For my instance. I am seeking for the cost efficient options to transfer lump sum of money from china to sg. SGD100k~
The savings is in RMB in china bank so will require RMB-SGD to sg bank.
Things are a little different if you're based in mainland China. If you are a foreigner working legally there, the per person annual currency exchange/transfer limit (USD50k) does not apply, but you must show your receipts that you have paid your individual income tax (IIT) on the full amount that you are transferring (*). These receipts are then endorsed so they can't be used again.
Speak to your HR if you haven't been paying your IIT. The tax rates varies from the amount that you earn per year. If you have not paid taxes on the amount, do so. This is the best, and safest way to get your money. Any other method carries a risk of losing your money (either by scamming, or confiscation by the authorities).
Other ways to move money include:
a) Carrying RMB20k per trip out of the country. You'll need about 25 trips. Doing this many trips in a short time over the HK/Guangzhou border *will* get you flagged.
b) Find a 3rd party who can arrange for the money to be sent directly to your SG account with another person's ID. It's ideal if you keep the amount transferred under USD10k per transfer, and spread over multiple accounts. If a single bank account receives too much money within 12 months (#), it gets flagged and the sender will need to provide 'proof' for the purpose of the transfer before the funds gets released (or confiscated, if you are not able to). I've had transfers held for over 3 months while they 'investigated', so make sure you use a trusted 3rd party for these transfers (who is willing to work with the bank to get the funds released; there are those who don't care since they've already been paid to make the transfer; it helps if they think you'll use their 'service' regularly. If it's a one-off, they probably won't give you time of day since they've already been paid by you at the point of the transfer...)
c) Fastest, and quickest, would be to find a mainland-HK shadow bank. You need to visit HK to open an account there. You then make arrangements with your banker to transfer RMB to him in China, and he then deposits the equivalent in USD (or HKD) in your account in HK; where you are then free to transfer to anywhere in the world. Citi HK supports CGTs to Singapore.
Because your funds is RMB in China, your priority should be on finding the safest, rather than cheapest, way to get your funds out of the country.
(*) Unless the funds come from selling real estate that you owned.
(#) This is the destination account receiving the funds. It doesn't matter if it's from different senders, using different banks - it is all centrally tracked.
