Tax question
 

Re: Tax question
 

No, no tax.
Some here use a company called Transferwise, or similar.
Or you can arrange a wire from your bank.

Welcome.

Where're you buying?

Re: Tax question
 

There is no tax in the US on cash gifts received, nor on the transfer of funds from outside the US.

If the wire exceeds $10,000 it will be reported by the receiving bank to FinCEN, but that is absolutely nothing to be concerned about, and indeed trying to break up the funds into multiple smaller transfers to try to avoid reporting can have different reporting consequences that are a whole lot uglier, and you should really want to avoid! :eek:

The gift from your father will be a "Potentially Exempt Transfer" (PET) in the UK for inheritance tax purposes, and so may have an impact on inheritance tax if your father doesn't live for a further seven years from the date of the gift, but that would impact the estate (in the UK) not you and the gift you received.

Re: Tax question
 

Re: Tax question
 

Re: Tax question
 

Re: Tax question
 

You're welcome, but joking aside, it would definitely make sense to alert your bank that the money is coming, and roughly how much, and ask them to add an explanation in your (electronic) file of the source of the funds ("gift from father, half proceeds of sale of house in UK", for example), as banks do look out for "unexpected" large credits to customer accounts, especially from overseas. If you have a copy of the sale deed, and a letter of explanation from your father it wouldn't hurt, though I think it is unlikely that the bank will be interested in seeing the paperwork.

Re: Tax question
 

Good point. When transferring large amounts the bank often uses an intermediary service or dept that are on the look out for fraudulent activity and can acept or decline the transfer seemingly on a whim, and not even provide an explanation.

Asbal91. Can you say where in California? It's a big place and generally property prices are insane very high where it's worth living.
Many of us are here in CA if you'd like to take advantage of some local knowledge.
If you feel like a general blether check out Trailer Park.:)

Cheers.

Re: Tax question
 

As has been mentioned there's no tax, but if the gift is over $100,000 you may need to report it on form 3520.

Re: Tax question
 

Wires go bank to bank, all the way down the line, with there usually being not more than two between the sending bank and the receiving bank - for example from say Yorkshire Bank to say, Barclays, to say Bank of New York, to say Podunk Community Bank, so I am not sure what an "intermediary service" might be.

And while it is certainly possible for a wire to be rejected I doubt that is likely, unless for something like the wire not containing enough info to find the intended beneficiary's account, exactly like an incompletely addressed envelope being returned by the Post Office. …. But it is certainly possible that the receiving bank, or even intermediary bank, might flag the wire as being "suspicious", and that is why the Memo field on the wire instruction is so important, as that is the primary way for the remitter to record the source of funds and purpose of the wire.

Re: Tax question
 

Or dept. as mentioned.

I've had my issues recently when sending large amounts to my European suppliers. (Apparently there's a certain threshold that triggers this, at least with my bank.)

Details haven't changed in 5 years, been doing wires quarterly in that time.
When I go to the bank, for the amounts I do, they have to go through some other entity/dept to get a code. Perhaps you know more about that part?
I had recent 'issues' for no discernible reason and no good explanation. All fine now but apparently 'someone' was overzealous in determining if I was 'comfortable sending a wire'.:confused:

And my default details in the system are no different than they were five years ago.
Seems all arbitrary depending on the person on the phone.

PM if you really want the details but nothing major to add.

Re: Tax question
 

Wires scare me. Only had to do one - buying a house.

Re: Tax question
 

Just a note from my similar experience but I called and notified BoA on the advice of this forum to expect a large sum to arrive in my account from abroad and they told me there was no need to tell them in advance.

It certainly wouldn't hurt if you did, but I don't think it's necessary.

Re: Tax question
 

The branch/ call center staff don't understand - but trust me, it's something that you want to do! :nod: