How To Move Your Money And Gold Out Of The United States

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Money is a lot like water or air.  Life is painful if you’re missing any of them.  Unfortunately, some governments make it difficult for you to get your money overseas.  So here are some steps to legally get your money out of the US.

First, I have to say that any time the government makes it more difficult to move money overseas, I feel more of a need to get my money out of that country.  I can’t think of a single time in history where that has ended up well for the average person.

Taking cash overseas

There are many mistaken beliefs about what you can, and can’t, do.  Here are the facts.

Getting cash out of your bank

If you start to take a lot of cash out of your bank, it may cause your banker to file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR).  This is a form used to track criminals (at least, that’s the theory).

If you try to make multiple withdrawals from your bank, just beneath the limit that makes them file a SAR, then you are guilty of the crime of “structuring”.

Yes, you read that right.  Taking your own, legally-earned cash out of the bank can make you a criminal.

However, there were almost 1.3 million SARs filed in 2008 – the latest year I can find reported.  The government almost never finds actual criminals using these reports.  So, what’s really going to happen with the one report that may be filed when you withdraw your money?

Personally, I’d rather have one SAR on file, than worry about being arrested for structuring (which can be punished by a fine and up to five years in prison).

Getting your cash to the airport

Now that you have some cash out of your bank, you need to worry about getting it out of the country.

First, you need to worry about what happens before you get to the airport.  Besides the normal criminals who want to take your money, you also need to watch out for the criminals in uniforms.

Thanks to asset forfeiture laws, the police can arrest your money, if they find you carrying large amounts of cash.  Then you need to prove that you earned it legally.

To give you an idea of how bad asset forfeiture is, in 2008, the Department of Justice had more than $1 billion in assets they’ve seized.  If you want to read some scary stories, look at the Forfeiture Endangers American Rights website.

The last I remember, we are supposed to be “innocent until proven guilty”.  Apparently, that doesn’t apply to people carrying cash.  If the government seizes your cash, expect to spend thousands of dollars hiring a lawyer to get it back, and expect it to take several years.

So, if you are going to take cash out of the country, get it right before you head to the airport.  It will reduce the chances that someone will be able to steal your money from you.

Getting your cash on the plane

Now that you’re at the airport, you still may have more government paperwork to deal with.  If you bring more than $10,000 in cash (or other “monetary instruments”) with you, you need to fill out some forms for Customs.

To see what is considered a monetary instrument, check out this currency reporting information from the Customs website.  If you have more than $10,000 with you, you’ll need to fill out the FinCEN 105 form.  I’ve never actually seen one in an airport, have no idea how you’d get one there, and don’t know where you’d turn it in.  They don’t exactly make things easy for you to follow the law.

The only good news is, if you fill out the FinCEN form, you’re legally able to take out as much money as you want (assuming the particular security people you deal with don’t decide to arrest your money).

Getting your cash through transit airports

If you’re not on a direct flight to your final destination, you need to worry about the laws and regulations of any country you travel through.  Even if you’re only in transit, you may need to go through an x-ray (I had that happen in Colombia).

Make sure that whatever you do complies with all the local laws on carrying currency.

Getting your cash into your new country

Now that your plane is landing, you need to worry about the currency regulations of your new country.

Before you land, you’ll have a Customs declaration to fill out.  It will probably tell you the amount of cash you can bring in undeclared.  It’s often 10,000 US Dollars or 10,000 Euros.  However, don’t make any assumptions.  Check before you leave.

From my personal experience, I’ve brought in over $10,000 to one South American country and declared it on the Customs form.  When the Customs agent saw that I had checked the box, he asked me how much I had, I told him, and there were no further questions or inspections.  The amount I had wasn’t that much over the limit.  If I was bringing in a half million dollars, it might not have been as smooth.

What about transporting gold or silver overseas?

There are some different, and extra, regulations for moving precious metals overseas.  And to make it worse, there are many people (including Customs agents) who don’t know how to interpret them.

Taking gold out of the US

If you take out gold from the US, there are a few different regulations you need to worry about.

First, if your gold is in coins that have a face value (like the American Gold Eagle, or the Austrian Gold Philharmonic), you’ll need to include them in the $10,000 limit that would cause you to file the FinCEN 105 form.

However, that doesn’t protect you from an ignorant TSA or Customs agent who decides that gold is expensive, and you’re carrying more than $10,000 of “money”, because you have several gold coins.  Even if you show the laws to them, they’re the people with the guns, and they’ll do what they want.  Then you have to go through the time and expense to get your gold back.

Second, if you’re carrying gold bullion, worth more than $2,500, you need to fill out a census form.  Yes, for some reason, the Census Bureau cares about you taking gold out of the country.  However, good luck filling it out.  This form can only be submitted electronically, by approved shippers.

I also know of expats who have taken their precious metals overseas, and had them held by the Customs agents upon arrival.  They got them back a day or two later, but who really wants to go through the stress of wondering what will happen to their gold or silver?

You also need to worry about paying any duties when bringing your gold or silver into your new country.  This is especially true for silver, which is often treated as an industrial metal.

If you have a large amount of gold and silver, you may want to hire a professional service to ship it for you.  This isn’t cheap, so you’d probably only want to do it if you have more than $50,000 worth of precious metals (at a minimum).  The “gold standard” company for this is VIA MAT.  They also have the ability to ship your precious metals to overseas storage facilities (and charge you for storing them there).

If you have less than that, the easiest thing to do is sell your gold and silver, wire the money to your new country, and re-buy it there.  That does eat up money in premiums you’ll have to spend when re-buying, and you may have some taxes due if you made a profit on the sale.

However, I’d rather go through that than be the guy who had 150 ounces of gold seized from him, and was thrown in a Mexican jail for a while.

If you only have a few gold coins, my personal experience is that you can just throw them in your luggage with the rest of your change.  I’ve never had a problem when doing that, and I know of many other people who have successfully done the same.

So, how would I actually move money and precious metals out of the US?

Let’s say I was moving overseas, and had $50,000 that I wanted to get to my new country.  How would I actually do it?  I like to keep things safe, so these are the steps I’d go through.

1. Weeks before moving overseas, go to my bank and setup my account so I can do a remote wire transfer.
2. If I had any gold or silver, sell it and get the money deposited into my bank account.
3. Get a reference letter from my bank saying that my account is in good standing and how long I’ve had the account.
4. Get a copy of the latest balance statement for my account.
5. The day before my flight, go to the bank and withdraw $9500.  When the bank files the SAR, don’t worry about it. I’m personally not worried about carrying that much cash, but you may feel differently and want to withdraw less.
6. Carry the cash in my pockets.  If airport security has a problem, tell them you want a private screening (so everyone around won’t see that you’re carrying so much cash).
7. If the cash I’m carrying needs to be declared when I land, I’d declare it.  Who really wants to start out their life in a new country worrying about their money being seized and possibly being arrested?
8. Open an account with a local bank, using my previous bank’s reference letter (if needed).
9. Tell my new bank that I want to wire in a large amount of money, and find out what needs to be done for this.  This is where having your bank reference letter and latest balance statement may be handy.  Your new bank will probably have their own “Know Your Customer” regulations, and will want to make sure the money to transfer there is from legal sources.

If you do this, you’d end up with over $10,000 in a foreign account.  So, the next year, by June 30^th, you’d need to file an FBAR report (form TD F 90-22.1)

If you’re worried about the IRS knowing about your foreign account (and possibly finding a way to get your money from it), you could always do the following:

• After you get the money in your overseas account, withdraw it all in cash, or use it to buy precious metals (if you think that’s a good investment).
• Put that cash (or precious metals) in a private safe deposit box – not at a bank, and at a place where only you have the key to the box.  To date, most people agree that this does not need to be reported under the upcoming HIRE Act regulations.
• The next year, file your FBAR report.  It will be for the account that you closed, so the US government couldn’t do anything to get your money from that bank.

Summary

Whatever method you use to move your money overseas, you need to realize that nothing is 100% guaranteed.  Governments all over the globe have shown that they have no problem breaking their own laws, or interpreting them in their favor.

All you can do is take the appropriate steps to reduce your risk to a level you find comfortable.

I look at it this way:  The bureaucracies are kind of like the weather.  You can spend your time complaining about the rain, and still get wet, or you can get an umbrella, and actively protect yourself against the rain.  Safely getting your money to a new country may cost you some time and money, but at least you’ll be dry afterwards.

Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, accountant, and I’m definitely not a government agent.  Everything in this post is as accurate as I can make it.  However, if you have any concerns about moving your money or gold overseas, hire a licensed professional to help you.