Selling a home and moving finances

[Syena 0]

My Mum will be selling her home once she gets her visa so I was wandering, for those that have already sold their homes and moved, what is the best way to transfer savings (and house sale money) to a US account without it being considered as income or reported to the IRS?

I know you can only carry 15k into the US and I think the limit on a wire transfer is a million or something but I'm not sure if transfers over 15k get reported or not.

I would hate to see my Mum get taxed on her savings but I don't really know how the US system works for that sort of thing. I have talked to my bank but they didn't seem to know either.

So if anyone has any advice they could give me, it sure would be appreciated.

[rmncm 0]

Money Order, eltronic funds transfer, western union, money gram god the list does on.

[Syena 0]

I know there are many ways to get the money transferred.

I mainly want to know if there is a limit before it is reported to the IRS, so if my Mum had for example 500k to transfer which would be a wire transfer, if she did it in one lump sum would it be considered as income that she would have to claim on her taxes the following April even though it would be her savings? Or would she be better off doing multiple transactions of under 15K?

[TayRivers 4]

I know there are many ways to get the money transferred.

I mainly want to know if there is a limit before it is reported to the IRS, so if my Mum had for example 500k to transfer which would be a wire transfer, if she did it in one lump sum would it be considered as income that she would have to claim on her taxes the following April even though it would be her savings? Or would she be better off doing multiple transactions of under 15K?

My parents just wired the sale money from their home. They did it by wire transfer through the bank. Your mom will not pay tax on the capital that she invests in the USA only on the income it generates. There is no way to get around not paying tax on the interest, unless you want to cheat the IRS and that I would not recommend.

[Syena 0]

Thanks for the reply Tay.

Just to clarify though, I wasn't looking for a way around paying taxes on interest that her money generates once it is in her US account, my concern was the initial transfer of her money but you have answered my concern. Thank you.

[aaron2020 11,651]

If a person becomes a LPR on Dec. 31, 2009, that person is a US resident for all of 2009 for federal income tax purposes. Your parent thus would have a capital gain on the sale of the house which is subject to an exclusion if they resided there for at least 2 of the last 5 years. If your parents want the privilege of immigrating to the US, then their assets immigrate with them and is subject to US taxation. US citizens and US legal permanent residents are subject to US taxes on all their worldwide income and assets.

There is no taxes on transferring the $ to the US on the US side. I don't know if the UK charges a tax on transferring $ out of the UK.

If your parents want to avoid a US income tax liability, then sell the house in 2009 and immigrate to the US in January of 2010. This is perfectly legal.

P.S. I have a degree in tax if that helps my credibility on this issue.

Edited July 9, 2009 by aaron2020