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Hoots : Any US tax implications --- transferring UK ISA balance to USA My wife has an e-ISA in the UK, from her time living there. It is a savings ISA, not a shares ISA. It is earning very low interest. For ease, I'd like to transfer - freshhoot.com

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Any US tax implications --- transferring UK ISA balance to USA
My wife has an e-ISA in the UK, from her time living there. It is a savings ISA, not a shares ISA. It is earning very low interest. For ease, I'd like to transfer the money to our USA accounts so that (1) I can consolidate our savings, and (2) invest it with the rest of our portfolio (US-based).

Since the ISA are her savings, when I transfer it to the USA, will I have to pay any taxes or get any odd questions from the IRS? The amount is ,000, but again, it's all from UK savings so I'm hoping/assuming I can transfer it in, declare it is savings, and pay no taxes.

I know that any interest/earnings after it hits the US will be taxable.
My question, for the one-time ,000 transfer (ISA savings to USA account), will I owe any US/IRS taxes? If so, I may just keep it in the UK.

Thanks!


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I know that any interest/earnings after it hits the US will be taxable.

NO, and this can land you in a lot of troubles! Any interest/earnings is taxable in the US, if your wife is a US tax resident, regardless of where the money is.

It should have been reported on FBAR, and maybe on form 8398, and willful omission of these accounts on these forms can cost you thousands of dollars in penalties. Especially if you also hadn't reported the actual income.

The amount is ,000, but again, it's all from UK savings so I'm
hoping/assuming I can transfer it in, declare it is savings, and pay
no taxes.

If you have properly declared the money on FBAR/Form 8938 and paid the taxes on the interest earned, then you should be able to transfer it as you wish. If you didn't report the amounts, the IRS may start asking questions when they see the transfer and it may trigger an audit of your prior years (FBAR and form 8938 both have 6 years statute of limitations, and if the IRS claims that you fraudulently under-reported the income - that opens your whole tax returns for as back as that income was not reported).


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