Wire Transfer for home purchase

The transfer of cash in itself is never a taxable event to the recipient. I believe a transfer from overseas in this amount is reportable to Treasury.

I believe if you bring into the country over $10,000, you may have to pay a customs duty.

If the gift is from a person then no. If the total gifts from a related people are 100k or more, then you have to file form 3520 within 90 days of the event, and the penalties for failing to file of filing late are (too) steep. There is no tax due, just the requirement to file.

If the gift is from a corporation and the amount if over 14k or so, then the US recipient has to pay tax.

Uh, no. Guessing isn't helpful.

A quick look at the CBP web site confirms that if you carry $10,000 or more in cash or "monetary instruments" you have to file a FinCEN 105 form.

Well, that depends on additional information that you haven't provided, namely why the wire transfer was made.

If the $15k was a gift, say from parents or other relatives, then it is a gift. If the $15k was payment for services, then it would be earned income and thus taxable. If the $15k was a transfer of funds from an overseas account owned by the tax client to his US account, it would not be taxable. There are other scenarios possible as well, some of which would be taxable.

Also, there may be reporting requirements as well.

Tom Russ wrote in news:18ef1b4e-f959-424c-8a78- snipped-for-privacy@i36g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

In this case there may be capital gains taxes due to exchange rate change between acquiring the funds in the UK and transferring them to the US.

The form 105 is used to notify the IRS to see if you must pay a tax, not a custom duty.

So I was mostly right.

Actually, no. FinCEN 105 is about money laundering, which is why it applies to cash taken out of the country as well as brought in. It's perfectly legal to carry all the cash you want, so long as you're not doing something illegal with it such as buying or selling drugs.

Whatever you say.

Incidentally, none of this applies to money wired in or out, or to checks (unless they are signed and don't have the payee's name) so it's irrelevant to the original question.

R's, John

Form 105 is used to notify the IRS for income tax reporting purposes and for money laundering purposes

It wouid be a gift to the client unless he sold something or if it was in exchange for services he performed for the sender.

Many thanks.