Questions on selling house in Canada and moving to Finland..

[crazy680]

Hey everyone! I thought this forum might answer some of my questions of moving to Finland..

I'm planning on moving there in the next month or two.. I don't know an exact time yet because I'm waiting for my house to sell here in Canada. I originally planned on renting the house.. but I'm not sure if I stay in Finland for a few years and then later decide to sell it would I be now lose my exemption from paying capital gains taxes on my primary residence.. Right now at the moment since I am a Canadian resident and the house is my primary residence I do not have to pay taxes on it if I sell it here.

Before I thought I should keep the house here in Canada and rent it out just so if I decided to move back to Canada, I would have a place to move back to. But the thought of paying all those extra taxes scares me so I think to sell the house now might be the better way to go..

Anyone else been in a similar situation? Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated..

[crazy680]

I also heard when you move to some countries from Canada ( Australia for example ) You are only allowed to bring in a certain limit of money and no more. Then throughout the year your allowed to bring the money in on installments.. Is there any truth to this when moving to Finland. I'd like to buy a house in Finland and to not have full access to my money would be an annoyance.. anyone know anything about this?

[mago]

I also heard when you move to some countries from Canada ( Australia for example ) You are only allowed to bring in a certain limit of money and no more.

Not sure this is true. Any more than $A10000 must be reported on arrival, this doesn't mean you can't bring in more - just that you must declare it at customs.

The aim is to prevent the movement of money gained through illegal activities.

[Rosamunda]

We bought our house in Finland before we sold our house in France and arranged a bridging loan through Nordea (bank). They were quite helpful about transfering the French cash into Finland. You will be asked to justify the origin of the money and the Finnish taxman will probably ask for some info too so keep all your paperwork on the sale of the house.

You could talk through your predicament with the Canadian tax people. They might be prepared to tolerate an overlap.... if you can prove your house was put up for sale BEFORE you leave for FInland. Ask them.

Check with several different banks on how they change to convert a large amount of currency. If you intend to take a mortgage from a Finnish bank then you might be able to negotiate a good deal with them on the incoming currency. You need to compare buying euros in Canada with selling Canadian dollars in Finland.... who takes most commission.....???

[Bob Hamilton]

I moved to Oulu from Vancouver in 2003, then back to Vancouver this spring. I was on a temprary project, so I just rented out our house. If you have questions about renting out, moving, etc, just PM me.