Hi guys.

I lived in the States (CA) for the past 6 months (tourist visa) and have to return to Europe in a couple of days.
i played some poker and have something like 11k in dollars.

My girlfriend (student visa, from Europe, too) has an bank account, so the plan i had was to deposit to her account, since im not allowed to have one, and then get it through a foreign bank transfer to my European account.

i talked to my consultant, and she said that would be the best way to do it, but now my girlfriend tells me, she might have to pay taxes on the money.

is that true?
is there perhaps a better way?
im honestly not so sure anymore, if im doing something illegal....i definitely didnt mean to.

thanks in advance, cheers.

1. Deposit to a pokersite in increments.
2. When back at home cash out.

Alternatively:
1. take the cash with you on the plane.

I would never deposit the cash in a rando bank account and wire it over.

I was under the impression that you could travel with 10k USD and do not need to declare?

Leave it online, find a european poker player you trust, meet up with him, ship him the money while he's watching and get cash in return.

This. Just fly with 10k with you and spend 1 or leave it online, or just make your girl carry 5k and you fly with the rest. Unless you dont trust your GF carrying your money.

Don't do that unless you definitely know it will work with the two accounts (bank, e-wallet) and the specific pokersite involved. Pretty much every site I know would force you to cash the money back out to the very account with which you made the deposit.

With sites I know the only chance would be if you plan on playing a ton with the money and even that might not work.

@mithras:
Have you ever tried to use 2 different accounts and a pokersite as the middleman for a money transfer (without a lot of poker-playing involved)?

To get better advice it would be helpful if you would give more specific details about your situation. Is the money sitting in a pokersite, do you have it as cash(actual dollar-bills) bank account, e-wallet, which country do you want to go to?

No but if you play on the site a bunch and show them proof of your new residence you should be fine. Still I'd just deposit 1k and take 10k cash.

Some interesting advice here. You guys are aware that he's allowed to bring in more than 10K US into europe, right? He just has to declare it, which involves filling out a form and verifying some financial details. Do you guys think that over 10k is illegal or something?

Like ArturiusX said, 10K is no big deal at all. Just one extra small declaration form. If you are not hiding from taxes or doing illegal stuff, the 10K limit should have zero bearing on your decisions.

And whether you pay taxes on this money depends on your home country. Many countries don't tax poker money, and even more countries don't tax money earned outside of their country.

Absolutely not, but I think what's easiest depends on his situation:

If the money is in an e-wallet account he should probably just wire it, in case the exchange rate+fee isn't ridiculous.

If it's cash he should tell at the airport or wherever appropriate.

If it's in a pokersite and mostly winnings he should probably just leave it in there and cash out after the move. Still I would inform&ask the site about this before moving.
Pokersite + deposited he should make sure that it's not a huge PIA to cash it out after the move. (In case he quickly needs it, it can take a lot longer than usual for that situation.)

yeah sorry, i thought i clarified that but obv i didnt.

i have the money in cash, good ol' Benjamins.
Im going to Germany, and im german citizen.

The reason why i didnt want to carry the cash on me, is that the exchange rate at my local bank is really fkded. so i would pay like 8-10% exchange fee.
thats the reason why i thought a wire transfer is easier.

Western Union it to yourself?

This made me lol.

would you care to explain why?


western union would cost me 550 bucks ... thats a lot of fees IMHO.
i would even be cheaper to change at the airport and carry the moneiz in my pocket.

i guess ill ask the bank consultant of my GF if its a problem, and if so ill just exchange it here and take the euros with me.

Thanks for the help so far, any further posts are still appreciated

Hi,
I checked my local Sparkasse and the fees were upto ~ 10 Euro for non-customers ("Sorten-Verkauf/-Ankauf Bartransaktionen"). Idk if their exchange rates are decent but according to the following thread they shouldn't be too bad:
http://de.pokerstrategy.com/forum/th...hreadid=916869

(note the op in the above thread made a mistake don't let that confuse you)

So based upon what I found I'd suggest taking the dollar bills with you (filling out forms if necessary) and searching for a local German bank with a good exchange rate + fee.

If you email a few local German banks right now you probably get a reply before your flight and know if the US-offer is better than the German one.

Cheers