4-minute Money Ideas

Did You Make a Mistake When You Opened Your Bank Account? By Douglas Goldstein, CFP® - helping olim handle U.S., IRA, investment, and brokerage accounts from Israel What happened when you opened your first Israeli bank account after making aliya? A new oleh recently told me: “I just tried your online tool [www.profile-financial.com/olim] to find out what I need to know about having a U.S. brokerage account now that I’ve made aliya. But I think I made a mistake when I opened my new Israeli bank account.” He had gone to a local bank and told them that he wanted to bring some money over to Israel. The clerk there answered that as there is now an information exchange agreement between Israel and the United States (true), he needs to sign an IRS form called a W8 (false). The mistake was the form number, not the fact that the details of the Israeli bank account would be available to the IRS.  What forms do I sign? If you open an Israeli bank account, you need to sign a W9 form (not W8), which tells the bank that yo