Remittance Tax Calculator — 1% Excise on Money Sent Abroad

A 1% federal excise tax now applies to certain money transfers sent from the United States to recipients abroad, for transfers made after December 31, 2025. It is collected by the transfer provider — the bank, wire service or money transfer app — and remitted to the Treasury quarterly, so it appears as a line on your receipt rather than as something you file.

The tax turns entirely on how the transfer is funded, not on where it goes, how much it is, or who is sending it. It applies when the sender hands over cash, a money order, a cashier's check, or a similar physical instrument. It does not apply when the transfer is funded from an account at a United States financial institution, and it does not apply when it is funded by a United States-issued debit or credit card. The same $500 to the same recipient in the same country therefore costs $5 more at a counter than it does pushed from a checking account.

That design determines who actually pays it. Households with bank accounts can avoid the tax entirely by changing how they pay, at no cost and with no change to the recipient's experience. Households without bank accounts — disproportionately lower-income and recent immigrants, and precisely the population that uses walk-in cash transfer counters — cannot. The tax therefore falls hardest on the senders least able to restructure around it, which is worth knowing before you assume there is nothing to be done about the charge on your receipt.

There is no minimum threshold and no exemption based on citizenship or immigration status, so a $50 transfer carries 50 cents and a $5,000 transfer carries $50. The tax sits on top of the provider's own fee and on top of the exchange-rate margin, which is usually the larger cost and is easy to miss because it is not itemized. When comparing providers, compare the total of fee plus tax plus spread against the mid-market rate, not the advertised fee alone.