A transfer of funds from my overseas bank account

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
September 28, 2022
2 replies
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I am a US resident alien, and I own a foreign bank account. I read in an earlier post that A transfer of funds from your personal bank account to your personal bank account is Not income. In other words, if I transfer $20,000 to my account, it won't be my income. Is that right? So can I put some of that money into my IRA account?

VolvoGirl

Employee

You can contribute to a IRA if you have earned income from W2 wages or a Net Profit from self employment income. You can only contribute up to your earned income. It doesn't matter where or how you make the contribution.

See IRS Pub 590-A IRA Contributions

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590a.pdf

Taxand theCurious

Generally, you will not pay tax if you are just transferring funds from one of your accounts to another of your accounts, assuming that these funds are after-tax funds that you have already paid tax on (i.e. wages, business profits, etc.) If these are funds from inheritance, gifts, capital gains, etc. then it could be reportable/taxable.

Keep in mind that a US person that has a financial interest or signature authority in a foreign financial account with an aggregate value of foreign accounts exceeding $10,000 at anytime during the calendar year must also file an FBAR.