Receiving Gift from Abroad

[immi2grate]

My mother-in-law wants to send us a $50,000 gift amount to help us in downpayment of a house from Pakistan. She can only send USD as a wire payment, but for that she needs to open a Pakistani USD bank account which she can't open due to some tax laws.

Western Unioning $50,000 will have a lot of fees, so that's not an option. My wife has a Pakistani USD account. Now, if my mother in law deposits the PKR equivalent to my wife and we do the conversion to USD and send a USD wire from my wife's Pakistani USD account into my wife's RBC Canadian account, will it still classify as a gift if we mention the details on the gift letter?

Anyone has any similar experience and the best way to do this?

 

[Mr_Chang]

Hi there!

I am unaware of any tax implications you may have in Pakistan for your mother or your wife due to these large transactions in their accounts so you should check with an accountant there.

For Canada you do not need to report this gift https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/personal-income/amounts-that-taxed.html

Be aware that if you are putting a downpayment on a house your bank will enquire the source of these funds and you would need a letter signed in the format the bank requires for their AML requirements. My RBC mortgage advisor was able to guide me for those requirements and they were happy to accept a scanned letter from abroad instead of asking for a physically signed one.

Hope it works out for you.

 

[steaky]

Is bringing cash or gold an option?