Cashing foreign Amazon affiliate checks in the US

How can one cash foreign checks without being ripped off by bank fees?

[pocket calculator]

I live in the US and signed up for the Amazon affiliate programs from each country that's offered.

Now I am going to be receiving checks in pounds, canadian dollars, euros, yen, etc.

It seems that every bank I ask has a ridiculous fee for cashing these checks (and there are fees on multiple levels of the deposit process). I could easily lose 50% or more of my revenue just in bank fees.

Is there an alternative? Is it possible (and completely legal) to set up bank accounts in Canada, UK, Germany and mail my checks to them, then occasionally do a wire transfer after they've built up some funds? If so, what are the tax / customs issues to consider?

Anyone in the same situation and has some advice?

[hunderdown]

I used to live in England and have kept a bank account there. The only requirement I know of is that foreign income--the payments and any interest--has to be reported as income to the IRS.

My account came with an ATM card, which I can use in US ATMs, which is a nice plus.

Whether you can set up an account FROM the US in another country I don't know, unfortunately.

[j_h_maccann]

It has become EXTREMELY difficult to set up bank accounts outside the US, since laws designed to counter money laundering have become widespread. It has become common for banks to require a personal appearance, with current local documentation of local addresses (not just a US passport and full US identification). This can require having a local agent, with high costs. (Ten years ago it was easy to set up foreign bank accounts with just a US passport; no longer.)

If the bank accounts can be set up, then the next problem is that many non-US banks have high wire fees to non-related banks in the US. So you are restricted to opening foreign accounts where transfers are reasonable; for example, it is easy to transfer money online among CitiBank accounts around the world (but it is not very easy to open them).

In addition to declaring and paying tax on worldwide income to the US Internal Revenue, US citizens who have a beneficial interest in foreign bank accounts must file an additional report with the US Treasury annually listing all the foreign accounts and their balances.

[jomaxx]

If you're losing that much then you're probably talking about fairly low check amounts. In that case, I'd be surprised if you could possibly do it without having various bank charges and transaction charges eat up any savings. Not to mention the cost of your time managing all this rigamarole.

If you're talking about large amounts (say over a few hundred dollars per quarterly check), then you need to be more aggressive with your bank. If necessary open an account with the US arm of a German bank, a Canadian bank, etc. There are procedures for this sort of thing, and unless you're getting paid in Amazonian Quackmarks someone should be able to provide the service at a reasonable cost.

[hunderdown]

US citizens who have a beneficial interest in foreign bank accounts must file an additional report with the US Treasury annually listing all the foreign accounts and their balances.

Huh. First I heard of that. What happens if I don't file my report listing my Lloyds account and its massive balance of 15 pounds sterling?

But from what you say, I'm glad I held onto that account....

[onlineleben]

If your payments from foreign amazons are quite low, why not have them send you a gift certificate instead.
This is usually valid for one year and you can doing your amazon shopping using these certificates.
Even when you take the oversea shipping cost into account, you do much better than going to the banks.