sending large amount of cash home

[Kim]

Hello,
I want to send a large amount of money back to the US because I am moving back next year. Are there any tax considerations or other caveats to sending 20 million yen at once? Is it better to send smaller amounts more often? For example, I have heard that sending less than $10,000 at a time would not raise any red flags but that would mean making many transfers, which I would imagine could also be problematic. My bank is Shinsei so I would use go remit. Thanks for any insight!

[captainspoke]

Hello,
I want to send a large amount of money back to the US because I am moving back next year. Are there any tax considerations or other caveats to sending 20 million yen at once? Is it better to send smaller amounts more often? For example, I have heard that sending less than $10,000 at a time would not raise any red flags but that would mean making many transfers, which I would imagine could also be problematic. My bank is Shinsei so I would use go remit. Thanks for any insight!

Given that you're square with the IRS, no taxes. Back when I was working, I've sent $20-25k in one transfer to a US broker. Never a bit of feedback or any questions (tho I was using an actual wire transfer from shinsei, not go remit). Purpose was always "sending funds to my own account". ((The target acct was at Citibank NYC, and there were no other fees along the way--no intermediary banks, and no fee by that receiving bank. For sending funds to a regional/local bank, you might get nicked along the way for some fees.))

20M is not going to be lots of little transfers, but you may want to try a small one first, to make sure it goes thru okay (that you'Ve got all the details right), and when that's okay, send the balance.

So you know, breaking a large transfer into smaller ones, under 10k, to stay under the radar, is called "structuring".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuring

[Kim]

ok, good to know. thanks so much for clearing that up.