FBAR and buying a house

[Balisidar]

Hi all,

I'm about a year and a half away from our move to the Philippines and I'm doing more research into buying a house in the Philippines. My wife is a dual citizen so we'll put it in her name.  We plan on selling our house in January and keep the money in our account here until we move.

now reading about FBAR it looks like when we are ready to transfer money into our BDO account in the Philippines we would need to file for FBAR.  Since we plan on paying for a house in one lump sum so it would be significantly over the FBAR limit of $10,000. 

Question..has anyone had any problems in this regard of transferring a large sum?

Also another question FBAR has to be reported for accounts that exceed $10,000 in a calendar year.  That isn't the cumulative amount is it?

[softail]

That’s a great question, we will be moving in August and that has been in the back of my mind.

[scott h]

4 hours ago, Balisidar said:

need to file for FBAR.

Not familiar with that acronym but here is our story.

In 2012 we retired and moved here. Wife is also a dual citizen. We did not buy, but built a new house, so a significant amount of money was transferred. We did, over a 6 month period electronically transfer dollars to the Philippines. Never ran into any problems or questions about the amounts. I do know that when we filed our federal income tax we had to declare ALL Philippine bank accounts and the highest balance of those accounts during the calendar year. We still have to declare that information each year.

Don't know if this is what your are asking about 

[OnMyWay]

6 hours ago, Balisidar said:

Hi all,

I'm about a year and a half away from our move to the Philippines and I'm doing more research into buying a house in the Philippines. My wife is a dual citizen so we'll put it in her name.  We plan on selling our house in January and keep the money in our account here until we move.

now reading about FBAR it looks like when we are ready to transfer money into our BDO account in the Philippines we would need to file for FBAR.  Since we plan on paying for a house in one lump sum so it would be significantly over the FBAR limit of $10,000. 

Question..has anyone had any problems in this regard of transferring a large sum?

Also another question FBAR has to be reported for accounts that exceed $10,000 in a calendar year.  That isn't the cumulative amount is it?

Don't stress about FBAR.  I have had to report every year since I moved in 2012.

Filing is well after the fact, so it really has nothing to do with the actual transfer.  Even if you transfer $100,000 or more, that is peanuts to them.  They are looking for the big guys and drug money, so if your money is legal, don't worry about it.

The $10,000 threshold is the "highest" balance of all accounts at any time during the year.  It is a bit of a pain to calculate it, but I do it from my bank statements.

https://www.fincen.gov/report-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts

[davewe]

7 hours ago, Balisidar said:

Hi all,

I'm about a year and a half away from our move to the Philippines and I'm doing more research into buying a house in the Philippines. My wife is a dual citizen so we'll put it in her name.  We plan on selling our house in January and keep the money in our account here until we move.

now reading about FBAR it looks like when we are ready to transfer money into our BDO account in the Philippines we would need to file for FBAR.  Since we plan on paying for a house in one lump sum so it would be significantly over the FBAR limit of $10,000. 

Question..has anyone had any problems in this regard of transferring a large sum?

Also another question FBAR has to be reported for accounts that exceed $10,000 in a calendar year.  That isn't the cumulative amount is it?

The FBAR form is pretty simple. Took me all of 10 minutes to fill out and file this year.

[sonjack2847]

1 hour ago, davewe said:

The FBAR form is pretty simple. Took me all of 10 minutes to fill out and file this year.

Please excuse my ignorance but what is a FBAR

[davewe]

3 hours ago, sonjack2847 said:

Please excuse my ignorance but what is a FBAR

The US makes you file if you have over $10k at any time during the calendar year in a foreign bank of financial entity. I assume it's to track potential illegal financial activities abroad.

[Dave Hounddriver]

3 hours ago, sonjack2847 said:

Please excuse my ignorance but what is a FBAR

Fecked Beyond All Recognition

 

[Jack Peterson]

4 hours ago, sonjack2847 said:

Please excuse my ignorance but what is a FBAR

 Forward, Backward all Rubbish

Edited April 14, 2019 by Jack Peterson
used wrong word but sorted

[Balisidar]

Thanks for the responses.  I had heard a few horror stories about frozen banks accounts etc but it doesn't appear to be the case.  On with our planning. 😀