Taking large sums of money overseas legally

[HardDrive]

This thread is actually unrelated to the current woes in this country. My wife is Indian, and we are considering helping her nephew buy property near New Delhi. If we wanted to take $100k overseas and have it be legal, how do we go about it?

Cost and safety are also concerns.

[patssle]

Call Mitt Romney, he knows and is doing consulting work now!

[on2wheels52]

<60 oz of gold. I can carry that much.
Jim

[imcarthur]

Bank wire transfer. Instant. Secure.

Ian

[Scott R]

Yea, you wire it, it's simple. It's over 10k so you have to declare the transfer but you don't get taxed on it unless you bring it back. And then there are other ways to stave that off as well.

[Tishabet]

+1 on wire transfer... No reason to physically carry the funds.

But if you do, you should totally buy a zero halliburton case and handcuff yourself to it because that would be badass.

[RWebb]

if she's Indian doesn't she routinely walk around with lots of gold jewelry?

[lane912]

diamonds in your pocket-

[id10t]

As said, wire transfer. Ask your bank - they'll know exactly how to do it legal. You aren't trying to hide anything, so just do it the right way.

US Bank says they do international, and there is a branch in Seattle... https://www.usbank.com/cgi_w/cfm/commercial_business/products_and_services/Intl_Banking/intl_banking_cu.cfm

[WolfeMacleod]

Paypal. Yeah. That's the ticket!

[LakeCleElum]

I recently send $4K to Australia to have cash on hand for a 5 week trip I'm still on....Tried starting out with $100 to my friend via pay pal......Sent it as a give....At 1st it show a one dollar fee and an adjustment for the exchange....The next day, a separate charge for 5%.....

So, US bank did a wire for a flat fee of $50........Just swing bay the bank before and ask what info you need from the other end.....Once I got to AU, the Princess (wife) and I went separate ways for 2 weeks......She had a AU Atm debit card for $2K.....I had $2K waiting at my friends house our our motorcycle trip......Beats paying credit card and Int'l ATM fees for each purchase....

Oh, if you have a spare $100K laying around, I have a Christmas list!

[svandamme]

Send it in boxes via Fed Ex or UPS, 50 bucks cash per box, insured for 500 bucks per box.
Now to send over 5 grand you'll have 10 parcels
use a variety of boxes, big ones , medium , and a couple of really really small ones.
Have them all picked up in one go, just before x-mas

If they loose the small ones you may actually get free shipping + a nice bonus on top
No bank will do that for ya.

[Tishabet]

I spoke with my coworker today, he is from India but is a US citizen who jas lived in the USA for the last 30+ years. He agrees with wire, and specifically recommends a product from Citi called something like Citi INR. He has moved similar sums back to relatives in the past few years and is a financially savvy guy.

[Tishabet]

Found it... NRI, not INR
NRI Banking, NRI Accounts, Online Money Transfers, NRI Home Loans & Remittance to India | Citibank NRI Services

[red-beard]

Wire Transfer. It is the normal thing. We do it all the time.

[fluque]

Wire transfer but have the other side check and negotiate the exchange rate with his/her bank.

If you simply send the money to a local currency account in a foreign country you will get hammered on the FX even when dealing with an int'l bank like HSBC, Citi or whatever they have over there.

[sc_rufctr]

Go into your bank and ask them. They can transfer from your bank to an international bank very easily. Small fee but it's worth it. I've done it often for various reasons.

[fastfredracing]

Not like this

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Just convert it to the standard, easily-redeemable international currency. Heroin.

[MRM]

Two points:

First, the best way to transfer money overseas is absolutely wire transfer. That's how every business and bank does it. There is no reason to do it any other way.

Second, while there is no law against taking cash out of the country with you, on your person, and there is no tax on doing so, no regulatory prohibitions, etc., there is a catch. The catch is a bad one so you want to be careful.

The catch for taking money, including valuables of any kind (gold, diamonds, coins, whatever) is that you have to declare to the US government the amount of valuables you are taking out ofthe country if the total value exceeds $10,000. There is no tax on this money, there is no law agaisnt taking it out; you just have to report it. It is an anti-money laundering and tax evasion law. There is a simple form to fill out to declare the money. IF YOU DO NOT DECLARE THE MONEY AND YOU GET CAUGHT CARRYING MORE THAN $10,000 THE FEDS WILL CONFISCATE THE ENTIRE AMOUNT. And there is nothing you can do about it.

There was a terribly sad case locally to me here where a Hmong (Vietnam war refugees from the secret Laotian war) who had been able to make it to the US and lived in Minneapolis was going back home to visit relatives who still lived in refugee camps. He had saved something like $12,000 and was bringing it with him on the plane to give to his relatives to support them. eing a refugee who didn't understand the law much and didn't much trust the government, he didn't fill out the form to declare the money. For some reason he came to the attention of the Border Patrol and they found his stash of cash. The whole thing got confiscated and was forfeited to the government. There was nothing he could do about it and no reason he couldn't have filled out the form. He just didn't, and he lost his life savings as a result.

One final practice pointer, the limit of $10,000 is on the total value of the cash or cash-like valuables you bring with you. If you carry $9,500 in cash (or gold or diamonds or whatever) but then have $600 in your wallet for traveling money, the government will combine the two amounts and find you over the $10,000 limit.

The moral of the story is that there is no reason to carry large sums of cash with you internationally, and if you do, make sure to declare it.