Transferring Money when you move

[noremac 3]

I have a NAB gold card and it has $0 international transaction fees, and also comes with free Tavel insurance.

[Darren526 0]

Hey everyone

(Sorry if this is in the wrong forum but I thought the best thing was to ask Aussies who have been through the same thing)

We aren't applying for the visa until a little bit later this year but I am wanting to do as much research as I can. How did everyone go about transferring money when they moved from Australia to the USA? Do you get taxed on how much you bring over? All my savings would already have been taxed in Australia (due to it being work wages) but was curious if the US taxes them again. I would have quite a lot saved so I dont want to carry it on me (for obvious reasons) and also dont want to send it through Western Union due to their charges - is there any other way?

Thanks in advance for anyone that is able to provide me with some insight

Hi;

I am about to use this company to transfer funds from AU$ into US$. HiFX(based in Sydney and around the world). Very competitive exchange rates. Way better than the banks. If you are transferring over $10,000, no charge to do this. They just get a small fraction from the exchange.

http://www.hifx.com.au/

You will be surprised how much more money you get in exchange when you use this company. Compare it to your bank.

I have not exchanged money using them yet. Will once my visa is approved. Have set up an account with them and been checking out how much money I will gain when exchanging.

eg AU$12000 = US$12520 on today's exchange rate at 1.043.

I was referred to this company by my overseas removalist

regards

Darren

[lynJer 7]

Im on the East coast between NYC and DC, WaWa charges NO BANK FEES TO WITHDRAW ON AN eftpos transaction card.....

Used it on many occaissions as do my kids - as they have aussie family who put aussie dollars into their aussie a/c for b/day and xmas etc....

ALL banks have many many different transaction a/c's so its important to alter your a/c before you travel should you have a transaction a/c that incurs unwanted fees ..- if you have a mortgage in Australia, you should be able to withdraw your money without it costing you any fees whatsoever. Some a.c's are set up to be used in certain ways and not others....I worked for the nab and so Im very familiar with their products not cba or wbc. That being said, citibank and other style of banks do offer great a/c's which are generally used as an 'online' a/c or a non branch supported product...and they would be perfect for anyone who is travelling to live in the usa....as their isnt any branch here u can go to....

Incidently Great Western is owned by nab and should you need any branch support and live in the mid west this bank should be able to access your accounts for you.

Fees are debited to your a/c from the bank whose atm you are using.

and fees can be debited to your a/c from your bank for transferring money.

Ask your bank to provide you with the product disclosure and fees and charges booklet for your accounts so you will know what fees you will incur before you incur them...then change your a/c or bank if they are ripping you off.. Your bank in Australia by law has to provide these for you.

[lynJer 7]

Hi;

I am about to use this company to transfer funds from AU$ into US$. HiFX(based in Sydney and around the world). Very competitive exchange rates. Way better than the banks. If you are transferring over $10,000, no charge to do this. They just get a small fraction from the exchange.

http://www.hifx.com.au/

You will be surprised how much more money you get in exchange when you use this company. Compare it to your bank.

I have not exchanged money using them yet. Will once my visa is approved. Have set up an account with them and been checking out how much money I will gain when exchanging.

eg AU$12000 = US$12520 on today's exchange rate at 1.043.

I was referred to this company by my overseas removalist

regards

Darren

Hi Darren.....they look fine....

My only concern would be if something goes haywire....ask them if they have a local number you can call if you are here in the states-....? I noted that their only number is a sydney number.....I have had to call my exchange company many times from the usa and lucky for me they work 24/7 and its only a local call from here in usa.

[Shaunna&Tony 1]

Thanks everyone for the tips I'm still a bit confused about the taxing thing, would my money get taxed again if I brought it over to the US?

[Lainie B 465]

Thanks everyone for the tips I'm still a bit confused about the taxing thing, would my money get taxed again if I brought it over to the US?

When do you plan to get married?

[Shaunna&Tony 1]

Well we aren't applying for the visa until the end of this year so we are hoping to have it approved by late August, if so we would then be getting married in September if it all goes to plan

[Lainie B 465]

Since the US tax year is the calender year:

For any money earned during 2011 and before, that is your money and you won't be taxed on it.

For money earned in 2012, it depends on whether you are to be a resident for tax purposes (the definition of resident is complex but here they are: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc851.html)

If you are aiming to enter the US with your K-1 in August and get married in September, then you probably won't have your green card by the end of 2012. So you will probably not pass the "green card" test nor the "substantial presence" test for 2012.

For this reason you would not have to declare anything for 2012 since you earned no money in the US and you are not a resident for tax purposes. Your husband would file as "married filing separately" and he would only declare his earnings for 2012. (By 2013 you would be a resident and would need to declare your worldwide income, but that's a while away).

HOWEVER, since it is often more beneficial tax-wise for couples in this situation to file as "married filing jointly" then as a spouse of a US citizen you may elect to be treated as a resident for tax purposes, even if you don't qualify under the "green card" test or the "substantial presence" test. You must include a declaration signed by both of you to that effect, and you must file by mail as you cannot e-file with that declaration. If you make this choice then you would have to include all of your worldwide income for the year of 2012, and then you would exclude your non-US income (up to a certain threshold), and also gain credit for foreign taxes paid (to a point). Turbotax does a good job of handling this situation. There is an excellent discussion of how to do this using turbotax here:http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/354422-2011-turbotax-w-foreign-income-to-report/

Bear in mind that the procedure may change for the 2012 tax year - this discussion relates to the 2011 tax year. The discussion above also has an example of the declaration.

The choice of whether to be treated as a resident for tax purposes is yours to make in this situation, when making the choice you need to look at both options and figure out which is best for you and your husband. If you are earning a lot of money outside the US you might not want to be a resident for tax purposes that first year. After you get your green card, or meet the substantial presence test, you won't have a choice, but presumably you will have little to no foreign income by then anyway.

[milopnkr 0]

G'day Guys, Im an Aussie Senior Business Banking Manager....

Copy this web address as its got a WHOLE HEAP OF OPTIONS FOR YOU ALL TO USE...and you will see its cheaper than the banks - one of which was charging me (its employer for over 10 years more)

http://www.ozforex.com.au/ all you do is set up an a/c with them....link it with an aussie a/c and then either have your beloved as your usa beneficiary a/c or set up your own when you next get to the states....

then you can either call or go online to send the amt....ozforex give you 24 hours to then bpay the funds into your ozforex a/c they usually dont charge for the first 2 transactions...after that its 15bucks....and the exchange rates are very good....

or

You can consider fwd exchange rates for large amts....basically that means you can 'lock in' a rate for a fwd date....especially good if you are expecting large sums of money in about 6 mths time...but, be warned...banks know exactly which way the exchange rates between the countries are going...

My treasury dept of my bank told me to expect parity between the us and aust dollar - I said NO WAY..... as if.....then the STATE MGR ( a good friend) told me it the aussie dollar is going to go past it....I laughed at her....

any other issues...just email me....

not to rain on the parade but with some funky new US international taxation laws, Ozforex is no longer accepting US based customers unless you established an account with them previously. I learned this when I moved back to the US and tried to change my address back to the USA. I'm no banker but what the rep told me was that the US majorly changed their laws about handling international movement of monies and Ozforex didn't have the capabilities to conform to the restrictions at the moment. They have to do initiate some changes and set up certain systems before they can start accepting US based customers again, but this should happen within 1-2 yr. I'm not sure why this is waived for previous US based customers...??!!

It's unfortunate because it's an awesome service with the best rates. I've used them several times transferring money between the countries and the money shows up within a day or two. I've never had to pay a fee for any transaction, but I was exchanging big lump sums and I believe after a certain amount of money, the fee is waived.