I have a relative who retired abroad. She is not a US citizen, but she was a legal resident and lived and worked here before retiring. She has a small pension that, until recently, was paid to her via a paper check which was deposited at a bank in her country. Her home bank now says they cannot deposit foreign checks. I've check with the the company that pays her pension here and they have said they cannot do a direct deposit to a foreign bank.
One solution we've been considering is opening an online account such as Capital One 360 checking. The pension could be direct deposited into this account and she could access it with an ATM card abroad. Of course she will have to pay some fees, but Capital One has no foreign transaction fee. It would just be a fee for use of the local ATM.
One wrinkle in this plan is that she is neither a US citizen or a resident. So she cannot open the account. If I opened the account in my name and her pension was deposited into it, would that present any tax issues for me? Would it be considered MY income? It would be a separate account from my own finances...essentially it would be hers, except in name.
Constructive thoughts and ideas welcome! Thanks!