vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Usually problems like what you're running into mean that the megabank hasn't finished digesting acquisitions, or they cannot meet some state regulatory issue with the main system. Bank of America is/was like this for a few years -- tellers had access to separate Fleet Bank, BankSouth and BoA systems, but you as customer got stuck when doing seemingly routine transactions. You're probably in a situation where your older accounts are in System A, and the newer ones are in recently acquired System B. You should be able to avoid this problem by opening new accounts at Citibank, or just getting another bank. If you have a good rapport with a branch manager, explain the situation and see if they can do anything. FWIW, Unless you're spending alot of time in Manhattan or travel overseas often, there aren't many advantages to having a Citibank account these days.
In my view you are going through quite a bit of logistics to achieve this. Best is drop this idea. If all of you are paying equally, then there is virtually no gain. A better pact is not to gift each other on wedding. We want to open a joint fixed deposit account in name of each one of us which should be locked-in till 2020 Yes it is possible to have Joint Account with multiple names. Ideally all should be present or a Power of Attorney can be created to include names of people who are not present. We want our money to be risk free and secured. Risk free and secured will mean Fixed Deposits.
Only if your work on the side is making you at least £60,000 profit a year. The overheads are just not worth it if you make less. Working as a sole trader, you can still claim for expenses incurred in the course of your business. You can also claim a percentage of your computer costs, even though you may use the computer for gaming. This is not unreasonable as the computer is necessary for your work. The Inland Revenue accept the fact that some assets are part work-related. In your case, as a web and mobile phone developer, I expect the percentage to be at least half, if not a lot more. If you need to travel in the course of your work you can claim a percentage for your car. You can include other small expenses such as telephone, stationery, electricity etc but don't go overboard. The important point to remember is that you must be able to defend the expenses claimed as work-related, so long as you can do this there is no problem. Remember to keep good records of all your expenses. This is on-going throughout the year and is much more work than filling out your tax return. The software on the IR self-assessment site is excellent, so it's conceivable that you may not need an accountant if you are prepared to do your own tax return. However, if you feel unsure employ an accountant initially and take it from there.
"I opened several free checking accounts at a local credit union.  One is a ""Deposit"" account where all of my new money goes.  I get paid every two weeks.  Every other Sunday we have our ""Money Day"" where we allocate the money from our Deposit account into our other checking accounts.  I have one designated as a Bills account where all of my bills get paid automatically via bill pay or auto-pay. I created a spreadsheet that calculates how much to save each Money Day for all of my upcoming bills.  This makes it so the amount I save for my bills is essentially equal.  Then I allocate the rest of my deposit money into my other checking accounts.  I have a Grocery, Household, and Main checking accounts but you could use any combination that you want. When we're at the store we check our balances (how much we have left to spend) on our mobile app.  We can't overspend this way.  The key is to make sure you're using your PIN when you use your debit card.  This way it shows up in real-time with your credit union and you've got an accurate balance.  This has worked really well to coordinate spending between me and my wife.  It sounds like it's a lot of work but it's actually really automated.  The best part is that I don't have to do any accounting which means my budget doesn't fail if I'm not entering my transactions or categorizing them. I'm happy to share my spreadsheet if you'd like."
Generally for tax questions you should talk to a tax adviser. Don't consider anything I write here as a tax advice, and the answer was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used by any taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer. Does IRS like one payment method over other or they simply don't care   as long as she can show the receipts? They don't care as long as she withholds the taxes (30%, unless specific arrangements are made for otherwise). She should withhold 30% of the payment and send it to the IRS. The recipient should claim refund, if the actual tax liability is lower. It's only consulting work at the moment, so most of the communication   is done over phone. Should they start engaging in written   communication to keep records of the work done? Yes, if she wants it to be a business expense. Is it okay to pay in one go to save money-transferring fees? Can she   pay in advance? Again, she can do whatever she wants, but if she wants to account for it on her tax returns she should do it the same way she would pay any other vendor in her business. She cannot use different accounting methods for different vendors. Basically, she has not outsourced work in previous years, and she   wants to avoid any red flags. Then she should start by calling on her tax adviser, and not an anonymous Internet forum.
Do you have a separate bank account for your business?  That is generally highly recommended. I have a credit card for my single-member LLC.  I prefer it this way because it makes the separation of personal and business expenses very clear. Using a personal credit card, but using it for only business expenses seems to be a reasonable practice.  You may be able to do one better though... For your sole proprietorship, you can file a DBA which establishes the business name.  The details of this depend on your state.  With a DBA, I believe you can open a bank account in the name of your business and you may also be able to open a credit card account in the name of the business.  I'm not sure what practical difference it makes, but it does make the personal/business distinction clearer.  Though, at that point, you might as well just do the LLC...
Your hypothetical money market account parallel basically nails it.  You understand exactly how the math works.  IRR computes a rate at which your money market account would have to pay interest in order to match whatever investment you are comparing to. That said, there are two major complicating factors to consider: Your hypothetical account would have to not only pay interest, but also lend money, at exactly the IRR rate.  In reality of course, it never happens this way.  You may be able to lend (invest) at x, but to borrow you're going to have to pay y.  IRR simplifies away that issue in order to give us a single number.  That number can be very handy for comparison to other competing hypothetical investments, but it does not capture that fundamental issue of lending rate vs. borrowing rate. An IRR calculation assumes implicitly that all cash flows, outgoing and incoming, are known and fixed; that is, risk-free.  It makes no allowance whatever for risk, and all investments have some level of risk.  Two investments that compute to the same IRR might have hugely different risk around their cashflows, and so not be a close decision at all.  To compare those investments, you might go to a measure like RAROC-- risk-adjusted return on capital.  But that's much harder, and more subjective, because it requires some numerical measurement of risk.
If one has established a liquid emergency fund of 3 to 6 months income as suggested in several places here as well as being recommended by many financial planners then a savings account is a great place to keep that money. All things being equal between the savings and checking account the limited transfers should be a non issue since ideally you won't be using that money and if you need to in an emergency you could move a whole months worth of expenses to checking in one transfer.  The savings account gives you a place to keep the emergency fund segregated from your normal funds. Out of sight, out of mind as it were. A savings account also gives you a place to stash funds intended for short term goals away from normal use funds. One such example I can use is that I am purchasing several plane tickets for various family members to come visit for Christmas. I have those funds set aside in a savings account so they don't interfere with my budgeting of my normal living expenses. While these are just examples and your situation may vary they are both examples of where a savings account would be useful even if it is identical to a checking account.  Edit:  using other types of accounts can also accomplish the same thing. Since we are using the assumption that the checking and savings accounts are identical the benefit of using a savings account is that it is usually inherently linked to the associated checking account without any additional effort on the part of the account holder. Any other account type would require additional effort, however minor, on the part of the account holder to link them in such a way that would make transfers between accounts as easy as possible.
"11 / 111 / 11111 looks like the (old) tax number: it is used by the tax office to know who you are, it isn't good at all for the spanish company. It would even change when you move inside Germany.  VAT IDs are not exclusive to GmbHs (but a GmbH always has one). As freelancers you can get at VAT ID but you don't always have to.  The tax office offers a ""small business"" treatment (§ 19 UStG) for freelancers, kind of an opt-out for the VAT ID. As you do not have a VAT ID, this is probably your case. It means So what to do? If I were you, I'd write them that according to §19 UStG and the European Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, TITLE XII CHAPTER 1 ""Special scheme for small enterprises"" you were not assigned a VAT ID, and VAT is not applicable to your bill. The fact that VAT is not applicable in this case does not mean that they are allowed to refuse payment.  I heard a rumour (but don't really know) that a number similar to the VAT ID is planned also for freelancers (Wirtschafts-IDNr.). You could go to your tax office and ask them about. Maybe that yields a number that satisfies spanish burocracy. AFAIK, you can go to your tax office and ask them to give you a real VAT number.  But careful: that has the serious drawback that you have to do do an advance VAT estimate and pay that to the tax office at least quarterly (for bigger business monthly). And (AFAIK) you are not allowed to change back to the small business treatment for several years."
You can use the ITR 1 and declare the income from freelancing as income from other sources. As part of freelancing, certain expenses can be deducted provided they are directly related to work and have proper records. Please consult a CA who can advice you on how to do this. The Actual income shown should be less of the expenses.
"As others have said, the decision is a very personal one. Personally, I think you have a good idea. For those of us that thrive in structured systems having a detailed breakdown and distribution of assets is a great idea. I recommend going one step further however. Instead of having a single ""Necessities"" account have a division here. 1 account for ""Bills"" and another for ""Living Expenses."" Your Bills account should recieve the funds to pay your monthly expenses such as Rent, Utilities, Insurance. Living Expenses is for day to day spending. I recommend this because your Bills are generally a fairly fixed expense. Keeping your flexible spending separate allows you to manage it more carefully and helps prevent overspending.  I keep my Living Expenses in cash and divide it up by the number of days before my next check. Every day I put my portion of the Living Expenses in my wallet. This way I know that I can spend as much money in my wallet and still be fine for the rest of the pay period. I also know that if I want to go out to a nice dinner on Friday, it would be helpful if I have money left over at the end of the day Monday through Thursday."
Why would I ever choose to open a savings account? This is slightly broad and opinion based. If the interest rates are same and other aspects are same [or same to you ... for example savings account allows say 6 debits per month and you only need 4, then its same].  Unless one compares the specifics one can't decide. A checking account may have fees, at times waived if there is direct deposit set-up. It maybe more easy to get phone banking or other aspects.  Quite a few items were initially possible with only checking account, get a check book, get a debit card [not just ATM card], etc.  These days there are multiple flavours of products that bank is lunching which blur out the lines, hence traditional comparison will not do justice.
I think the one single answer is that the answer depends on the two countries involved and their banks' practices. To find that answer, you need to ask other expats from your country living in France and ask them for their experience.  Note that most expats do not know what fees they are paying. For example, in the Philippines, the lowest fee charged still involves waiting 30 days to get your money.  Specifically, I opened a US dollar savings account with the minimum of US $500 required (other rules are involved for opening a bank account), deposited a personal check drawn on my US bank account (no fee charged), and waited 30 calendar days to withdraw USD bills.  The Philippines bank did not have a branch in the US, but had financial arrangements with US banks.  After getting USD dollars in my hand, I walked to a nearby exchange business store (which usually offered a better daily rate than a bank, but a rate between the banks' buy and sell rates) and exchange the dollars for pesos.  Note that years ago, banks did not give USD bills, when dollars were scarce in the Philippines. However, this process does not work in Thailand, due to bank rules against private individuals opening a USD account, with exceptions.  And there are still fees involved. March 2017
yes you can open bank account you should have a address in us and personally visit bank to deposite $1500 only to get you a debit card.you are required to maintain min balance of $1500 only. I have done it
"In the United States, many banks aim to receive $ 100 per year per account in fees and interest markup.  There are several ways that they can do this on a checking account.  These examples assume that there is a 3 % difference between low-interest-rate deposit accounts and low-interest rate loans. Or some combination of these markups that adds up to $ 100 / year.  For example:  A two dollar monthly fee = $ 24 / year, plus a $ 2,000 average balance at 0.05% = $ 29 / year, plus $ 250 / month in rewards debit card usage = $ 24 / year, plus $ 2 / month in ATM fees = $ 24 / year. Before it was taken over by Chase Manhattan in 2008, Washington Mutual had a business strategy of offering ""free"" checking with no monthly fees, no annual fees, and no charges (by Washington Mutual) for using ATMs.  The catch was that the overdraft fees were not free.  If the customers averaged 3 overdraft fees per year at $ 34 each, Washington Mutual reached its markup target for the accounts."
Re #2, consider an account at a credit union rather than a bank or brokerage firm. Whether you choose a savings account or a money market account, you're likely to get an account with lower fees (so it doesn't cost you money), and rates that are typically similar.
"There is no Federal law that mandates that they must re-open a closed account. They can either refuse the transfer / return the money, or they can optionally re-open your account so they get money (makes more sense for them). It is, however, in one of your agreements that they reserve the right to re-open a closed account in order to receive the deposit. At which point, your account will become active, and the balance may be below the required minimum balance threshold, so you may have maintenance or low-balance fees charged against the account (Credit Unions are less likely to have these fees). If you want to call them out on their BS, you can ask them to cite the law which mandates the re-opening of closed accounts. They will likely fall back on your Member agreement. There may be some state laws that discuss this, but I haven't found anything. This has become such a problem for some bank customers (where they are charged fees on the money they weren't aware they had) that a law was proposed in Sept. 2013, called the Freedom and Mobility in Consumer Banking Act, which would essentially only allow the named account holder(s) to re-open a closed account. I went ahead and looked up the NACHA guidelines for ACH transfers (I got the 2013 version)  2013 Corporate Rules and Guidelines. These lines reference ""Article 4A"", which is Uniform Commercial Code Section 4A - Funds Transfer. This means that if your account is actually closed, they have an exception to the standard timeframe for issuing a Return Entry. This means that if you notify them (in writing) that you refuse any future credit Entries to the account, they MUST return them. I then went looking for the return reason codes RDFI = Receiving Depository Financial Institution From what I gather, based on these NACHA guidelines, your CU didn't actually close your account. They put it on ""hold"" or some similar state. If they actually close your account, they are required to issue a Return Entry with Code R02.  In your case, your CU doesn't charge you any maintenance fees, but for those working with banks, the best bet is to notify them in writing that you refuse any future credits to the account, or go into a branch and insist on fully closing out the account."
Sorry, in the US (Bank of America). The kind of account we have has that high fee, but they also have free account options that have lower or zero balance requirements, you just have to setup direct deposit. The one we have has free checks, free safe deposit box, an English speaking customer service rep guaranteed to answer my call in something like 3 rings, and a bunch of other stuff I'll never use.
"To avoid going on and on in the comments I'm going to add this point that seems to be missing from the other answers. ""Banks often offer me deals while negotiating to open an account (since they are under high pressure to open an account)""   Would these happen to be the regionally advertised account opening deals like a $200 new checking account bonus if you deposit at least $x and leave it for at least 90 days?  This kind of deal is not unique to you.  This is not offered to you because of your unique negotiating ability. You need to understand the authority of the person you're dealing with.  Products are designed in the corporate arm of the bank.  Once a product is ready, it's rolled out to branches to be sold; sometimes with some fancy sign-up bonus.  A checking account is a product, just like an iPhone.  Apple took the headphone jack out of the iPhone 7, no amount of negotiating with the Genius at the Apple store will put it back for you. Vote with your wallet, show the bank you're unhappy by leaving."
Also, since you asked about taxes, you should know that when you do eventually file with the IRS, they have an option to receive your tax refund electronically as well (e.g. direct deposit into your bank account) and that can literally save you months in some cases depending on when you file your return and how many paper checks they have to process. Does it cost money to setup? It depends. Some banks have special offers, some don't. Most places will set up an account for free, but may require a minimum deposit to open the account (typically $50-$100). The Visa debit card mentioned above generally comes free. If you want a secured credit card as above, you will want about an additional $200 (so $250 - $300 total). Note that this is absolutely NOT required. You can exclusively use the Visa debit card above if you wish. Bank Account Fees Any fees charged when you have a bank account are usually minor anymore. Regardless, the bank will hand you a whole bunch of paperwork (mostly in legalese) detailing exactly how your account works. That said, the bank person helping set things up will cover what you need to know about keeping the account in plain English. The most common types of fee associated with a bank account are monthly maintenance fees and overdraft fees, but these aren't always necessarily charged. Likewise, there may be some other fees associated with the account but these vary from bank to bank. Monthly Maintenance Fees To give some examples... Overdraft Fees Overdraft fees are typically charged when you attempt to spend more money than you have in your bank account and the bank has to cover these charges. Overdraft fees typically apply to using paper checks (which it is unlikely you will be using), but not always. That said, it is very unlikely you will be charged overdraft fees for three reasons: Many banks have done away with these fees in lieu of other ways of generating revenue. Banks that still charge these fees usually have ""overdraft protection"" options for a little more money a month, effectively negating the possibility you will be charged these fees. The ability to deduct an amount of money from your checking account is now typically checked electronically before the payment is authorized.
"Generally when you open a new account, you'd be given a checkbook (usually ""starter"" checks with no personal information, but some banks will later mail you a proper checkbook with your personal details) and a debit card (again, some banks will give you a ""starter"" one on the spot with a personalized following up in the mail, others will mail you). With the debit card you can use your bank's ATM to withdraw cash from your account, or use it for purchases (will debit, as the name says, directly from your account). You can also use it in other ATMs, but that will usually be with significant fees ($2-$5 per withdrawal to both the ATM owner and your bank). Checks - you can write a check to someone or use the check to go to the cashier in the bank and withdraw money (although usually they have special withdrawal slips for that in the branches, so you don't really need to waste your own checks). As to how to deposit money in your home country - you'll have to check with the bank you have an account at back at home. Usually, you can ""wire"" transfer money from your BoA account to the account back home, but that is usually comes at a fee of about $30-$50 per transfer (in the US, additional fees may be charged at the receiving end + currency conversion costs). You can also write yourself a check and deposit that check at the home country bank, but that depends on the specific bank whether it is possible, how much it would cost, and how long it would take for them to credit the money to your account after they take your check - may take weeks with personal checks."
Since you have presumably now been living here for six months you may already have discovered that Australian banks charge a transaction fee whether the funds are deposited from overseas by check/cheque or telegraphically. I have an account with Bank of America and used to be able to draw funds from Australian bank Westpac via their ATMs without incurring a fee, because BofA and Westpac are both members of a Global ATM Alliance that did not charge fees to each others customers. But now they have initiated a new policy, and take 3% of every sum withdrawn. Not quite usury, but in the same ballpark. I'm now investigating the possibility of opening a Schwab or a Capital One account in the US, and using one of their credit cards, which, I believe, would allow withdrawals at Australian ATMs for no fee. If you find or have found a good answer to your dilemma I hope you will share it.