I’ve just used ICBC to wire some money back to my parents. I asked the teller about fees and he replied it’s NT$400 for wire transfer.
Today, my parents told me they received less than what I’ve remitted to them. US$25 was lost in the process, apparently deducted by the ICBC’s agent in the US.
Can anyone recommend a good bank in Taiwan that doesn’t double-charge for wire transfer?
It’s likely your bank at home also charges for the wire transfer. It’s not that ICBC double charges. Do you have an account with ICBC? I send cash home through them and usually pay around $300 here.
I had the same thing whenever I transferred money to my account in the UK, seemed my bank there charged
I had the same issue with ICBC. I got the run down from my bank manager in NZ
Apparently ICBC (and maybe other Taiwanese Banks) have to go thru the Bank of New York initially to get onto the international market, or something like that.
When I send money home to NZ (I send USD), I pay a $300NT fee in Taiwan, a $18USD fee gets deducted by the Bank of New York, and then a $10NZD receiving fee is deducted in NZ.
Pisses me off, but I don’t know if there is much you can do except perhaps send bigger lumps less often as the fees I pay are all flat fees I believe - except possibly the NY Bank fee (But the banks always screw you with the forex rate also)
This is actually all quite simple. Most of the banks here do not operate in other countries, with exceptions to people like HSBC, Citibank etc. Therefore when sending money anywhere they will have to use an agent, who is not going to do it for free, hence the second charge. Bear in mind, that if the receiving bank in your home country, or wherever you are sending the money is not a national operating bank then third or on rare occasions even fourth party charges might become applicable.
The best way to get round the double charge is to use a bank that has branches in both countries and you hold account in for both places.
Truant, why on earth do you send money back to NZ by US$, that is a crazy way of doing it. Send it via ANZ bank here in Taiwan, if you get them to route it via their office in Singapore you even get round the tax issue for incoming funds in NZ. That way you only get screwed on Forex rates once, and not twice as well.
Right, it’s not usually the bank at the other end, but an ‘intermediary bank’. I discovered this wiring money tomy old credit card number, so it got sent back and the intermediary bank deducted 11 quid each time.
Now can anyone tell me which bank is least likely to use an intermediary bank?
Brian
[quote=“Traveller”]
Truant, why on earth do you send money back to NZ by US$, that is a crazy way of doing it. [/quote]
I get paid in USD into a USD account here. What do you suggest?Converting it to NT first?
Tell me how this works?
This is very standard Practice and even if you use the same bank on both sides, they will still charge you a minimal handling fee. Actually bank charges in Taiwan are among the lowest I have ever come accross. Basically the best is till to transfer in US$. There is not really an agent involved but how it works is that if you transfer from a big Taiwan Bank (i.e. ICBC, Chang Hwa, Hua Nan) to a bigger bank i.e. Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, etc. they will certainly have accounts with each other in US$ and you really only pay the pure handling charges on each side and the date you remit to the date the other party get’s the funds will be max. 2-3 working days. What could be bad is if you transfer from a small local bank, i.e. Taishin, E.Sun or so to a small regional bank abroad, could then be that indeed a few banks in the middle get involved that would bring up the charges but also the time the transfer takes. Certainly the HSBC one of the best, regarless if the party you transfer to on the other end banks with them, they would have the largest number of corresponding banks on their portfolio.
[quote=“truant”][quote=“Traveller”]
Truant, why on earth do you send money back to NZ by US$, that is a crazy way of doing it. [/quote]
I get paid in USD into a USD account here. What do you suggest?Converting it to NT first?
Tell me how this works?[/quote]
Truant, if you get paid in US$ then the logic is sound, with regard to transferring back to NZ, then the ANZ bank maintains a full branch office here, on Chung Shan North Road, opposite the Royal Hotel, think it is 44 but not certain, go in with either US$ or NT$ and ask them to transfer it, but whatever you do route it via their office in Singapore or HK if they have one, i know the SG office is there, as this will remove the NZ fund import tax issue as Taiwan is not recognised.
I have also found this to be the fastest and least expensive way of moving money into and out of Taiwan. My bank refers to this procedure as “REMITTANCE.” It goes directly to and from each account, so acct #'s are needed. Also, you should verify that the receiving bank has a programme in place to accomadate the REMITTANCE procedure. Usual time is 2-3 banking days.
[quote=“Traveller”]
but whatever you do route it via their office in Singapore or HK if they have one, I know the SG office is there, as this will remove the NZ fund import tax issue as Taiwan is not recognised.[/quote]
when is this import tax charged? Does it apply if the funds imported are USD? I have sent money home from SG and Taiwan, and haven’t seen a difference at the NZ end for either. Are you talking about reciprocal income tax agreements, or import tax?
I know people that have moved serious amounts of money in and out of NZ and have never heard of this.
[quote=“truant”][quote=“Traveller”]
but whatever you do route it via their office in Singapore or HK if they have one, I know the SG office is there, as this will remove the NZ fund import tax issue as Taiwan is not recognised.[/quote]
when is this import tax charged? Does it apply if the funds imported are USD? I have sent money home from SG and Taiwan, and haven’t seen a difference at the NZ end for either. Are you talking about reciprocal income tax agreements, or import tax?
I know people that have moved serious amounts of money in and out of NZ and have never heard of this.[/quote]
Truant, it is to do with double taxation agreements, which NZ and Taiwan do not have, but NZ does with most of the rest of the world, hence it is little known.
I am not a Kiwi, but my work colleague is and it is him that told me about this. As a NZ citizen or Resident, then any money transferred from Taiwan is subject to income tax (i think).
Will ask him more when he returns from his Xmas break.
HSBC charge a whopping NT$1,200 to transfer money from HSBC Taiwan to HSBC UK. When I inquired why they were three times the price of everyone else I got a hilarious letter telling me how “the service was better”. Er, guys, it either goes into the account or it doesn’t.
Oh yes. And HSBC UK will also charge the extra
[quote=“non-angmo”]I’ve just used ICBC to wire some money back to my parents. I asked the teller about fees and he replied it’s NT$400 for wire transfer.
Today, my parents told me they received less than what I’ve remitted to them. US$25 was lost in the process, apparently deducted by the ICBC’s agent in the US.
Can anyone recommend a good bank in Taiwan that doesn’t double-charge for wire transfer?[/quote]
It’s the same with Shanghai bank…I pay NT$500 to transfer from here…and roughly the same in US when it arrives.
[quote=“Traveller”]Truant, it is to do with double taxation agreements, which NZ and Taiwan do not have, but NZ does with most of the rest of the world, hence it is little known.
I am not a Kiwi, but my work colleague is and it is him that told me about this. As a NZ citizen or Resident, then any money transferred from Taiwan is subject to income tax (I think).
Will ask him more when he returns from his Xmas break.[/quote]
I understand the vague concept of the double tax agreements, and my understanding was they were set up to enable full tax to be collected from tax residents who earn overseas. i.e. if I worked in Sg for 6 months, then returned to NZ, even though I’d paid say 8% on my income in Sg, the NZ IRD would then add on another 16%, assuming you declared that income in your tax return.
My understanding after talking with another kiwi, is that this has got nothing to do with sending funds home. If a kiwi lives overseas for more than 320(?) days in a fiscal year (and other requirements), they can change their status with the NZ IRD as non-residents for tax purposes. Then when it comes time to complete a tax return, the person has to declare NZ SOURCED income only, which is then assessed for tax. There is no requirement for a non-resident to declare non NZ sourced income, and there is no mention that it is illegal to send money home. (Besides, a lump sum transfer from one account to another does not equal “income”)
The only fact that would alter this, is if the person was NOT in fact a non-resident for tax purposes (i.e. the NZ IRD considers you to be a tax resident of NZ), in which case all overseas sourced income would be taxed.
I have a bank account in Sg anyway, so I can use that account as an intermediate account to send money home if reqd, but surely when you fill out a NZ Tax return, your current residential address will be the give away, rather than which country the funds were transferred from?
Are there other kiwis that would like to comment on this and also how Taiwan-NZ’s non tax agreement status affects them?
Truant, you may be correct, as i said, i am not a Kiwi, and maybe my colleague has not updated his status as being non resident for tax purposes, it may even have something to do with our companies way of seconding people from other countries, but i know he has this problem, because there is no double tax agreement with Taiwan, then any money sent back to NZ is taxed as NZ consider it to be untaxed income.
Mind you if he extends his contract then i might have a chat with him about updating his status.
[quote=“Traveller”]Truant, you may be correct, as I said, I am not a Kiwi, and maybe my colleague has not updated his status as being non resident for tax purposes, it may even have something to do with our companies way of seconding people from other countries, but I know he has this problem, because there is no double tax agreement with Taiwan, then any money sent back to NZ is taxed as NZ consider it to be untaxed income.
Mind you if he extends his contract then i might have a chat with him about updating his status.[/quote]
what I’m interested to know: is the NZ govt is already aware of TTs to NZ from here or does he tell them via his Tax return? I can understand it if it’s the latter. It pays to declare yourself a non-resident ofr Tax purposes if you are earning outside NZ. I had a friend who taught in the UK for 9 months, and got stung for a 15K NZD tax bill when she got home to NZ.
I’d bet tho, that they wouldn’t refund the difference if you earned overseas at a higher rate (e.g. OZ @ 48%, Sweden 55% or whatever)
Going back to my original post, my TTs go via the Bank of New York, so surely this would achieve the same result as going via Sg with regard to the tax agreements?