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I am a resident alien in the US. I have a family member overseas which is owed money for remote work by a person in the US.

Transferring the money directly from this person internationally to my family member will incur hefty transfer fees.

Is this person allowed to instead send the money to my US account and in turn I transfer an equivalent sum from my overseas account to my family member? If I do so, would it be considered as income on my US tax return?

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  • Not sure I understand, why would direct transfer involve hefty fees and through you it wouldn't?
    – littleadv
    Mar 16, 2022 at 20:55
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    @littleadv I believe what the OP means is, he would accept funds in his US-based account but will transfer the equivalent amount to his family member from his overseas account (which is most likely located in the same country the destination account is in).
    – Chait
    Mar 16, 2022 at 21:07
  • @Chait correct, that is what I meant.
    – Rotem
    Mar 17, 2022 at 2:56

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No. If you accepted money on someone's behalf and then passed it on to them it would not count as income to you. You are simply acting as an agent for your friend. If you took a fee for doing this, or made a profit from the transactions, then the fee or profit would count as income

Possible problems:

  • You might have to keep documentation to prove to the IRS that you are doing this genuinely;

  • You might fall foul of money laundering laws

  • You might raise some IRS red flags with your activities;

But the money being counted as income is not one of your problems.

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