Can a French notaire refuse money transfer from a bank in Luxembourg?
When money is brought in from outside France, especially from tax-advantaged countries such as Luxembourg, money laundering and fiscal fraud laws can become an issue
Bringing funds into France can trigger certain money laundering and fiscal fraud checks
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Reader question: I live near the French border with Luxembourg and have a bank account and savings accounts in Luxembourg as I worked there. I am now planning to move and am buying land in Brittany. However, the notaire there refuses to accept money from a Luxembourg bank. As both countries are in the EU, is this allowed?
THIS is not an uncommon issue and is linked to money laundering and fiscal fraud regulations, and especially follows a European and several French laws on the subject, the last of which became effective in March 2021.
All professionals, including notaires, are bound by the laws, but one of the issues is the degree of risk involved for the person responsible for looking out for cases of fraud and money laundering.
The regulation applies to all funds, especially funds coming into France from outside.
The issue for a notaire in the event of funds coming from the sale of one property to buy another is simple enough.
Where incoming funds are not from a property sale, however, the notaire does have to effect some money-laundering checks, and if these are incorrectly carried out and money laundering or fiscal fraud can subsequently be proven, the notaire is then seen as having been complicit in this.
This aspect is even more the case when the incoming funds come from particular countries, including those seen as perhaps offering certain tax advantages, such as Luxembourg.
It is a rather daft situation as all that is needed is for you to prove the origin or provenance of the funds, but essentially, yes, the recipient of funds can refuse to accept them, especially from outside of France.
The best option is to transfer the money needed to a French bank, providing the bank with the proof or provenance of the origin of the funds.
This way, it is the bank that does the money-laundering and fiscal-fraud checks.
Then you could transfer these funds from the French bank account to the notaire, although the notaire might nevertheless still want to see their provenance.
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