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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Is it suspicious to deposit large amounts of money at a Chinese bank?
My friend gets paid in cash here, and wants to put it in their bank account. But...
I am curious if anyone knows whether or not the Chinese government gets suspicious when someone (especially a foreigner) desposits large sums of money into their bank account each month, as it is an indicator that they are not working legally. This friend is particularly worried now that the Social Insurance thing kicking in and it looks like the gov't is cracking down a bit harder on us.
Thoughts?
12 years 21 weeks ago in Money & Banking - China
Of course it is going to set off alarm bells. When you get paid by a legit company, the money is deposited into a specific account that is created by the company for the employee.
Depending on the amount, the bank could easily demand to see proof of source. If not provided, then the persons account information can be possibly frozen and their information forwarded to the authorities of further investigation.
However, if you are talking about amounts under 15k a month, then they probably don't think anything about it.
It depends. If your an American you are not allowed to have over 10 grand in the bank overseas (all overseas accounts combined) without filling out that dreaded TD Treasury form. Dont be alarmed, China generally (unlike Switzerland) dies not kowtow to the IRS..
Now on the China side, this is one of the biggest countries in the world for money laundering.They have anti-laundering depts in every bank. If its not big, (millions) they generally dont question smaller deposits.
However for all you over here as teachers, etc., without the beneifit of knowing a group of rich guys, govt guys etc. it wouldn't amaze me if they hassled you over here about a few thousand dollars.
Banking over here is like the 70's in the US, 50 years behind the times. Put the money in the bank here, its easy!
Getting it back out is quite another process ethirely.
If you were to stand inline at a Chinese bank at the end of a given work week, you would see many customers trundle up with wads and wads of cash, way over the equivalent of USD 10,000 -- that's penny ante here to many of them.
Chinese bank, to my knowledge, have no reporting requirements concerning large amount of cash. And it remains easier to open a Chinese bank account then say, to open a bank account in the United States.
kchur:
Wow, surprising in a country where the average salary is less than 1000 yuan a month. Of course, I do often see people making such large deposits in banks, but they are almost always finance people doing so in an account named for a company, on behalf of that company.