MidAtlantic

Yes, I missed that. Faster Payment is a UK system so there is no way to get that with a US based account.

Pulaski

IMO tax deductibility is often a red herring. In this case 65% of "outrageous" is still outrageous.

petitefrancaise

I'm guessing that none of you knows how much these services will cost? Only that they will be "outrageous". One person's definition of outrageous might not be another's. Some might think that having any bank charges at all is outrageous, another that its part of doing business.

I'm sure that at times we are all prepared to pay for something that is time-saving and easier to manage which is what the OP is after. FWIW I can't actually recall how much HSBC charged me which means it was probably nothing out of the ordinary.

The OP might consider just getting a company credit card that his kids can use and which he pays the bill for. A card with no foreign transaction fees - I have Chase BA that I use with my son in the Netherlands. Exchange rate is fine and definitely easier and cheaper than transferring money over when he has something else to buy that doesn't seem to be covered in his budget

mrken30

There may be FATCA implications.

Scotsman In Texas

It’s a US familiy limited partnership that holds a UK asset (a farm). Lots of benefits including a reduction in UK inheritance tax liability, US compliance as well as an easier way to gift asset to my kids as limited partners without losing control. There is reporting to be done in the UK as well of course - but that would happen regardless as the underlying asset is UK situated.

Steve_

Er... you may want to look into that, the IHT rules changed on April 6th to stop people doing that with real estate in the UK. HMRC now assesses IHT on any real property in the UK regardless of the legal structure if it exceeds the nil rate band.

Anyway to answer the original question, the answer is no, the reason being that in order to do it banks have to file a ton of paperwork and can't be bothered because there aren't enough customers and it opens up all kinds of tax evasion techniques.

Say for example you wanted to put Sterling into a Manx bank account, it has to go through Forex in the UK to get to the Isle of Man thus HMRC are aware of it from the report from the forex company in the City of London. So even though you're non-resident and the Isle of Man is not part of the UK, HMRC know about it. So you say to yourself, ah, I'll do it through Guernsey, but Guernsey has an agreement with the EU to report it to HMRC. Jersey I don't think even allows non-resident accounts anymore.

Etc.

If you held it in a US bank account, they wouldn't so easily be able to find out about it. So they make it as difficult as possible.

That's why tax evasion is generally done in USD. BVI uses USD, Cayman Islands use a fixed exchange rate to the USD, The Bahamas uses 1:1 with the USD, etc.

Scotsman In Texas

Thanks Steve. Very interesting. And yes, I am aware of the new IHT rules. It applies to residential property, everything else (such as land - which is a large chunk of the value here) will be 'excluded property'. But more importantly I don't have to deal with reporting a foreign company to the US, deal with CFC rules, PFIC rules, subpart-F income rules, constructive ownership complexities, high US tax advice fees, etc. etc.

Scotsman In Texas

Transferwise’s borderless account is interesting. This is a great service for international transfers, but looks like a really cost effective way to hold foreign currencies: https://transferwise.com/borderless

It is however a UK company so wouldn’t escape FACTA reporting.

Pulaski

Yes, but Transferwise isn't a bank (or building society), so if it fails your money isn't protected, you'll just get back what the liquidators can recover.