Are overseas bank to bank wire transfers being taxed or should be reported to IRS? Is there a limit to avoid being taxed?

[DoninGA]

A transfer of funds from one personal account to another personal account is not reported on a tax return or to the IRS.

[jdjz9705]

Thanks!

[pk]

@jdjz9705 ,  while I agree with  my colleague @DoninGA ,  there are a few other things to consider  ( and may require  reporting :(

(a) assuming that you are asking about  wire transfer between  a "Foreign" bank account owned  by you  and a  "Domestic " bank account ,  these transfers  ( inward or  outward ) are not tax events -- not requiring any reporting directly to the IRS.  However your  US bank  ( participating in this / these transaction(s) will raise  SAR ( Suspicious Activity Report ) as a matter of course  and usually nothing come of it -- if the amount is  US$10,000 or more.

(b)   Because you have  foreign Finacial account you do come under the  regs.   FBAR  ( form 114  at FinCen.gov ) and /or  FATCA  ( form 8938  along with your  Federal Return ).

(c)  If the amount being transferred  is  large  ( I think it is like a  1M or more ) you may need US Treasury  awareness/ permission.   Equally, the Foreign country  may also impose  controls on outflow  of US$

(d)  The transaction(s)  cannot be with a sanctioned  country / entity etc.

I don't know how much of this is applicable to your situation.

Is there more  one of us can do for you ?

pk

[jdjz9705]

Good point about the FBAR. Thanks! Would you know if there is a window limit of the incoming $10k per transaction? Let's say should it be annually, or monthly would be fine?

[Opus 17]

---

@jdjz9705 wrote:

Good point about the FBAR. Thanks! Would you know if there is a window limit of the incoming $10k per transaction? Let's say should it be annually, or monthly would be fine?

---

Don't muck around, just do what you need to do.

Any transaction more than $10,000 is reported to the IRS. It's just for reporting and tracking purposes.  If you are afraid your transactions might look funny, there's really nothing you can do to look "less suspicious".  And in fact, structuring your transactions to fly under the radar (making 3 transfers of $5000 instead of one transfer of $15,000, for example) can constitute a separate crime called "structuring" even if the underlying transaction is perfectly legal.  

Also, there is another reporting rule that @pk did not mention.  If you receive more than $100,000 from a foreign person or more than $17,000 from a foreign corporation, that must also be reported.

It;s not clear who you are transferring money back and forth to and from (your own accounts in foreign countries or other people or businesses) and it is not clear the dollar amount.)

Just stick to your own business and don't monkey around.  Trying to play games can make it worse. 

[jdjz9705]

I just want to avoid being taxed. It will be a future transaction as a gift from family.

[Opus 17]

---

@jdjz9705 wrote:

I just want to avoid being taxed. It will be a future transaction as a gift from family.

---

Gifts are not taxable to the recipient in the US.

If the IRS gets the idea that these financial transactions represent taxable income of some kind, you should have records to rebut that assumption.  The issue that more concerns me is that if you go out of your way to change the appearance of the transactions, you could get into additional trouble rather than avoid trouble.