UK ISA help - Monzo
 

I'll be moving to Dallas on an L1 visa over the next month or so. Can someone explain in laymans terms how things work with bank accounts / savings?

Currently I have 3 UK acounts.
First Direct - This is where my current salary is paid into
Santander - Joint account with deposits monthly to cover bills with spouse
Monzo - personal savings ISA with £13,000

Can I keep these accounts? I'm aware i'll have to open up a US account when I arrive but wondering if I can keep my savings ISA and still transfer monthly from my US account.

Appreciate your help.

Re: UK ISA help - Monzo
 

I assume that it is a CASH ISA.

You can keep these three accounts so long as the banks agree. Some financial institutions do not wish to deal with overseas residents and therefore close the accounts. You need to clarify this before you move because, once you are in the US, it will be virtually impossible to open any new/replacement UK accounts.

You can keep the ISA but you cannot add any more funds to it https://www.gov.uk/individual-saving...0UK%20resident.
Also you will be taxed on it in the US just like any other savings account, so there will be no tax advantage with it.

You need to be aware of "FBAR". In the US you must report all overseas accounts each year if the aggregate total exceeds $10,000. This is done on-line and is relatively simply. https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/report-...nts-each-april

Good luck with your move.

Re: UK ISA help - Monzo
 

You can keep your UK bank accounts so long as your UK bank allows it. Some do, some don’t, you would need to check with your banks. You won’t be able to open a UK account when you move here, and most find it convenient to maintain at lease one existing account.

You can keep the ISA but the US won’t recognize the tax free wrapper and will tax all income while a US tax resident. The US has onerous reporting requirements for any type of investment fund like unit trusts, investment trusts and OEICS, although you can avoid that if the aggregate total of all such investments over all accounts is less than $25,000. One cent over that and you are subject to heavy fines for reporting con compliance or making errors on a very complex form. Tax paid on income will be at your highest marginal tax rate plus state and city tax. Any gains made upon sale will be taxed at the highest published marginal tax rate, currently 37%, plus state and city tax, plus compound interest on the annual gain pro rata’d gain back to the year of purchase. You should transfer any such investments into cash or bonds for the duration of your stay in the USA. Form 8621 which is used to report such investments is a very difficult and time consuming form to complete. You will almost certainly need professional help at least in the first year and that will be expensive wiping out any gains.

Also, be aware of the additional foreign account reporting requirements of FBAR and FATCA. You must report all foreign accounts on an FBAR if your the aggregate total of such accounts exceeds $10,000. FATCA requires that you report all such accounts on Form 8938 with your annual taxes if the aggregate total is more than $150,000/$75,000 at any point during the tax year, or more than $100,000/$50,000 at the end of the tax year (married/single). FBAR and FATCA cover include all foreign accounts of any kind including cash, bonds, any type of investment funds, and most foreign pension plans. Best to include all foreign pension plans. Both forms are relatively easy to complete but will take a few hours first time around. The penalties for not filing are very harsh so make sure you are on top of these requirements.

Re: UK ISA help - Monzo
 

Wow, my mind is blown, this is quite overwhelming. Hopefully someone from my work can assist.

Thanks for getting back to me.

Re: UK ISA help - Monzo
 

Personally I liquidated my stocks and shares ISA before moving and then rebought all the shares inside a US savings account. If I had liquidated them after moving, the US would have taxed the sale of the stocks in my stocks and shares ISA so I understood it was important that I do that before moving.

This does not apply to bank accounts and Im not familiar with ash ISAs assuming you are using of them.

Re: UK ISA help - Monzo
 

There's no legal obligation to close UK bank accounts when you move abroad. You can continue to hold and manage these accounts as a non-resident, though it's a good idea to inform your banks that you're moving to the US to avoid any issues with account activity being flagged.

Re: UK ISA help - Monzo
 

We retained First Direct and Santander Accounts when moving from UK to US. Both banks allowed us to keep the accounts. Other banks did close our accounts. First Direct has been significantly easier to manage remotely. They seem better set up for international customers. The only issue we have is some verification codes need to be sent via snail mail and they expire before they reach us. We've managed to find workarounds each time. Santander was far less easy to manage remotely and made typos when updating our change of address when we moved to our second home, locked us out of our account and could not be resolve the problem without us visiting a branch (in the UK). We close our ISAs before leaving.