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DELTA · GOLD CARD FIELD GUIDE

How much of the sale money should be treated as committed?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

Treat the US$15,000 processing fee per person as spent once paid, because it is nonrefundable. Treat the US$1 million gift per person as given, not invested: it is not refundable equity and no return should be assumed. Visa, medical, and professional fees sit on top of both figures.

Model the downside honestly

Write out what the household keeps if the application does not succeed after the processing fees are paid. That single number tends to sharpen the decision more than any projection of benefits. Include currency movement between the sale currency and US dollars, since all program amounts are stated in US dollars.

If an employer is sponsoring instead, corporate terms differ and have their own maintenance and transfer charges that a qualified adviser should review against current published terms. Add one further line to that downside model: the currency and timing of the tax liability arising from the sale itself. A disposal arranged to fund the payment is a taxable event in its own right, potentially in more than one jurisdiction, and the liability may fall due long after the proceeds have been committed.

Hold that amount aside before anything else is allocated, and take written advice on when and to whom it is owed. Hypothetical example: a seller allocates proceeds across the program payments, professional fees and living costs, and discovers the tax on the disposal falls due in a currency and a filing season that nobody had put on the same page as the rest of the plan.