Need tax advice - selling home in UK & moving to US
 

I'm a USC and moving to the USA with my family after 14 years in the UK. My kids are USCs but my husband isn't. We're currently waiting for his GC.

We are in the process of selling our home. The plan is to move the money to the US. We'll just keep it in the bank for a while before buying.

We've made some money on it but my share won't be more than the $250k I'm allowed. As he is not yet a GC holder, he obviously doesn't file US taxes, but I do.

My question is: do you think we need an international tax lawyer/accountant to help us with this? Some people have scared us into thinking that we do. If the money from the sale goes into our bank account here and then over to the USA, does it set alarm bells going? I'll report on the sale in my tax return for next year of course.

If you think this could get complicated, does anyone have any suggestions for where to find a good but not crazy expensive tax lawyer/accountant who can help?

Thanks!

Re: Need tax advice - selling home in UK & moving to US
 

Hi- when you move more than $10,000 into the US in a single transaction your bank will automatically file a report with the Treasury Department. The main objective of this is to counter international money laundering and organized crime- there's no tax impact merely from moving your savings from the UK to the US.

Re: Need tax advice - selling home in UK & moving to US
 

Personally I don't see any issue with the sale of the house unless you have a capital gains of more than $250,000 or haven't lived in it for at least 2 of the last 5 years.

As was stated in the previous thread, transfer of $10,000 or more by a US bank is reported to the federal government even for transfers within the country so I wouldn't worry about that since it is so common.

Re: Need tax advice - selling home in UK & moving to US
 

If you're using some of the money from the sale to pay UK based debt, you have to tax the £/$ exchange rate advantage from when the loan was created.

If your loan was £100 ( = $150 ) when created, and £100 ( = $100 ) when selling, you have to pay capital gain tax on $50.

If it works against your favor, you're not able to use it as a deduction.

Re: Need tax advice - selling home in UK & moving to US
 

I don't think that there should be any problem.

You and your husband sell the house in the UK and deal with whatever capital gains or other taxes might be due in the UK (I am way out of date with UK taxation so I have no idea how that all works these days but, as they say, "it is what it is" so whatever it turns out to be - hopefully zero - you will pay that in the UK).

You as a US citizen file your US tax return, report your income and deal with that the same way you always do.

There should be no issue moving the money to the US. There are reporting requirements which the bank should deal with automatically, but that is just a (necessary and important) formality. In particular you don't get hit up for any more taxes just for moving the money around.