Greetings all,
A family member is gifting me about $50,000USD. The funds are still in their account in America.
Questions:
1. If they transfer the money over to my American account, because I have lived in Japan less than 10 years (will be 8 years this summer), I believe I don't have to report / file a tax thingy here in Japan. It stays in America so...
2. At what point does this gift become my savings for me to eventually bring it over here to Japan? In other words, if I decide to wire myself this money in about 5 years, what then? Does gift tax apply? I mean, it has become my "savings" at some point...right? How far back would the Japanese NTA look and say, "You received $50,000 ten or fifteen years ago and now you are bringing it to Japan. We will tax you." ?
3. Not sure about this, but I heard that if a parent gifts their child with money for the purposes of buying a house, no gift tax is levied? Is this true? If so, does this mean that I could potentially have them send me the money directly here (or to my American account and then me send to myself) for the house purchase purpose? $50,000 USD is 7,855,700 YEN in today's exchange rate climate (!).
Thanks,