Topic: From UK need advice on how do I avoid getting into trouble from tax office govt? (Read 313 times)

International transfers over £10000 GBP or $10000 USD that gets flagged? There is a huge difference between these 2 figures when it comes to exchange rates.

Have you kept records? Do you have your old private keys, downloaded trade histories from exchanges, kept bank statements showing transfers? If you haven't then it's worth doing if you still can. That'll prove everything you need to prove in the event they want to see something more.

That's a good point. When I said earlier that international transfers over £10k get flagged I should have pointed out that it isn't a big deal. It is something that has happened to me before (I used to work the US). All that happened was the wire didn't go through immediately and there was a few hours delay before someone at the bank approved it.
Unless you are actually funding a drug cartel or terrorist organisation you have nothing to worry about.

Ok many thanks for the useful responses. Is there anything else I need to know to stay safe and out of trouble?

No one needs to apologise or grovel for making large amounts of money. Millions of people do it every day. If your paperwork is in order and the bank has suitable forewarnings then there will be no problems.

This terror of it is starting to get on my tits. It's been done fine by many people. It will be in future too.

I've read quite a few tales of Brits depositing six figure sums from crypto sales without one single squeak. The ones who do have bank problems are the people selling 100 times a week on Localbitcoins.

I have suggested that, but it's by no means a number you should rely on.


If we're talking about a sum of yearly transfers that add to the amount that is below the tax threshold, usually nobody takes interest or tries to block it.
Think of it like this: there are millions of people with bank accounts living in your country and all of those people have some sort of income. You don't want to get targeted or linked to suspicious activity? Try to remain at or below the level of the majority. What that is? You have to answer yourself by looking at the society around you.

That's correct CGT £11,300 is nothing to do with what I was on about. The £10,000 limit is an automatic flag for an international wire transfer to be looked at for AML. As I said there are many other things that will cause your account to be looked at so just transferring £9,500 many times isn't going to work. But a single transaction of £10,000 or above means someone at the bank has to click a box to say they're happy it's not illicit money.

Are you thinking of the capital gains tax threshold? That's £11,300. There is no safe or unsafe amount. Maybe above ten grand might make them twitch, but if you got paid ten grand by one thousand different bank accounts they'd go loopier than ten and a half from one.

Ok there was a reply earlier in the thread mentioning the safe amount is £11k. You sure its £10k not £11k?

Automatic flagging for AML checks is triggered when you send or receive an international wire transfer over the value of £10,000. That doesn't mean other conditions will not get an account flagged but in general, it is single large transfers rather than lots of smaller ones. Also, the source of the funds is important, if it comes from a UK private individual or company account it is better than coming from a crypto exchange's account.
Similarly when you withdraw taking out a few hundred a day from an ATM will be fine but if you walk into a branch and withdraw over £10,000 in cash then expect to get noticed.

Bitpay also issues EUR and GBP cards via Wavecrest for EU residents. All the rest of the world apart from the US, for which they have a different card provider, is now persona non grata.

AFAIK Bitpay is dealing only in USD. Some ATMs will allow you to convert foreign currency but it's not worth it. The fees are simply too high.


A lot of trips to ATM means a lot of money moved out in a couple months. It doesn't matter if you do it at one go or in 3 months because most banking systems work on balances. You can do 1000 withdrawals of just £100 each time and it will look just like it would if you took out whole 100k in one go.

The bit that gets triggered is when you deposit £50,000,000 out of nowhere into your bank account. And it'll look even fishier if it's a new account. It doesn't matter how you withdraw it.

If you want to avoid banks get a Xapo or Bitpay debit card and you deposit BTC with them and withdraw GBP via ATMs. If you verify limits are high, but if you're withdrawing millions then expect to be reported.

I recently overheard from a conversation with a accountant mentioning that opening a brand new bank account and withdraw from it using atm cash machine wont trigger bank's algorithms/red flags. Is this true or a myth?

Problem is having a £300 atm daily withdrawl limit means alot of trips to the cash machine which is tedious and long lol. Any advice?

I've seen some of the services you're talking about and their fees are quite high. Sure, you're buying a semi anonymous way of turning a lot of coins into cash, but what you're going to go through makes the whole thing not worth it. (usually)
ATM fees, withdrawal fees, exchange fees, and don't forget about ATM limits. Usually it's going to be something like €1000 per day, so you'll have a lot of trips to the ATM before you'll get that million or two
Anyway, I got interested in these services when I wanted to compare how much does it cost to get cash under the radar vs going the normal exchange> bank route, and I came up with about 10%. This Is how much it will cost you to turn cryptocurrency into cash via independent payment systems. IMO it's not worth the trouble unless you really know what to do with all that cash.

So your solution to potential legal and logistical problems... is to do something illegal and logistically problematic. Remind me not to recruit you for my financial planning.

i think as soon as a substantial amount is transferred to a bank account alarm bells will start ringing
and the account may well be frozen until you can give the bank an explanation.
you could get one of those crypto credit cards, withdraw the maximum amount from your ATM,
accumulate it to €100,000 and open a swiss bank numbered account?
the logistics of that might be a bit tricky but im sure its done.
might be best to employ a crafty accountant also.

There are no limits. You're selling your property and someone else is buying it.

Check this - https://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinUK/comments/7lioco/cashing_out_with_gemini/  A real live Brit successfully selling a large amount.

There are also Localbitcoins traders who'll take large amounts off you - https://localbitcoins.com/accounts/profile/skegyuk/

There may be limits on the exchanges. If you have millions you'd be better off doing an OTC deal which is basically business class Localbitcoins. An OTC broker pairs you with a buyer and the money goes straight to you from the buyer.

Before this happens you'd be very wise to tell your bank and tell them you have a paper trail. I've kept all of my old private keys and downloaded trade histories from exchanges so I can trace the buying of my coins.

The main concerns banks have is money laundering. With a paper trail you're proving it's not laundered, you're just selling it for shit tons more than you bought it for and you have the proof too.

In the UK Nationwide have proven to be the least bothered about crypto, one guy told me via PM he regularly deposited mid six figure sums from Bitcoin sales with no trouble from them, but their international transfer banks do have a problem with Bitcoin exchange accounts. If you have an OTC buyer this isn't an issue.

All of the truly huge sales will be OTC regardless of the country. You can sell however  much you want and not move the market that way.

If you buy something with BTC with a gain of more than the capital gains limit, which is £11,300, then you're obligated to declare that and pay tax on the gain.

It's all just a case of doing your homework and being sensible. It doesn't matter where it comes from, if several million quid arrive in your bank account unannounced the bank will have kittens.

£11K limit shouldn't concern you unless you're really scared about being spied on by your government or having to prove where you're getting all those money without running a business. In many countries throughout the EU the authorities demand that you register a business if you're getting a steady income from one and the same source. This means that if you're cutting your neighbor's lawn twice a year you're fine, but if you're doing it 3 times a week for 6 months a year...
Also that 11k a year will only help you with money laundering laws or if you wanted to avoid taxes, that's why it's such a small amount. If you have 1 million to cash out you should be looking for a tax haven country or try to break it into smaller amounts and sell for cash.


There's also this: https://www.bitcoinluxurymarketplace.com/cars.php

Not sure about that, you would have to check with each exchange. Also, there are many large traders on localbitcoins.com and as trading is peer-2-peer you could use as many bank accounts as you wished.


I think most people that have made a lot from holding Bitcoin don't want to cash out as they believe that holding Bitcoin is superior to holding fiat currencies. They will most likely only be cashing out a small part of their profits.


Here you go https://www.moonlambos.io/showroom