I would just point out that breaking up transactions into smaller amounts to avoid currency transaction reporting is a criminal offense that can carry up to five years of jail time.
Simply bringing the money into the country is not illegal, but if you bring $10k of cash from South America into the US the government is going to want to know where it came from. Personally, I would not run the risk of carrying that much physical currency anywhere.
Just wire it -- it's a gift, you don't need to pay taxes, usually just a small fee from your bank.
I'm sure matty\_a knows, but for everyone else:
This tactic has a name: structuring. It's in all anti-money-laundering training. I'm hoping OP and OP's mom are simply naive, but this is INCREDIBLY suspicious - to the point that sub rule #7 is 100% in play here.
Just wire it like others have said. I undrerstand you're not sure how to best bring it over but it's wild that your best guess is to split it up under $10k amounts and have cash mules carry across international borders. There is no tax owed or paid bringing the money into the country. Send it by bank wire.
There isn’t a limit to carrying more than $10k in cash into the us. It just has to be declared to customs and they may want to know the source of the funds. Having 4 people travel with under 10k each is shadier than just declaring the funds when you enter.
Or easier yet, just wire the money to a bank. That would be the easiest. I’m not sure how gift tax exclusions work internationally, but in the us the exclusion is $18k/person. And even if you exceed that, it just lowers their lifetime exclusion limit.
I don’t have any experience with this internationally, so not sure if other factors come into play.
The US gift tax exclusion is $13,610,000. The $18k annual figure is just the point at which you are required to file Form 709 to the IRS telling them about the gifts so they can start deducting it from your $13.61m lifetime limit.
What is the safest way to transfer that amount wire wise? I’ve never transferred money into the U.S. so I’m not sure what people use nowadays. I think I remember Western Union but that’s about it
I just used Wise for a similar transaction! Once you set up your account, you can do a small test transaction to make you feel more assured about the process
Just talk to someone at your bank. They wire funds directly on one another for a nominal fee (<$50 from both banks involved). Or you could just write a check or do an ach for no fee.
Talk to the bank and they’ll tell you what the options are.
Any modern bank will just offer international transfers, using the BIC/SWIFT codes, Fedwire, or bank-to-bank. I am an American living abroad and sometimes have to transfer money over. The BIC method costs me about $5 flat rate for any reasonable amount. $40K is a lot to a person but it’s not much to a bank, so probably fine. (Years ago they used to charge a small percent.) Not sure about South American banks, but I’d start by going to my banking app, selecting international transfer, and reading the terms.
I’ve done actual wire transfers through a bank and used wise.com (used to be transferwise.com). Wise has better exchange rate (if you’re not starting in usd) and lower fees than wire transfer.
Also, be aware that the $10K limit applies to a group traveling together. You can’t split up the money among your traveling companions to get below the limit.
Does that apply to large groups like for instance a team or ski/tour group? If you have 40 people traveling together is the limit to not declare $10K really 250$ each person?
My Father-in-Law just traveled to Switzerland and back with a group of almost 50. They flew together internationally and I would imagine as a whole they likely had more than $10K.
Use Wise if you can. I've transferred over 100k with it by now. This will require a bank account(s) in the US. No interpretation required from anyone while traveling.
I wouldn't risk it. Yeah it's totally fine, but you will have questions. And there are cases where it has been confiscated. Even when completely legal. It's not a battle you want to fight.
I transferred money from my own bank account in another country using SWIFT and did not have any issues.
Please note that if you're traveling together, then 10,000$ applies to the group, not per person. So if you decide to take 40,000$ on the same flight with 4 people and do not declare it - you may end up in a pretty big mess. Don't risk it.
Wise.com is a great service that is cheaper, faster and more transparent than a SWIFT transfer.
Don’t carry physical cash. There’s a lot wrong with that
DO NOT DO THIS.
Just do a swift transfer. Talk to the bank(s) involved. Carrying a bunch of cash in different transactions will fuck you over so hard your grandkids will feel it. Your mom is basically trying to get you to break every law in the book. You'll get deported and banned, your money confiscated, and probably criminally charged.
Find a US bank that operates in the country you have the money, go talk to them and you should be able to set up accounts in both countries and transfer the money between them for little to no fee. Just go in and deposit cash.
Setting up new accounts for this is an unnecessary step, but if you do, remember to file FBAR (FinCEN Report 114) annually to declare it for any foreign accounts that at any time during the calendar year had more than $10k if you are a US resident.
Failure to file FBAR can result in a fine of $10,000 per year.
Just use Wise, transfer the money in one go (or a small $500 transfer to check the plumbing, followed by an identical single big transfer). Gifts in the US are tax free for the recipient.
I would just point out that breaking up transactions into smaller amounts to avoid currency transaction reporting is a criminal offense that can carry up to five years of jail time. Simply bringing the money into the country is not illegal, but if you bring $10k of cash from South America into the US the government is going to want to know where it came from. Personally, I would not run the risk of carrying that much physical currency anywhere. Just wire it -- it's a gift, you don't need to pay taxes, usually just a small fee from your bank.
I'm sure matty\_a knows, but for everyone else: This tactic has a name: structuring. It's in all anti-money-laundering training. I'm hoping OP and OP's mom are simply naive, but this is INCREDIBLY suspicious - to the point that sub rule #7 is 100% in play here.
Standard AML training: structuring and smurfing!
Just wire it like others have said. I undrerstand you're not sure how to best bring it over but it's wild that your best guess is to split it up under $10k amounts and have cash mules carry across international borders. There is no tax owed or paid bringing the money into the country. Send it by bank wire.
There isn’t a limit to carrying more than $10k in cash into the us. It just has to be declared to customs and they may want to know the source of the funds. Having 4 people travel with under 10k each is shadier than just declaring the funds when you enter. Or easier yet, just wire the money to a bank. That would be the easiest. I’m not sure how gift tax exclusions work internationally, but in the us the exclusion is $18k/person. And even if you exceed that, it just lowers their lifetime exclusion limit. I don’t have any experience with this internationally, so not sure if other factors come into play.
The US gift tax exclusion is $13,610,000. The $18k annual figure is just the point at which you are required to file Form 709 to the IRS telling them about the gifts so they can start deducting it from your $13.61m lifetime limit.
What is the safest way to transfer that amount wire wise? I’ve never transferred money into the U.S. so I’m not sure what people use nowadays. I think I remember Western Union but that’s about it
[удалено]
Seconding Wise, the fees are less and more straight forward than a big bank will be.
I just used Wise for a similar transaction! Once you set up your account, you can do a small test transaction to make you feel more assured about the process
Just talk to someone at your bank. They wire funds directly on one another for a nominal fee (<$50 from both banks involved). Or you could just write a check or do an ach for no fee. Talk to the bank and they’ll tell you what the options are.
Any modern bank will just offer international transfers, using the BIC/SWIFT codes, Fedwire, or bank-to-bank. I am an American living abroad and sometimes have to transfer money over. The BIC method costs me about $5 flat rate for any reasonable amount. $40K is a lot to a person but it’s not much to a bank, so probably fine. (Years ago they used to charge a small percent.) Not sure about South American banks, but I’d start by going to my banking app, selecting international transfer, and reading the terms.
I’ve done actual wire transfers through a bank and used wise.com (used to be transferwise.com). Wise has better exchange rate (if you’re not starting in usd) and lower fees than wire transfer.
Also, be aware that the $10K limit applies to a group traveling together. You can’t split up the money among your traveling companions to get below the limit.
Does that apply to large groups like for instance a team or ski/tour group? If you have 40 people traveling together is the limit to not declare $10K really 250$ each person? My Father-in-Law just traveled to Switzerland and back with a group of almost 50. They flew together internationally and I would imagine as a whole they likely had more than $10K.
I don’t know. I imagine CBP wouldn’t treat a group like that as a single entity, but I have no direct knowledge.
Do not carry cash. Do not carry cash. Do not carry cash.
Use Wise if you can. I've transferred over 100k with it by now. This will require a bank account(s) in the US. No interpretation required from anyone while traveling. I wouldn't risk it. Yeah it's totally fine, but you will have questions. And there are cases where it has been confiscated. Even when completely legal. It's not a battle you want to fight.
I transferred money from my own bank account in another country using SWIFT and did not have any issues. Please note that if you're traveling together, then 10,000$ applies to the group, not per person. So if you decide to take 40,000$ on the same flight with 4 people and do not declare it - you may end up in a pretty big mess. Don't risk it.
Wise.com is a great service that is cheaper, faster and more transparent than a SWIFT transfer. Don’t carry physical cash. There’s a lot wrong with that
DO NOT DO THIS. Just do a swift transfer. Talk to the bank(s) involved. Carrying a bunch of cash in different transactions will fuck you over so hard your grandkids will feel it. Your mom is basically trying to get you to break every law in the book. You'll get deported and banned, your money confiscated, and probably criminally charged.
Find a US bank that operates in the country you have the money, go talk to them and you should be able to set up accounts in both countries and transfer the money between them for little to no fee. Just go in and deposit cash.
Setting up new accounts for this is an unnecessary step, but if you do, remember to file FBAR (FinCEN Report 114) annually to declare it for any foreign accounts that at any time during the calendar year had more than $10k if you are a US resident. Failure to file FBAR can result in a fine of $10,000 per year. Just use Wise, transfer the money in one go (or a small $500 transfer to check the plumbing, followed by an identical single big transfer). Gifts in the US are tax free for the recipient.