BOC declaration for large wire transfer

@Carl Rosolada

Thank you for your response. It is hard to understand all of these rules as written. So, the receiving bank will handle everything?

We are buying a condo in Cebu and need to transfer our down payment (>$10,000) to the developer's bank account. I have read that we are required to declare this amount with the BOC, but I can't find out how to accomplish that. Does anyone know? - @Johng8

I have transferred >10k usd to business banks accounts a number of times over the years. The bank is responsible for making the declaration.

"Treasury & IRS Reporting Obligations

Under the Bank Secrecy Act, US financial institutions are required to report certain transactions to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

- For wire transfers over $10,000, your bank typically files a Currency Transaction Report (CTR). This includes:

  - Sender’s identity (e.g., SSN, government-issued ID)

  - Source of funds

  - Purpose of the transfer

What You Don’t Need to Do

- You, as the sender, do not need to file a separate declaration with the US Treasury or IRS for the transfer itself.

- However, if you hold foreign bank accounts exceeding $10,000 in aggregate value at any time during the year, you may need to file an FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) separately—but that’s about account ownership, not one-time transfers."

@danfinn

Thank you for clarifying!

@Carl Rosolada

Thank you!

Moving higher amounts out of your home country into a foreign country always triggers an alarm for possible money laundry. So the bank will check where the money you want to send is coming from. If your income (e.g. salary from your employer) allows such a money transfer it is not an issue, however, if you just deposited the money in cash and now you want to tranfer it, it will be blocked.

@Johng8

Hi, I bought a Condo in Boracay 9 years ago. There are a few things what you need to know and what my developer (Global Estate a daughter company of Megaworld) did not tell the unit owners:

1. On the day I moved in, they wanted 200k PHP from us. They said that this is the fee to transfer the title to my name.
2. There is a master deed behind your contract which defines more things. You should ask for it and read it carefully.
3. The developer has the right to define the property management company. This is usually a daughter company of the developer.
4. The majority of the Board of Trustees is made of employees of the developer. So the developer will decide what will happen next (an increase of the association dues, a special assessment for repairs, ....). Some unsold units are assigned to these BOT members.
5. Our developer could not sell all the units in Boracay within the last 10 years. So they have given up to maintain them. You can see this from the outside (corroded balconies, furniture still in plastic, no curtains, ....)
6. Most of the association dues goes to the admin of the building. We are paying 175 PHP / sqm and a special assessment fee of 12 PHP / sqm
7. For some people the transfer ot the title (needed to resell the condo) took 5+ years. For me it was 2 years. If you do it by your own it is less than 6 months. Make sure you get a copy of the "ecar" document which confirms that you have paid all the dues and also the developer has paid them. An "ecar" must be requested from the financial authorities 30 days after you have signed the contract and the condo is fully paid. If the condo is not fully paid the title stays with the developer.
8. There are usually 3 ways to buy a condo
9. full payment from you in cash (you should get a discount of up to 20%)
10. financed by a bank (in the Philippines or abroad)
11. financed by the developer

If the unit is financed by the developer you can stop to pay and they will cancel the contract. You will lose all the             money invested but it is a stop loss. Here in Boracay the people were dreaming about making money by renting the condo. However, due to the competition from the hotels around they, could not make enough money to pay the developer. So they stopped to pay and lost the investment.

When you move in, check the windows and the ceiling for repaints. If there are, then there might be a problem with rain water. Heavy rain can flood your unit. If you have a balcony, check the door for a possible gap when the door is closed.

So my advise is to be careful when you invest money in the Philippines. I would not do it again, however, it is not so bad that I would move somewhere else.

All the best

Andy

Moving higher amounts out of your home country into a foreign country always triggers an alarm for possible money laundry. So the bank will check where the money you want to send is coming from. If your income (e.g. salary from your employer) allows such a money transfer it is not an issue, however, if you just deposited the money in cash and now you want to tranfer it, it will be blocked. - @Andy_1963

Well, I wouldn't say it "triggers an alarm". It is the normal procedure for the bank to make the FBAR notification when your transfer exceeds 10K. This is normal process . What you say about depositing in cash and transferring is different (and also correct); it depends upon the bank's AML KYC policies and they may very well consider the transfer of any amount (even less than 10k) to be high risk and refuse it. There is no way customers can navigate this but if the bank perceives the customer's behavior to be high risk, they can and will de-bank the customer and close his accounts since the US Patriot Act fines for ML are several million dollars to the bank. Here it is suggested you ensure you have a good relationship with the bank and understand their AML policies. Don't deposit a few thousand in cash and then transfer overseas, AML will certainly be triggered as Andy says. The bank may prefer to drop you rather than make the effort to assess your ML risk. They want no risk.