Transfer to Foreign Trust

GlobalCitizen · Post by **GlobalCitizen** » Fri Feb 23, 2018 8:25 am

I'm worried I may have accidentally walked into a trap of 3520 forms.

I'm a USC, married to a non-resident alien. I file MFS, which works out in my favor.
My wife and I have a joint account in New Zealand.

She also has a KiwiSaver account in her own name . First issue is, I can't find a clear answer on whether this account (a type of retirement scheme) meets the IRS definition of foreign trust. My feeling is that it probably does.

Assuming it is a trust, the problem is that for the last couple years, my wife has been making contributions to the KiwiSaver account from our joint bank account.

I am hoping this is okay. The way I reason it, all of the money is her own income, and is not reportable in the US. The transfers are also made at her direction, through her online account, which I can't access. Therefore, I think it is a transaction which does not involve a US person, hence no 3520 reporting.

However, these transfers do appear on our joint bank statements, and this is starting to worry me, as arguably this could be seen as a joint transfer. Should I have been reporting this all along?

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Fri Feb 23, 2018 11:17 am

It is not your trust, and she is making the contributions, not you. Nothing here to worry about.

GlobalCitizen · Post by **GlobalCitizen** » Sat Feb 24, 2018 10:13 am

Thanks for this and your reply to my other post. Reassuring.