# Plain Language Summary: Remittance Transfer Fee Bill

This bill would add a 10 percent fee on money that people send outside the United States through money transfer services. So if you're sending $100 to family in another country, you'd pay an additional $10 in fees. The money collected from these fees would go into a special fund dedicated to border security activities like hiring more Border Patrol agents, funding immigration enforcement operations, building or maintaining border barriers, and operating detention facilities.

The bill includes a tax credit to offset some of this burden for U.S. citizens. When you file your taxes, you could claim a credit for the remittance fees you paid during the year, essentially getting that money back through your tax return. This means U.S. citizens sending money abroad would pay the fee upfront but recover it later on their taxes, while non-citizens sending money would bear the full cost of the fee.

The bill also includes serious penalties for anyone trying to avoid the fee by routing money through intermediaries or other methods. People caught deliberately evading the fee could face fines up to $500,000 or twice the amount of money being transferred, plus up to 20 years in prison. Additionally, foreign countries that the government determines are helping people avoid this fee could lose access to U.S. foreign aid and be excluded from visa waiver programs.

In practice, this would primarily affect immigrants and others regularly sending money to family members in other countries—a practice called remittances that represents a major source of income for many families worldwide. While U.S. citizens could recover their fees through taxes, the policy would still create an upfront cost and administrative burden for anyone sending money internationally.