chesterton_fan

Hi,

I had a quick question regarding making bank transfers to the US from the UK:

I want to transfer $150,000 to a US bank account. This money was earned in the UK by a non-resident alien (me), and has had all applicable UK taxes paid on it. The bank account is in the name of my wife, a non-resident US citizen, and her mother, a resident US citizen.

I know that any incoming transfer of more than $10,000 is automatically flagged with the Treasury Dept. What I'm wondering is, are either my wife or her mother likely to get any grief from the IRS (or any other US government department) regarding this transfer?

(I know any interest earned on the balance is another matter entirely. At the moment, I'm just interested in the capital transfer.)

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks

Bill_S

Very unlikely to be any problem.

emailrob

You should be fine IMO.

DMDA

I transfered in excess of that last year when I was purchasing property and there were no issues at all.

Ray

Or open an account on your next visit ..and send it to that account ..

helwardman

As has been said already.....absolutely no probs. I transferred more than that from UK to US at the end of '07 using InterchangeFX and it was super-smooth.

Brodders

Would the Treasury not enquire whether the US citizen wife perhaps held this amount in a foreign bank account before the transfer? I recently noticed (when I submitted my last three years tax returns) that US citizens need to submit a report to the Treasury each year during which they had more than $10,000 in any foreign bank account. I'm not sure whether I understood this correctly, but does that mean that all US Citizens (even those who permanently live outside the US) have to submit these annual reports on their normal day-to-day bank account if the balance is over $10,000?

Is that perhaps the reason for the Treasury flagging any incoming transfer of more than $10,000?

meauxna

My UKC spouse transferred +10K into my (USC) bank account via wire transfer. The only problem was the $25 fee my bank charged to accept the xfer.

The reason is to detect money laundering.

When you wire transfer, the bank does the notification for you.

Coppergate

As an aside, which I'm guessing you will have already thought of, have you got quotes/rates from people like HIFX (who advertise on this site) to transfer the large sum across? They tend to offer better rates than the banks.

chesterton_fan

Belated thanks for the replies -that was what I wanted to hear!

I'm actually already using Hifx. I forward-bought a few months ago - right when the pound was at its weakest, unfortunately, but that's life.

I was going to open a bank account the last time I was in the States, but I'm cautious by nature, and as I wasn't sure of the potential tax (or even future immigration!) consequences I ended up not doing so. Even so, I was amazed at how easy it was for someone on a visa waiver to open an account. I guess it helped that I could give a permanent US address (my in-laws').