Transferring large amount of money from Japan to US

[ThrottleChunker 0]

My Japanese wife and I have been happily living in the USA for almost 5 years.  She has saved quite a bit of money when she was working in Japan and has over $100K worth of yen sitting stagnant in three separate bank accounts in Okinawa.  We have two issues with this, Japanese banks give very low interest rates, so keeping her money there isn't doing much justice.  Also, it makes for filing taxes a bit cumbersome every year with the form 8938.  On top of that, we have to file the FBAR as well.  Not such a huge deal, just something I don't look forward to doing every year.  The other thing that's a bit troublesome is that she limited control to her bank accounts from here in the US.  Local banks there don't offer good online services if at all.

 

On the other hand, if we were to send money from Japan to here we don't have a good idea on what's the best way to do that to minimize the potentially massive hidden fees.  Plus, I'm not sure how the IRS would view such a large transfer of money from Japan to a US bank.  I'm afraid they'll impose taxes on it as if it were income...

 

Has anybody had experience with this?  Would it be better just to leave the money in Japan?  If not, does anybody have any advice on what's the best way to get the money from Japan to here?  And how to deal with the IRS?  Or maybe some advice on where's the best place I can ask this question?  Thanks all in advance for your assistance.

[Umka36 781]

I would just wire the funds to your US bank account as the safest method (the banks take care of the reporting to the IRS if the funds are legit - you 'll probably have to disclose the source of the fund).

 

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/wire-transfers-what-banks-charge/

 

I'll assume since you already report this source of oversea fund with your tax return that all tax due have been settled. If that's the case, then you won't incur any additional taxes from the IRS. I cannot say what Japan's tax law is on transferring funds out of their country, as it differs by country. Some countries impose heavy taxes to move the funds out.

Edited March 12, 2018 by Umka36

[Italian_in_NYC 259]

The IRS won't have any issues at all.

It's your wife's money transferred from one account to another. Account that she reported. Plus, the interest on $100k is probably minimal so no huge deal even if interest income was not reported (but hey, report it).

Edited March 13, 2018 by Italian_in_NYC

[Roy&Chanel 109]

On 3/11/2018 at 11:50 PM, ThrottleChunker said:

My Japanese wife and I have been happily living in the USA for almost 5 years.  She has saved quite a bit of money when she was working in Japan and has over $100K worth of yen sitting stagnant in three separate bank accounts in Okinawa.  We have two issues with this, Japanese banks give very low interest rates, so keeping her money there isn't doing much justice.  Also, it makes for filing taxes a bit cumbersome every year with the form 8938.  On top of that, we have to file the FBAR as well.  Not such a huge deal, just something I don't look forward to doing every year.  The other thing that's a bit troublesome is that she limited control to her bank accounts from here in the US.  Local banks there don't offer good online services if at all.

 

On the other hand, if we were to send money from Japan to here we don't have a good idea on what's the best way to do that to minimize the potentially massive hidden fees.  Plus, I'm not sure how the IRS would view such a large transfer of money from Japan to a US bank.  I'm afraid they'll impose taxes on it as if it were income...

 

Has anybody had experience with this?  Would it be better just to leave the money in Japan?  If not, does anybody have any advice on what's the best way to get the money from Japan to here?  And how to deal with the IRS?  Or maybe some advice on where's the best place I can ask this question?  Thanks all in advance for your assistance.

sorry do you mean $100K USD or you mean Yen? cos in Yen that's like 940ish US Dollars. I think ur wifey meant 100k of USD   

Anyway I transferred my funds (Not 100k) to US from Singapore, had no issues. BUT I do have issues when I first arrived US bringing cash, the bank did a "federal withheld" and take a certain amt off my account per month. 

Edited March 17, 2018 by Roy&Chanel

[bayrn 0]

i've had good luck using TransferWise, which charges much less than general american banks to transfer money internationally. i've only used it for sums less that 5k so nothing like the amount you're looking at, but probably worth checking out.

[pepestru 2]

@Roy&Chanel Interesting to read your experience. I'm also moving to the US from Singapore and am looking at how to best transfer the funds. I've opened an account with CiTiBank for this purpose as they advertise that they offer a service to transfer the entire account to the US. Which bank did you use and how did you go about it?

 

Thanks!

 

Peter

[Roy&Chanel 109]

On 3/18/2018 at 2:32 AM, pepestru said:

@Roy&Chanel Interesting to read your experience. I'm also moving to the US from Singapore and am looking at how to best transfer the funds. I've opened an account with CiTiBank for this purpose as they advertise that they offer a service to transfer the entire account to the US. Which bank did you use and how did you go about it?

 

Thanks!

 

Peter

Hey hey! Where will you be moving to! And welcome!!!!! 

There's no Citibank in GA unfortunately, I've heard the flexibility about them with foreigners opening accounts.

I used Chase, UOB, DBS, POSB to transfer funds using SGD account converting to USD. 

You will probably lose on the conversion rates and transaction fees of 15USD (US banks, note there is also a fee from SG banks) but its alot more worth than bringing cash and ended up having federal withheld unless you already have a US bank account and status. I'm also just unlucky, because most people here did not have such experience with federal withheld. 

As what I know Bank of America don't do federal withheld anymore, that's what the banker told me after I explained my experience with Chase.

I ended up opening an account with BofA because of this. (initially they did not accept me when I was on K1 too)

I came on a K1 visa, and opened the Chase bank account as a foreigner with my Singapore passport, and K1 visa status. Hence, this is why a sum was taken out as federal withheld every month until when my AOS was done and received my conditional, I came to realize that I have deductions in my bank. I did update them my information right away after getting my green card IN PERSON (they claimed they did not get it and it wasn't updated on their system) and they told me they won't be able to refund me money (tried to ask them for it couple of times) and said I'll have to ask IRS for it, so yeah I gave up on that.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Roy&Chanel

[pepestru 2]

On 3/20/2018 at 3:01 PM, Roy&Chanel said:

Hey hey! Where will you be moving to! And welcome!!!!! 

There's no Citibank in GA unfortunately, I've heard the flexibility about them with foreigners opening accounts.

I used Chase, UOB, DBS, POSB to transfer funds using SGD account converting to USD. 

You will probably lose on the conversion rates and transaction fees of 15USD (US banks, note there is also a fee from SG banks) but its alot more worth than bringing cash and ended up having federal withheld unless you already have a US bank account and status. I'm also just unlucky, because most people here did not have such experience with federal withheld. 

As what I know Bank of America don't do federal withheld anymore, that's what the banker told me after I explained my experience with Chase.

I ended up opening an account with BofA because of this. (initially they did not accept me when I was on K1 too)

I came on a K1 visa, and opened the Chase bank account as a foreigner with my Singapore passport, and K1 visa status. Hence, this is why a sum was taken out as federal withheld every month until when my AOS was done and received my conditional, I came to realize that I have deductions in my bank. I did update them my information right away after getting my green card IN PERSON (they claimed they did not get it and it wasn't updated on their system) and they told me they won't be able to refund me money (tried to ask them for it couple of times) and said I'll have to ask IRS for it, so yeah I gave up on that.

I'm currently banking with UOB and Citi. We opened the Citi account specifically for the purpose of our US move and it seemed that a little CC history in Singapore with Citi might actually help in getting a decent CC with Citi in the US, or so they told me. It could have been a sales pitch though...I also understood from the Citi representative that if you transfer your account with Citi from Singapore to the US there will be minimal or no bank fees but it might be that only counts for CitiGold clients. Not sure.

 

Oh, we're looking to move to the DC area.

[Sendug 0]

I can second TransferWise for JPY>USD exchanges: very favorable fees, although you're limited to 1 million yen ($9,350 as of today) per month in exchanges. TransferWise just LOWERED its fees even, so it's even cheaper. The next cheapest alternative would be to withdraw everything on her next visit home and then send the whole lump sum from the Japanese post office. It's not shady at all to send your own savings, but these are the two cheapest options.

 

Personally, I'd probably just use TransferWise and send the ~$10K each month until it's complete. The added benefit there is that it helps balance your currency risk in terms of exchange rates.