From: Thomas Meier < >
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2007 15:24:16 -0800

I'm not a tax expert and don't know the details of your case so please use
the following advise at your own risk.

A gift by a non-resident alien (your friend or family member in Switzerland)
to a U.S. taxpayer (you) is usually non-taxable, unless the gift involves
U.S. real property or tangible personal property located within the U.S.
Although the gift is non-taxable to either the donor or recipient, there are
gift-tax reporting rules that apply. Generally, gifts totaling less than
$100,000 per calendar year made by an non-resident alien are not reportable.
In short, most likely you won't have to pay taxes but you may have to report
the gift depending on the amount.

There is an exception for former citizens or long-term residents of the US
who expatriate after 2004 for transfers made during the 10-year period
following relinquishment of citizenship or long-term residency. So if the
person in Switzerland is a former US citizen or long-term residents then
special rules may apply.

Finally, I heard that it also depends how you get the gift. Maybe the tax
advisor was paranoid but here's the story. If someone visits you from
Switzerland and hands you the money it may be considered a US gift and not a
foreign gift (with regular US gift taxes applying). Even sending a personal
check or wire transfer could be interpreted as a US gift because the
transaction gets completed in the US. The suggestion was for you to open an
account in Switzerland, have your friend or family deposit the money into
your account (transaction completed), and then you transfer it to the US.
That way it is clear that the gift transaction was completed in Switzerland.

If the gift involves a large amount of money (e.g. so that you can buy a
property here) you may want to get professional advise.

Regards,
Thomas

----Original Message Follows----
From: "EuroCircle Global Team" <info_at_eurocircle.com>
To: Swiss-list_at_swiss-list.com
Subject: [Swiss-list] gift tax
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:22:00 -0500

Probsbly the easiest way to find a CORRECT answer is to ask IRS, they are
generally really helpful, especially if you are a foreigner
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98968,00.html

But of course you can find some answers online too...it is natural that one
gets taxed over certain amount of a "gift"...and in the US it tends to be
the giver;s responsibility to pay it...but never hurts to ask, and the
foreigners may have some exceptions. Who knows...

On 1/17/07, thomas_at_kistler.name <thomas_at_kistler.name> wrote:
>
> I'm looking for some tax information about receiving gifts from someone
in
> Switzerland. I've seen that people have been asking this sort of question
on
> this mailing-list already but I haven't seen a definitive answer to it.
>
> The particular question I have is as follows. If one receives a $ gift
> from Switzerland, is that taxable by the receiver in the US, and if so,
> under which circumstances?
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Swiss-list mailing list
>
> http://www.swiss-list.com/mailman/listinfo/swiss-list
>
>

--
Any problems, please contact us via
http://www.eurocircle.com/contactus/
+++++++ KILLMIME removed the following attachment(s):
+++++++++ part2: ASCII English text, with very long lines
_______________________________________________
Swiss-list mailing list
Swiss-list_at_swiss-list.com
http://www.swiss-list.com/mailman/listinfo/swiss-list
_________________________________________________________________
Valentine’s Day -- Shop for gifts that spell L-O-V-E at MSN Shopping 
http://shopping.msn.com/content/shp/?ctId=8323,ptnrid=37,ptnrdata=24095&tcode=wlmtagline