Hello,

I have few questions about transfering money to Germany.

In my country on my bank accounts I have some money (present from parents, saving from before,...) that I want to bring here in Germany.

Will be there any problem to do something like that?

Will German government ask for some proof how I got money? I worked before in home country but that was before 6 years. Also for money that I got from parents (or parents of my wife) I can not give any proof how they got them (people saved and because banks were not save they had that money in their house).

Do I have to pay some taxes for that money?

Are there any limits in money "import"?

Thanks,
Dracus

My father lent me a fairly large amount of money about a year ago. I was concerned that somehow this may be misinterpreted as income and this is what I learned in the process:

- You are allowed to transfer any amount of money into the country that you want
- In exchange for this priveledge, larger amounts ( >12,500 Euros ) are reported to the Bundesbank strictly for statistical purposes ( they are not allowed to share this information with other departments e.g. Finanzamt )
- the reporting of the transaction is done by your bank

You should be aware that the Finanzamt could very easily get access to your account to "have a little look" ( that access is getting easier all the time but they do need a reason and that would not be your import of funds that was repoorted to the Bundesbank ).

For this reason, you probabably are better off not trying to be "sneaky" and transfer an amount of 12,499 several times. One transfer of, for example , 37,500 with a reason of "transfer assets from overseas" would certainly be less interesting to the Finanzamt than three individual transfers of 12,499.

Thanks for answer .

Does that mean that you transfered money to Germany and that nobody came and ask you how you got money?

Precisely. Nobody.

The bank mentioned in the entry the fact that the transaction was reported to the Bundesbank

I am not at all worried about the transaction - it was legitimate and I'm hiding nothing.

As a matter of fact my steurberater will see the entry when my taxes are filed for 2005 and the Finanzamt may or may not see it also. No big deal - as I said it is legitimate and I have nothing to hide.

One of my colleagues at work told me he was asked a couple questions from the Finanzamt about funds leaving his account when he bought a new car ( obviously because they were concerned about the funds being used in a way that would derive further income that he could concievably avoid declaring ).

He just told them about his car purchase and that was the end of it.