Gift Tax and LLC with foreign partners
The LLC portion is completely irrelevant. Don't know why you want it. You can create a joint/partnership trading account without the additional complexity of having LLC. What liability are you trying to limit here? Her sisters will file tax returns in the us using the form 1040NR, and only reporting the dividends they received, everything else will be taxed by Vietnam. You'll have to investigate how to file tax returns there as well. That said, you'll need about $500,000 each to invest in the regional centers. So you're talking about 1.5 million of US dollars at least. From a couple of $14K gifts to $1.5M just by trading? I don't see how this is feasible.
"Can I deduct the money that I giving to my team mates from the taxes   that I pay? If yes, how should I record the transaction? Why? Why are you giving money to your team mates? That's the most important question, and any answer without taking this into account is not full. You would probably have to talk to a professional tax adviser (a CPA/EA licensed in your state) about the details, but in general - you cannot deduct money you give someone just because you feel like it. Moreover, it may be subject to an additional tax - the gift tax. PS: We don't have any partnership or something similar, it is just   each of us on his own. Assuming you want to give your team mates money because you developed the project together - then you do in fact have a partnership. In order to split the income properly, you should get a tax ID for the partnership, and issue a 1065 and K-1 for each team mate. In most states, you don't need to ""register"" a partnership with the state. Mere ""lets do things together"" creates a partnership. Otherwise, if they work for you (as opposed to with you in the case above), you can treat it as your own business income, and pay your team mates (who are now your contractors/employees) accordingly. Be careful here, because the difference between contractor and employee in tax law is significant, and you may end up being on the hook for a lot of things you're not aware of. Bottom line, in certain situation you cannot deduct, in others you can - you have to discuss it with a professional. Doing these things on your own without fully understanding what each term means - is dangerous, and IRS doesn't forgive for ""honest mistakes""." Both of the other answers are correct and good answers, but I think neither directly answers your question. No, you do not need to pay additional taxes on the wedding gifts simply because of the fact that they are going into a Roth IRA.  Similarly, if you put them into a traditional IRA, that amount would be deductible (assuming you met the other criteria, including minimums and maximums of earned income, in both cases).  The act of putting money into a Roth IRA is not what makes it taxable; its original source is.  Roth simply does not reduce your current taxes any, whereas a traditional IRA would. The seeming exception to this is when rolling money from a tax-deductible source to a non-tax-deductible destination, such as transferring money from a Traditional IRA or 401(k) to a Roth IRA or 401(k).  Then, the taxable event is really the distribution from the Traditional IRA or 401(k), not the deposit into a Roth IRA or 401(k), though of course if you rolled a 401(k) over to a traditional IRA it would not be taxable. LLC is not a federal tax designation.  It's a state-level organization. Your LLC can elect to be treated as a partnership, a disregarded entity (i.e., just report the taxes in your individual income tax), or as an S-Corp for federal tax purposes. If you have elected S-Corp, I expect that all the S-Corp rules will apply, as well as any state-level LLC rules that may apply.   Disclaimer: I'm not 100% familiar with S-corp rules, so I can't evaluate whether the statements you made about proportional payouts are correct. "Gift taxes are paid by the giver, not the ""givee"". You'd have to claim the $500 on your income tax forms, though." "Context: My parents overseas (Japan) sent me a little over $100,000 to   cover an expensive tuition payment and moderate living expenses in   2014. They are not US residents, Green card holders or citizens. They did not remit the tuition payment directly to the school. I am a   resident (for tax). This is enough to answer yes. That's basically the set of requirements for filing: you received >$100K from a non-US person and you yourself are a US person. You have to report it, and unless it is taxable income - it is a gift. Taxable income is reported on the form 1040, gifts are reported on the form 3520. The fact that in Japan it is not considered a gift is irrelevant. Gift tax laws vary between countries, some (many) don't have gift taxes at all. But the reporting requirement is based on the US law and the US definition of ""gift"". As I said above, if it is not a gift per the US law, then it is taxable income (and then you report all of it regardless of the amount and pay taxes). Had they paid directly to the institution, you wouldn't need to count it as income/gift to you because you didn't actually receive the money (so no income) and it went directly to cover your qualified education expenses (so no gift), but this is not the case in your situation. Whether or not this will be reported by the IRS back to Japan - I don't know, but it was probably already reported to the authorities in Japan by the banks through which the transfers went through. As to whether it will trigger an audit - doesn't really matter. It was, most likely, reported to the IRS already by the receiving banks in the US, so not reporting it on your tax return (either as income or on form 3520) may indeed raise some flags." http://www.irs.gov/publications/p950/ar02.html Gift tax is owed by the giver, not the recipient. So my first guess is that you can make the transfer in your home country, and as the givers will not be subject to US tax, it won't apply at all. You can then transfer the money into the US freely. In any case, there's a lifetime exemption of 1mn USD. So, unless non-US persons don't get the exemption, I can't see the tax being a problem anyway unless there are going to be several more such transfers. I'm not certain I understand what you're trying to do, but it sounds like you're trying to create a business expense for paying off your personal debt. If so - you cannot do that. It will constitute a tax fraud, and if you have additional partners in the LLC other than you and your spouse - it may also become an embezzlement issue. Re your edits: Or for example, can you create a tuition assistance program within   your company and pay yourself out of that for the purposes of student   loan money. Explicitly forbidden. Tuition assistance program cannot pay more than 5% of its benefits to owners. See IRS pub 15-B. You would think that if there was a way to just incorporate and make your debts pre-tax - everyone would be doing it, wouldn't you? Since your question is very particular on the details, I'm assuming you did your research. Unfortunately you won't get a better answer here than what you've found on the Internet already. This is not a clear-cut situation as the situation you're describing has been a source to some confusion. Mainly, the question is whether the US bank account is a tangible asset or not. To the best of my knowledge, this has not yet been settled, so I suggest going to a professional tax adviser (EA/CPA licensed in the US) who'd advise you the best course of action. I think it would be safer to transfer the money directly from the foreign account to the US beneficiary (although even then, if the IRS decides to start digging, it may claim that you're essentially disguising a transfer from a US account, so I suggest talking to a professional before doing anything). In any case, the US recipient will need to report the gift (if it is $100K or more) using the form 3520 with his/her tax return. It is correct, in general. Gift tax is indeed at 35%, but you have the first 14K of your gift exempt from it for each person you give to, yearly (verify the number, it changes every year). You can also use your lifetime exemption ($5.45M in 2016, subject to change each year), but at the amounts you're talking about it still will not be enough. Charitable (501(c)) organizations, paying for someone's tuition or medical expenses (directly to the providers), political donations, transfer between you and your spouse - these are all exempt from gift tax. If you have 10 millions to give, I'm sure you can afford a $200 consultation with a EA/CPA licensed in your state. If you keep the account in your name only and your girlfriend is depositing money into it, then she is in effect making gifts of money to you. If the total amount of such gifts exceeds $14K in 2014, she will need to file a gift tax return (IRS Form 709, due April 15 of the following year, but not included with her Federal tax return; it has to be sent to a specific IRS office as detailed in the Instructions for Form 709). She would need to pay gift tax (as computed on Form 709) unless she opts to have the excess over $14K count towards her Federal lifetime combined gift and estate tax exclusion  of $5M+ and so no gift tax is due.  Most estates in the US are far smaller than $5 million and pay no Federal estate tax at all and for most people, the reduction of the lifetime combined... is of no consequence.  Another point (for your girlfriend to think about): if you two should break up and go your separate ways at a later time, you are under no obligation to return  her money to her, and if you do choose to do so, you will need to file a gift tax return at that time. If you will be returning her contributions together with  all the earnings attributable to her contributions, then keep  in mind that you will have paid income taxes on those earnings all along since the account is in your name only.  Finally, keep in mind that the I in IRA stands for Individual and your girlfriend is not entitled to put her contributions into your IRA account. Summary: don't do this (or open a joint account as tenants in common) no matter how much you love each other. She should open accounts in her name only and make contributions to those accounts. The donor might need to pay gift tax if they give money directly to you. Paying the tuition on your behalf (giving the money directly to the school) is exempt from gift tax. But that's not your problem, it is the donor's. There's no tax on receiving gifts, and you're not forbidden to receive gifts by virtue of being on a visa. As much as you want. There's no tax on gifts you receive. Gift tax is on the donor, i.e.: the person giving the gift. The $100K limit is for reporting. Gifts of $100K or more per year from foreign sources must be disclosed on form 3520 attached to your tax return. But there's no tax. Read more here. You're not going to pay any tax. You can receive the money with gratitude and treat your in-laws nicely. Your in-laws will be liable for gift tax. They should be filling and filing the form 709. The end result may be, depending on their past gifts, that they will actually pay no money but instead use the lifetime exemption which is correlated with the estate tax. In other words, this gift will reduce their estate tax exemption. If the overall wealth they expect to have by the time they die is less than $5M (+something, the current level of the estate tax exemption), this translates to having pay no tax whatsoever. The form 709 must be filed, regardless, and a copy of it kept for future tracking purposes. According to Intuit, you cannot claim the $50 charitable contribution, so the entire $2000 / month will be taxable instead of $1900. That's only an extra $35 if your combined tax rate is 35%. As TTT mentioned, do this for the experience, not for the money. My wife and I have been hosting international students for 10 years now. https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3152069-i-received-a-1099-misc-employee-compensation-for-hosting-a-foreign-exchange-student-can-i-complete-a-schedule-c-for-the-expenses "The current tax regime?  Not sure if you are being serious or facetious, but:  [US Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad - Filing Requirements](https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/us-citizens-and-resident-aliens-abroad-filing-requirements)  &gt;If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien living or traveling outside the United States, **you generally are required to file income tax returns, estate tax returns, and gift tax returns and pay estimated tax in the same way as those residing in the United States.**  In contrast, corporations don't pay taxes on profits earned abroad until repatriation [here](http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/14/news/economy/corporate-taxes-inversion/index.html), [here](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/business/economy/corporate-tax-report.html), [here](https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-apple-profits/).  So guess what they NEVER do?  This is why literally every large US multi-national corporate ""person"" pays next to nothing in taxes.  It is quite obvious that this is a violation of the spirit if not the letter of tax law.    That simple fix would wipe out massive amounts of government debt and force multi-national corporations and their shareholders to become engaged stake holders in the efficiency of government.  But if, unlike W-2 paid human counterparts, you can dodge all taxation, ""Who cares if the government is using funds efficiently?""  That is incentive to actually game the system to force the government into wasteful spending because the subsequent fallout of increased taxation and/or failure of the state can be dodged without consequence."