How do I pay 1M in taxes?
Throwaway account for obvious reasons.
I have been extremely lucky. Before moving to the UK, I joined a company early days and randomly left all my bonuses in stock (they were tiny bonuses, converting seemed like a hassle, didn't feel like doing it). A decade later, they now have IPOed and my silly bonuses are worth four millions (!!). I can't even compute this number.
I will be selling in a month. I will hire a "chartered accountant", but I am quite scared of being taken advantage of, as I am a foreigner and unfamiliar with the ins and outs of British law. I hope to get the community help in sorting three doubts:
- How do I find a reputable accountant? I use an online service for my regular accounting (160k/year), but never needed anything fancy. I'd prefer a brick and mortar service since I need to move this gigantic amount of money, is there any recommendation?
- Where can I open a bank account in USD? I have HSBC and they can sort it for me, but my wife has a Monzo account that doesn't seem suitable for large amounts of money (she has a fair less, but still ~2M). Can we go to Chase and open an account? Wouldn't that look super suspicious, to open an account and randomly deposit a couple of millions?
- How do I pay a million in taxes? I read I can use CHAPS, but the amount unnerves me. Can one call HRMC and ask for help in figuring it out?
We are not at all interested in optimizing for lower taxation, we just want to pay what is due without getting scammed or making expensive mistakes. We are about to get our citizenship and intend to stay here. Thank you for what help you might offer.
Edit to add: thank you everybody for the help and support!
Just a clarification: we are not trying to pay _less_ taxes. I am a firm believer taxes should be paid, and I'm looking forward to paying our share. After all, we've been extremely lucky.