My visiting GF from another country has been working in the US, she was getting paid in cash. The cash she made, she gave it to me so I can deposit it in my bank account so that I can wire transfer it to her bank account in another country. Am i doing something wrong?
I've made 4 wire transfers totaling 8K. My concern is that this is a trigger for the IRS. Is it???
You are essentially laundering money since no tax was paid on those funds. The Department of Treasury prosecutes such activities.
i've been doing some reading on this. Since it's under 10K should i be worried?
I can’t predict whether the authorities will discover what you have done and odds are that they won’t. They have bigger fish to fry. But my advice is to stop doing it.
Yes, you should be worried.
The bank or the IRS might consider what you are doing to be "structuring." That is making repeated deposits under $10,000 to try to evade the requirement for the bank to report cash deposits of $10,000 or more. Structuring is illegal.
The IRS might also want to know where the large amounts of cash that you deposited in your account came from, and why you didn't report it as income on your tax return.
I agree with Bsch4477. You should stop doing it.
I have stopped doing it. I only made 3 deposits, 1 for 4000, 1 for 2600 and 1 for 1000. These deposits were not done in a few days. They were done once a month.
How can these be structuring if they are under 10K??
Couple of additional points. If your girlfriend is working in the US, she owes US income tax (either as a non-resident or resident, depending on the substantial presence test). She can (and legally is required to) file a tax return and pay US tax on this income even if it is paid in cash. The IRS keeps tax returns confidential and will not inform on her to Immigration authorities that she is working without proper authorization.
Additionally, if she does apply for citizenship, one of the application questions is "have you paid all US income taxes that you might have been required to pay?"