, but I'm glad you brought it up for others to think about.

My CPA confirmed what I said.  Any gain is taxable in the U.S.