# My FBAR and wire question



## rachelz (Mar 1, 2019)

If this is not the right forum, please guide me where I can post this thread.


I was married to US around 6 years ago and got my green card through my husband. 

However, after a couple of years, I realized that when I was a minor, my parents (non US person) used my name to open an account with them, in a foreign country (Hong Kong).

All source of funding were my parents savings. 

I was new to the country and honestly didn't know anything about FBAR. I simply went ahead to close the account and the money went back to my parents account - I' was never aware of the account and it wasn't intended for me anyways.

Unexpectedly, my husband and I are going through some financial situation (unemployed.. and more) and my parents offered to support us. The plan is to transfer some money from my parents personal HK account to my US account. After some careful consideration about my and my husband's current financial situation and that of my parents'. I'm tempted to agree.

The amount is quite big perhaps around $200K. I think I need to report this?

But I started to worry if this is gonna trigger some alarm to the authority and tie it back to my previously closed account in HK? I know this may sound unlikely but I had no experience in this and some internet search brought me to this forum. I figured I should ask.

Will wire transfer received from foreign, non-birth country like my case trigger an alarm to the FBAR authority so that they would find out my past closed account? Is 200K a huge amount that will trigger the alarm?

I think I will need the support from my parent to go through the current hardship. So if this wire transfer is dangerous, I'm considering back filing it properly and go through all the work and accept the penalty. But not sure if it is wise. Advice are appreciated. 


Rachel Z.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

In the words of an old cliché, "take the money and run." There's virtually no way that the IRS or anyone else at the Treasury/FBAR/FinCEN will track back to that old, closed account given that it was merely in your name. (Even if your parents had used your US SS number, it's doubtful the matter would ever come up.)

As far as accepting money from your parents, it depends a little bit on the nature of the transaction: is it to be a loan? a gift? or something else? Even then, it doesn't really need to be reported other than, perhaps, as a "gift from a foreign person." Details here: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/gifts-from-foreign-person

You'll note that there is no income tax on a gift like this.


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## rachelz (Mar 1, 2019)

Bevdeforges said:


> In the words of an old cliché, "take the money and run." There's virtually no way that the IRS or anyone else at the Treasury/FBAR/FinCEN will track back to that old, closed account given that it was merely in your name. (Even if your parents had used your US SS number, it's doubtful the matter would ever come up.)
> 
> As far as accepting money from your parents, it depends a little bit on the nature of the transaction: is it to be a loan? a gift? or something else? Even then, it doesn't really need to be reported other than, perhaps, as a "gift from a foreign person."
> 
> You'll note that there is no income tax on a gift like this.


Thank you Bevdeforges. It's good to be a bit relived given the current situation. 

>Re: Name, SSN
Agh, correct,when they opened the account (which was later closed) they didn't use my SSN. I would guess they probably used my *name and some passport info.*

> Re: gift or loan
After careful considerations, we plan to do this as a gift, instead of a loan. I looked it up, and yes you were right. Since my parents are not US person at all, the gift won't be taxed but need to be reported in form 3520. Thank you for the useful info! 

Our plan is to have my parents wire transfer some of their savings from* their Hong Kong account to my personal account in the US.* *The transfer will likely be Australian dollar (AUD)* since my parents were investing AUD in the past and the money stays AUD. The amount will be equivalent to something between* USD $200K ~ $500K*. I'm still discussing with them.

Just for my knowledge and common sense before we go initiate the transfer mentioned above: do you folks think such wire transfer is uncommon and will trigger some alarms? I haven't received any wire transfer in the past, let alone amount that big, and let alone the source bank (HK) was not my birth country (Malaysia), let alone the transfer currency is not USD ... I meant if my parents were to send money from my birth country where we lived then it probably makes more "sense"? All my worry is if this will be a very "interesting" wire transfer and triggered the authority to investigate and found my closed HK account my parents opened using my name back then (mentioned in my previous post)  .. I hope as a country like US, wire transfer in and out all the time and a regular civilian's transfer like mine is not going to be so interesting... but that's just hope.. so want to post my worry here and see how you folks think.

Again, thank you very much for your response and time/


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Any wire transfer into or out of the US of $10,000 or more must be reported to the Treasury Department. This reporting is usually handled by the sending and receiving banks. Before making the transfer, the bank will require your parents to state what is the "purpose" of the transfer - i.e. a gift, payment (of a loan, of some other obligation, transfer of funds, whatever. Your parents should keep the purpose short and simple - "gift" works fine as long as you're planning on reporting the gift on your taxes.

And that's about all the "inquiry" there will be about the wire transfer. Transfers of $500,000 or so are actually pretty common and as long as the bank's paperwork is complete, probably won't result in any questions. If you start receiving regular large transfers like that, or wired deposits in the millions of $, then someone may start to notice. But for all they know, Mom and Dad are sending you money to buy a house or something (or, these days, to make a down payment on a house).


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