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#1999117 - 03/02/15 03:13 PM Bonuses from Offshore personal account?
AquaMarine Offline
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We have a client who supposedly receives bonuses directly from his employer's personal account. These are received in large round-dollar wires, typically between $50K and $70K, from Switzerland. My question is, is it natural for an employer to pay out bonuses of such large amounts directly from their personal account instead of using a corporate account? I'd appreciate some insight as to how to proceed with such a scenario.
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#1999128 - 03/02/15 03:39 PM Re: Bonuses from Offshore personal account? AquaMarine
ACBbank Offline
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Any legitimate bonus payment I have seen, international or domestic, originates from a corporate account. I would be asking for some kind of documentation to support this claim.
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#1999131 - 03/02/15 03:46 PM Re: Bonuses from Offshore personal account? AquaMarine
Elwood P. Dowd Offline
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#1999144 - 03/02/15 04:17 PM Re: Bonuses from Offshore personal account? AquaMarine
ACBbank Offline
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Ken - maybe I'm not following. But Aqua's original post seemed to indicate that the bonus originated from a personal account. I read this as in the name of an individual, not his employer or a sub of his employer.
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#1999145 - 03/02/15 04:19 PM Re: Bonuses from Offshore personal account? ACBbank
Elwood P. Dowd Offline
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I wasn't suggesting they were the same situations, but was rather struck by the fact that the question was about an equally bizarre machination as the article described.
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#1999152 - 03/02/15 04:40 PM Re: Bonuses from Offshore personal account? AquaMarine
ACBbank Offline
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Thanks for clarifying Ken.
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#1999371 - 03/03/15 02:51 PM Re: Bonuses from Offshore personal account? ACBbank
AquaMarine Offline
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Originally Posted By: ACBbank
Any legitimate bonus payment I have seen, international or domestic, originates from a corporate account. I would be asking for some kind of documentation to support this claim.


I agree with you on this except there won't be much for them to provide, as the funds are originating from a personal investment account. I'm starting to see this as an off-the-record personal bonus from his boss. Is there anything wrong with that? Afterall, it all leaves audit trails and no cash was involved.
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#1999374 - 03/03/15 03:02 PM Re: Bonuses from Offshore personal account? AquaMarine
ACBbank Offline
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Originally Posted By: AquaMarine
Originally Posted By: ACBbank
Any legitimate bonus payment I have seen, international or domestic, originates from a corporate account. I would be asking for some kind of documentation to support this claim.


I agree with you on this except there won't be much for them to provide, as the funds are originating from a personal investment account. I'm starting to see this as an off-the-record personal bonus from his boss. Is there anything wrong with that? Afterall, it all leaves audit trails and no cash was involved.


Unless you have more information that you cannot share publicly, I'm not sure I can co-sign your conclusion. You have large wires originating from a well known tax haven and the response that you received from your customer makes no sense and apparently cannot be supported with documentation. Bonus payments should originate from a corporate account for a number of reasons, including taxes.
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#1999379 - 03/03/15 03:14 PM Re: Bonuses from Offshore personal account? AquaMarine
Elwood P. Dowd Offline
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ACB's experience reflects my own and probably yours, or you would not have asked the question.

The questions that come to mind relate to the nature of the business; whether someone verified that the both people work for the same company and that your customer is a direct report to the person who is making the payments; the role your customer plays in that business; whether the aggregate amounts involved reflect reasonable compensation for that role; whether you have talked to the customer personally or are relying on what an intermediary told you, etc.

It's an unusual fact situation and the amounts involved would seem pretty substantial to most of us. The fact that there is one somewhat plausible explanation does not mean there are no other possible explanations... Sorry, but you need to do a great deal of digging before you know enough to make a confident call on this one.
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