My mother (US citizen) was working in Japan for many years and accumulated $300,000.00 in savings. She transferred this money to her account in the USA to purchase a house a little over a year ago. The INS has recently wrote her a letter asking about this money.
My question is:
1- Does my mother have to pay taxes on this wire transfer/amount?
2- Because she didn't know she had to declare this amount to the INS, would she be penalized for this?