Personal assets and tax

[AndrewChou 1]

Hello everyone from visa journey. 
I have a family of five and recently received immigrants visas from us embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and we have paid for all the green card and everything. 
but I have some problems and questions needed to clarify. Maybe someone here might be able to help me out. 
the problem is basically about personal assets that my family owns in Cambodia. We have quite a huge amount of asset here in Cambodia including house, personal savings account and cash. And we need to bring almost all of them to the United States. But I heard there is tax to everything in the US. I don’t know if all of our assets needed to be taxed as well or not? I did some research that in order to bring those assets to the United States, we must declare all of those assets to the government right after receiving the green card. What I do not understand is how do we declare all of those assets to the government? Is there any specific form for that? And after declaration, is it true that we are not needed to pay for the tax of those assets anymore? And later on in the upcoming year of our staying, if we receive more income from Cambodia (we rent our house), do all those income need to be taxed? 

 

Above are my questions and problems. Hopefully, someone can help me out. Thanks in advance :) 

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

33 minutes ago, AndrewChou said:

But I heard there is tax to everything in the US.

Well yes and no. Yes they do tax everything in the US but no, not in this instance. The US taxes people on the basic of their income, at the personal level. These are your assets already, your already earned it and presumably paid your taxes according to Cambodian laws, bringing assets here will not create a taxable event as far as the US personal income tax is concerned. I can’t think of any other taxes would be applicable in your case. The US doesn’t have an “asset tax”.

 

33 minutes ago, AndrewChou said:

we must declare all of those assets to the government right after receiving the green card.

I think it depends on how you bring it. When you physically cross the border to the US at any Port of Entry, you are required to declare any money and monetary instruments you’re carrying and their values for anything over $10,000. They will give you a form on the plane bound to the US as well as there is a machine you have to go through as part of customs. You don’t have to pay any taxes, just have to declare it.

 

If you are planning to wire the money over, I don’t think you have to do anything, beside obviously having to have a bank account in the US. 

 

The other part of it is, have you researched Cambodian laws regarding Cambodian citizens immigrating to a different country and what they allow and not allow, which I have absolutely no idea. However let’s me tell you about my Mom. We’re Vietnamese. I sponsored her last year. According to Vietnamese laws, she has one year to transfer her assets overseas in the event she is immigrating to a different country. She can wire money directly to a bank account in the US from Vietnam, all you need is the SWIFT code, routing and account number. So here is what we did: she made the first trip to the US, entered and received her green card, open a bank account. Then she went back over there, liquidated everything and made a wire transfer to her US account. She only carried $5,500 on her physically which is the maximum the Vietnamese Government allows a person to carry out of Vietnam and below the $10,000 threshold for reporting in the US so she didn’t declare anything. 

 

That’s it. She got all of her money, minus the wire transfer fees. No taxes on anything. 

 

33 minutes ago, AndrewChou said:

And later on in the upcoming year of our staying, if we receive more income from Cambodia (we rent our house), do all those income need to be taxed? 

Yes you need to pay taxes on the income your earn. If you are a resident for tax purposes which you will be, you have to pay taxes on your worldwide income.

 

 

PS: I am not an accountant nor do I like to play one on the internet. I don’t even do my own taxes. I get an accountant to do it. So take my words with a grain of salt (or two)

Edited November 10, 2019 by USS_Voyager

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

Talk to an accountant and as above check local requirements/restrictions but the simplest advice from the US perspective is: if you plan to sell anything, sell it before you enter the US. After you enter the US and become a green card holder, you will be liable for capital gains tax on any gains. If you sell it before you become a LPR, it’s not taxable in the US. You won’t get taxed on the value of assets so just moving funds from Cambodia to the US won’t attract tax. You will however probably be asked to describe the source of funds for anti-money laundering measures. 

 

You will have to declare worldwide income on US tax returns. Usually, double tax agreements and the foreign income exemption mean you won’t have to pay much or any tax in the US if you are tased at home. When you get to the US, I think it’s worth paying a tax consultant familiar with overseas income to help navigate the best routes.

 

if you have cash or stock accounts worth more than $10k in Cambodia after you move, you will be required to file an annual form called FBAR with the irs, due same time as tax return. It’s a simple form, just detailing what you own offshore.

Edited November 10, 2019 by SusieQQQ

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

53 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

You will however probably be asked to describe the source of funds for anti-money laundering measures. 

The funny thing is, nobody on the US side ever asked us anything. On the Vietnamese side though we had to do all sort of things and one of those was “proving the source of funds”. However, I found it funny that Vietnamese laws allows up to $300,000 to be transferred without the proof of source of income is legitimate because I guess so many people have money “hidden under the mattress” so to speak. Then you have to prove that you don’t owe any taxes and stuff. But as far as the US is concerned, nobody asked a word.

 

[SusieQQQ 11,584]

2 hours ago, USS_Voyager said:

The funny thing is, nobody on the US side ever asked us anything. On the Vietnamese side though we had to do all sort of things and one of those was “proving the source of funds”. However, I found it funny that Vietnamese laws allows up to $300,000 to be transferred without the proof of source of income is legitimate because I guess so many people have money “hidden under the mattress” so to speak. Then you have to prove that you don’t owe any taxes and stuff. But as far as the US is concerned, nobody asked a word.

 

My bank checked with us - it was a simple question and answer, nothing onerous, may even have been verbal, but we were asked to confirm the source. We were also asked to let our banker know in advance if there were to be further transfers over a certain amount so they could be cleared in advance and would not be held up by a money laundering check. Maybe some banks are more serious about it than others?

Our originating country has a rigorous exchange control process for emigration too. It took a few months and a tree’s worth of forms to get the clearance finalized. There is an amount that can be transferred without much paperwork but much less than what Vietnam is, I don’t recall the amount but I think it’s in the tens not hundreds of $’000.

[JFH 12,189]

*~*~*moved from “bringing family members of USCs” to “tax and finances”*~*~*