Wise offers two services that are not that easy to differentiate. The first is a straight money transfer service, but the second is what they refer to as a “balance” which gives you access to a foreign bank account number.
In a tax group I’ve had some discussions about whether this requires FBAR reporting. Although the account is held by Wise, they are giving the user access to this account and giving the user the use of the account numbers. My personal opinion is that this requires FBAR reporting.
Also, the 10,000 limit for FBAR reporting is all accounts that a person has access to. Therefore an employee of an organization that has an account back home with 9500 USD equivalent will have to report the 500 USD in the account at work that they have access to.
Thanks for that! That seems reasonable. I’d like to point out that this advice only applies to US staff, who have an obligation to report their foreign accounts (above some balance). I’d assume only the folks who have access / authority over the account have a filing requirement, not all US staff in the org. My experience is that this level of FBAR reporting isn’t onerous.
Wise offers two services that are not that easy to differentiate. The first is a straight money transfer service, but the second is what they refer to as a “balance” which gives you access to a foreign bank account number.
In a tax group I’ve had some discussions about whether this requires FBAR reporting. Although the account is held by Wise, they are giving the user access to this account and giving the user the use of the account numbers. My personal opinion is that this requires FBAR reporting.
Also, the 10,000 limit for FBAR reporting is all accounts that a person has access to. Therefore an employee of an organization that has an account back home with 9500 USD equivalent will have to report the 500 USD in the account at work that they have access to.
Thanks for that! That seems reasonable. I’d like to point out that this advice only applies to US staff, who have an obligation to report their foreign accounts (above some balance). I’d assume only the folks who have access / authority over the account have a filing requirement, not all US staff in the org. My experience is that this level of FBAR reporting isn’t onerous.
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/report-of-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts-fbar
You need this information, and only the last requires some math:
(As a US citizen with a UK bank account from working abroad, I file FBARs for my personal accounts.)