Selling Property??

[thompsongunner06]

This is just a question,,,,If someone sells property in Russia what would be the best way to keep/move the funds(tax free)? Wire money to a bank outside the U.S.??

[Phil dAmore]

I asked the same question very recently and it appears that the best way is to wire it via SWIFT interbank transfer. 

Taxes are something I'm still working on but depending on the situation surrounding the sale tax liability could be minimal, if there is any at all.

Best advice I got was to contact a tax attorney. I offer you the same advice.

[Bruce]

After one sells a flat in Russia isn't there some bank in Russia where one can open an account in a bank with a branch in the USA, deposit the money, say 100K for example, and just pay the wire fee to transfer the money to the USA to potentially invest in our economy etc.  Or are there prohibitive laws and policies that extract taxes or other fees on their side or our side???   Good questions that I sure do not know the answer to. 

What is the most economical way to take 100K out of Russia for a Russian to bring to the USA for whatever reason???

[mendeleyev]

Doesn't mean I'm right.....but can't think of many banks with those kind of affiliations.  HSBC Bank Holdings (USA) has 3 locations in Russia: Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Saint Petersburg. 

Bank of Russia (Банк России) is the central bank of Russia and headquartered in Moscow with locations all over the country.  Depending on the branch, the time of day, and the willingness to help, they may be able to handle a large wire.

[Misha]

Doesn't mean I'm right.....but can't think of many banks with those kind of affiliations.  HSBC Bank Holdings (USA) has 3 locations in Russia: Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Saint Petersburg. 

Bank of Russia (Банк России) is the central bank of Russia and headquartered in Moscow with locations all over the country.  Depending on the branch, the time of day, and the willingness to help, they may be able to handle a large wire.

I wired a large amount of cash for my wife with Sberbank in a small regional city. Cost of transfer: 30-some-odd-dollars and the money was in Canada the next day.

[Phil dAmore]

When I bought my apartment I had the money wired from my US Bank to Baltiskii Bank.  Yes they actually charged me to open an account, no they didn't pay me any interest while the money was in that account and yes they charged me 1% of the total to withdraw my own money.  Don't ya just love Russian banking?

That being said I see no reason why it won't work the other way, I still have the open account in both Russia and the US, so it should be a simple matter to wire it back home although I'm sure there will be some additional charges somewhere.

Although things are improving, Russian banks still aren't much more than glorified currency exchanges.

[thompsongunner06]

Thanks for the posts,,,A former Russian asked us for advise,,they were gonna sell their property and wanted to bring the money to the US. I told them that the IRS will want 30%. If you bring it through an airport you have to declare it,then pay tax's. Right? Even if you wire 10,000 or 100,000 to a US bank the IRS will be notified so you have to claim it as income. They were thinking about using funds toward a new house.

[viking]

My understanding is that $10K is the trigger point where a bank must file a SAR, which I think is a suspicious account report. Mostly to prevent drug or terrorism money from flowing through the banking system. Anything under 10 does not trigger anything. May take awhile to transfer $100K in $5-8K increments but it should work. But I would not do it every day.