On Sep 4, 11:17 pm, karotto <b...[at]theplayspace.com.au> wrote:

- quote -

Are your family non US citizens and not US residents? If so, then:
No. But you do have to report the gifts if they are above a
threshold, which is something like 90k or 100k. See form 3520 and
instructions. The penalties for not reporting are steep, essentially
like a 35% tax.

- quote -

Technically one must pay capital gains tax on the increase in value if
the increase is above $200 (or $100, I forget). You'd have to
calculate the capital gain on each amount of interest. Say you
originally put in $5000 when the exchange rate was x1, then got 0.25
EUR interest when the exchange rate was x2. Well know, convert each
bit to US dollars, and pay tax on the capital gain. There is no
capital loss allowed. But I wonder what a practical person can do.

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On Sep 5, 2:17*am, karotto <b...[at]theplayspace.com.au> wrote:
- quote -

I am going to reply in generalities since I handle US taxes
principally from the stand-point of resident in a foreign country. But
most countries follow a generalized scheme, so you are likely to find
that it is the same for you. Just verify please.

1 - Gifts are gifts. US is unusual in that they tax gifts, but they
tax it in the hands of the giver, not the recipient. You should not be
paying taxes on that.
2 - You are required to declare foreign holding in certain cases. The
form is TD F 90-22.1 and it is filed separately from your tax return.
Check the instructions.
3 - In most countries, you are required to declare your holdings at
the time of immigration since you would be owing taxes to the country
where you left and you will owe taxes from that point on to the
country in which you arrived. A number of countries allow you to defer
the payment of the departing taxes until such a time that you divest
yourself of the holding(s), though security may be occasionally
required. This is principally items reported on Schedule D on US tax
returns, though you may also have issues with asset depreciation.

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Hi there,

I am a permanent resident in the USA and I know I have to pay taxes on
any money I make even if I make the money outside of the US (like
accruing interest on a savings account). I have 3 questions:
1) What about financial gifts I receive from my family from time to
time. Do I have to pay tax on those?
2) What about foreign money I am not making but have owned for a long
time (for instance I have had a savings account in Europe since I was
a child and now I want to transfer some of that money into the US)
3) If both instances are taxable, is there any circumstance under
which money coming into the US would not be taxable (perhaps at the
time of immigrating to the US?)

Thank you very much for your advice

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<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >