I have a new roll at work i am based in another country (on a rotational basis) i get paid in dollars from another country.

All sounds a bit dodgy doesnt it.

Its legit but i need a method of being paid.

Ive been told to get a dollar account and use something like TORfx to convert to the uk at a convienent date/hedge as the unstable currency makes yer pay fluctuate monthly.

I look around and it seems that anything with a dollar account has significant associated charges for making and recieving payments – im no where even close to near any of the “hold xyz balance and its free” thresholds.

Other folk take the no nonsense approach and just accept the currency fluctuations and bank charges and get paid to their uk account with an IBAN and that also seems to me to be fraught with charges and fees etc.

(i know what ever i do a tax return is to be filled in and i pay tax / ni and my own SIPP )

WWYD/WDYD ?

*EDIT sorry WRONG FKN FORUM ! mods can you please move it over ?

Which country are you getting paid in? In the US you will have to pay tax and deal with the IRS. I have a US bank account from the same bank as my U.K. Bank and I can transfer between the US and UK electronically. I also deal with the UK bank currency traders to get a good deal. After Brexit there are considerable benefits to get paid in dollars!

im paid from panama to where ever i want. I actually work in angola and the last thing i want is paid in Kwanza 😉

One option was an offshore account via a UK bank – based in jersey/IOM etc as oppose to the US as the US opens a world of hurt with IRS as you say. Options seem limited on this front and i can either pay at the front end in form of fees or pay on the hoof with fees at a % of transactions ….. i did see one that allowed for 12 monthly transactions FOC BUT i cant remember who it was nor find it again :@

and before the hatez jump on – this is not a tax avoidance scheme its a fee and exposure to currency fluctuation minimization scheme 😉

tonyg2003

tonyg2003

What bank do you use as this sounds perfect for what I need?

Working in west Africa, I had one of these https://www.caterallen.co.uk/us-dollar-bank-account-for-individuals and a Sterling currency account from the same bank. There are fees, but they’re quite modest and it seemed to work pretty well.

I would get the usd paid into a peer to peer broker, I use currencyfair, but don’t keep all your money in there as they are unregulated. Just transfer to gbp when you see a good rate or do it automatically if you are happy with the spot rate. Don’t use buy it now rate unless u r really lazy, I always put a bid on a bit above the spot rate you are always taken, unless the market is falling.

Transfer out gbp to an iom account. To be honest in these tax transparent days if you are tax resident uk there’s little benefit in offshore banking. Hmrc get all offshore data anyway now.

It’s been 15 years since I was in the same situation as you but I had an Isle of Man (or similar) offshore bank account with Natwest. I then transferred money across to both my UK account and a local cash account. Things have probably changed in 15 years…

Good luck in Luanda.

absolutely I’m not trying to minimise tax.

Its more about not getting scunnered for the currency conversion fee and the banks mostly crap rate.

But its not something I’ve had to do before so know very little about it.

will look into that poolman.

yes luanda – its interesting isnt it …. although one thing is ive been up and down that coast working and the locals in luanda are different. i dont know if they are better educated or what but the guys we have down there are nothing like people in other countries in the region.

HSBC and it’s mega PITA to open a US account with them.

Take the lowest risk option, whoever you bank with in the U.K. will be able to sort out an IOM or Jersey account.

Unregulated? If you can afford to lose everything in there, go for it.

Tax wise, I’d speak with an Accountant.

Actually thinking about the p2p operators you are not allowed to park money in there anyway. If you do and ignore their warning they freeze your account. So just use them for the conversion and transfer out, it’s only 3e a transfer.

Re the unregulated bit it’s amazing looking at the bids some people seem to have their life savings in there, some bids are for 2-300k.

I accept the currency fluctuations but not the bank charges by using UKForex. You give your client UKForex’s US bank account details, and your reference. I’ve been using them for years for various stuff and always found them very good to deal with.

They do have various options for what to do with the money when it turns up, but I always just choose the option to convert it straight away at the prevailing rate.

People are suggesting offshore accounts – but I’m not sure what the benefit there would be.

I work in cash management (for corporates) and cross border payments always attract the most bank charges. If you get paid in usd then the payment will go via the US and that bank will charge a correspondent banking fee to handle it. Unless you open an account in the us you won’t avoid that. Sounds like the cash would be no good to you there and doubt a us bank would open an account for a non resident without good justification.

All uk banks can open usd accounts in the U.K – just depends if they’ll do that for individuals. I’m pretty sure HSBC will, not sure about the other banks. I can’t comment on charges, but there will likely be some. Corespondent charge on way through us – and they may charge to receive the payment. Once in the uk though in usd you can pick when to convert to gbp (if that’s the currency you want).

In terms of spending on cards abroad most banks charge for withdrawals / transactions. I think the post office do credit cards with cheap overseas payments. You can also find pre pay credit / debit cards that are good overseas I think.

Opening a US account from abroad will indeed be a nightmare !

I would suggest you find a respectable bank in Panama, HSBC are there and open a multi-currency account with them. You can transfer to UK as/when required. Next issue is tax as if you are outside the UK (for an extended period) why pay UK tax ?

i dont want a us account it is a uk or offshore uk based dollar account i want.

and reading the above it sounds like its going to have to be a uk based dollar account which is cool.

the whole idea is to be paid in dollars – recieve it in dollars and then i decide when i want to move it to cash in the uk to cover my bills. I have us based investments and associated tax sign offs in place already and some of my money will be diverted that way

I have spoken to both my banks neither can help as you need a bank with an international presence but it seems that my mortgage provider can.

Im going for a chat with them to see what crack is.

Jambalya – have you looked at recent tax rules. Im not out the country for long enough, ill still be classed as a uk resident and based here i dont want to change that. how ever i am in Angola long enough to get a tax paid cert for company paid tax so my tax bill will be minimal anyway and i want to keep my NI payments up to date as not doing so is just storing issues.

As for spending money abroad i have no issues on that front im only there for 35 days at a time and have very little to spend money on. – i spent 7 weeks there over summer and spent barely 100 dollars.