Sending money to US account back home -- Currency conversion / coupon taxable?

shanesnh · Jul 30, 2025 11:53:53 PM

So I have a unique question. I used a popular service called WireBarley to send Korean Won to US Dollars back to my US Account. When you sign up, you get a couple 3,000 Korean Won coupons for signing up and if you had a referral code, you get a 10,000 Korean Won coupon. I assumed these would only be valid to cover the service's fees and thus not be taxable since it's a discount/rebate.BUT, interestingly enough, even if the fee is ZERO (which it is if you send 1,000,000 Korean Won or more), you can still use the coupon to reduce what you need to send to them for the transaction. So, I have example photos. The first shows if you want to send 1,000,000 Korean Won to US Dollars and select the coupon, you no longer need to even pay the full 1,000,000 Korean Won. It takes 10,000 Korean Won off of that as well meaning you only pay 990,000 Korean Won to send and then receive the SAME AMOUNT of US Dollars. The second screenshot shows an actual transaction I did. 2,500,000 Korean Won, Fee of 0 Korean Won, Coupon for 10,000 Korean Won, and the total I had to pay was 2,490,000 Korean Won for the same amount of USD 1,783.75 whether I used the coupon (and got 10,000 Korean Won off: 2,490,000) or not (and paid the full 2,500,000). Their currency conversion is shown also. 1. Is this coupon taxable since it lowered the amount I even needed to send to get the SAME USD amount (and the fee was ZERO?) And it was able to lower the actual payment amount and not just the fee (since it was 0)? 2. Are the other two 3,000 Korean Won sign-up coupons that I haven't used also taxable? 3. Or, are none of these taxable because even though I am being allowed to pay less, this is the company's own choice to sell the currency at a lower/discounted rate even lower than their currency conversion rate shown (since it's discounted after that rate is used to calculate it)? Not familiar with this, sorry. Thanks in advance! <img src="https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/image/serverpage/image-id/50863i6BB31DB10CF18586/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999" role="button" title="1.jpg" alt="1,000,000 Korean Won Example (0 Fee, Coupon Still Works)" />1,000,000 Korean Won Example (0 Fee, Coupon Still Works)<img src="https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/image/serverpage/image-id/50862i4C780DD7FCBA811F/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999" role="button" title="2.jpg" alt="Transaction showing amount, 0 fee, coupon, and total payable for same USD" />Transaction showing amount, 0 fee, coupon, and total payable for same USD

So I have a unique question. I used a popular service called WireBarley to send Korean Won to US Dollars back to my US Account.

When you sign up, you get a couple 3,000 Korean Won coupons for signing up and if you had a referral code, you get a 10,000 Korean Won coupon.

I assumed these would only be valid to cover the service's fees and thus not be taxable since it's a discount/rebate.

BUT, interestingly enough, even if the fee is ZERO (which it is if you send 1,000,000 Korean Won or more), you can still use the coupon to reduce what you need to send to them for the transaction.

So, I have example photos. The first shows if you want to send 1,000,000 Korean Won to US Dollars and select the coupon, you no longer need to even pay the full 1,000,000 Korean Won. It takes 10,000 Korean Won off of that as well meaning you only pay 990,000 Korean Won to send and then receive the SAME AMOUNT of US Dollars.

The second screenshot shows an actual transaction I did. 2,500,000 Korean Won, Fee of 0 Korean Won, Coupon for 10,000 Korean Won, and the total I had to pay was 2,490,000 Korean Won for the same amount of USD 1,783.75 whether I used the coupon (and got 10,000 Korean Won off: 2,490,000) or not (and paid the full 2,500,000). Their currency conversion is shown also.

1. Is this coupon taxable since it lowered the amount I even needed to send to get the SAME USD amount (and the fee was ZERO?) And it was able to lower the actual payment amount and not just the fee (since it was 0)?

2. Are the other two 3,000 Korean Won sign-up coupons that I haven't used also taxable?

3. Or, are none of these taxable because even though I am being allowed to pay less, this is the company's own choice to sell the currency at a lower/discounted rate even lower than their currency conversion rate shown (since it's discounted after that rate is used to calculate it)?

Not familiar with this, sorry. Thanks in advance!

1,000,000 Korean Won Example (0 Fee, Coupon Still Works)Transaction showing amount, 0 fee, coupon, and total payable for same USD