My father is elderly and recently recovered from a massive heart attack (He is 78, but doing really well considering.) I guess that the heart attack made him start to think about his will, and he wants to give all his children their inheritance before he dies, but I am the only one living abroad. I have lived in the US for thirty years. Does anyone know how I go about receiving this gift into my bank account. I am not sure, but I believe he wants to cut me a cheque from his Hallifax account and I don't know if I can deposit it in my US credit union account or even if it is allowable. Could he wire it to my account? Is there a maximum ammount I can have transfered? Would it be better to open a UK account somewhere and get a ATM card that I could use here? Will I have to pay taxes on it? Any info would be appreciated.
Kind regards,
Gina
He can get a US$ bankers draft and mail it to you (registered). You'll have a job opening a UK bank account. Tax issues depend on amounts.
Never had a problem in mailing to my USA bank account.
But check for taxes,if possible to have mail certain amounts every year so that it does not push you into a higher tax bracket.
I think there was a $10,000 gift allowance per year before you got taxed,but regardless double check.
Today he called me and wants me to fly back and recieve it in person. I explained that there is a limit of $12,000 per year that I can receive as a gift without being taxed. However, according to IRS rules, he can give up to $12,000 to each member of my family without any of us being taxed as long as we all have seperate accounts (we do) He also wondered what would happen if he just gave the money to me in cash, is there a penalty for bringing cash back into the USA? I wonder what would be less...the taxes or the exchange rate for eur/sterling to dollars? He also suggested that he would be extremely happy if I put the money down on a house over there for my retirement.....He never thought that I would stay in the US this long, and figured that one day I would want to come home. I must admit that it sounds very romantic to me to owna piece of property out in the countryside in England or Wales (I'm from the Manchester area orginally.) But. I don't know if could fit back in over there after all this time.
Thanks for helping me with this, I truly appreciate it. It's a lot to think about.
Gina