Go to your nearest branch on Fridays, take out $2K, when they ask, say Fox...
I've been through training on this, but it's been a year or so, I am not up on the latest in regulations and reporting...
Banks are supposed to report transactions over $10k, or "strange transactions". They literally have departments and people that investigate these activities and report them to the guberment.
Yes, but for the most part they aren't interested in "us".
I've taken
financial industry Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) training. Banking compliance is mostly about
obvious red flags and "
Know Your Customer" policies. If your behavior suddenly changes, especially if you start making cash deposits/purchases , any cash-handling business (bank, credit union, car dealership, western union, etc) are supposed to generate a
Suspicious Activity Report and for any transaction exceeding reporting thresholds, must file a
currency transaction report (CTR) to FinCEN. That said, most reports, especially withdrawal reports for a few thousand, are no big deal, the government admits they barely glance at them. Part of the problem is the $10K limit wasn't indexed to inflation, so the Feds get a
huge volume of reports these days -- the rate of SAR reports alone has tripled since 2003, to over 5K reports per day.
Withdrawing cash in amounts up to perhaps $4K is not a big deal; if anybody asks, just say
Foxwoods, or
Foxy Lady. If your bank thinks you are a degenerate gambler (or just a degenerate) that one bank might be reluctant to loan you money, but will be happy to let you spend your own money that came from a legit deposit. Or if you don't want to deal with a teller, you can also have your bank increase your ATM withdrawal limit -- most ATMs can distribute a maximum of 40 bills per transaction, and Sovereign Bank, for example, has a daily ATM withdrawal limit of $1,000; some banks go as high as $2,500.
I was told $10k is the limit, not sure if its monthly or any 30 day period. Banks are required to report any withdrawals of lesser amounts that appear to be an attempt to circumvent this (structuring).
The reports are filed monthly, but I don't think there's any requirement to track your transactions over a 30-day period. $10K is the limit that requires a CTR, but there are two other types of reports.
While they can file CTR for smaller transactions, financial institutions must file if you move $10K in currency or currency equivalents in a 24-hour period, or in "
related" transactions. And any business in a regulated industry is mandated by FinCEN to report transactions where they “
have knowledge that (transactions) are by or on behalf of any person and result in either cash in or cash out totaling more than $10,000 during any one business day.”.
Financial institutions will file a
SAR when you hit about $5K if they have any reason to suspect something is not right, and for certain types of transaction, the trigger amount is lower -- If, for example, you are buying money orders,
as little as $2K can trigger a SAR if the institution believes "
The transaction has no business or apparent lawful purpose and knows of no reasonable explanation for the transaction after examining the available facts, including the background and possible purpose of the transaction." It's all well documented at fincen.gov.
Beyond the regulated industries, any person or business receiving $10K in cash or cash equivalent, in a single transaction or related transactions, must file
IRS Form 8300 documenting the source and transation.
Greece, you know, it's time to panic, etc.
Whatever we have saved is in the bank, or should I say, in the banks hands. And I do get the hard fact that our hard earned money is going into the bank's hands (direct deposit, we have to), and will be given to us when we ask for it, as long as all is A-okay and the banks are happy, it's not like Greece made me wake totally, but it's a reminder only a fool would ignore.
Sitting on cash in the form of US banknotes isn't great use of your savings. As long as you are under the FDIC insurance limits, your cash is safer in a US bank earning 0.01% interest than it will be sitting in a coffee can under the rose bushes in your side yard.
OTOH, if you have an extra $5K with no need for liquidity, turning that surplus into junk silver isn't the worst thing you could do.
My question: I'm pretty much sure that going to to the bank and cashing out is not a good idea, I know that even taking out 1K at a time, for a period of time, will still need to be reported by the bank.
A sudden change in your behavior should trigger a report, and maybe a question from your teller. But taking out $1K at a time is no big deal, isn't going to have the gov't kicking down your door next month (I'd worry more about non-government thugs, and changes in policy 5 years down the road). Department of the Treasury maintains two databases of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) data (which includes CTR, SAR, and such), but unless they have reason to look at your activity, it will just be recorded and ignored... for now.
The first time you try to take out a chunk of cash, the teller is going to suggest getting it in the form of a money order or cashier's check (these are "currency equivalents" and will still result in a CTR). Just decline politely, or reference the above Fox... explanation if you feel like you must elaborate.
Any experts here about this ? Could that get me into a list with the IRS or any other ABC agency ? I've heard quite a few stories about people using cash only having "funny incidents" with financial .gov authorities, what's your opinion about this ?
I doubt the IRS is going to take an interest in citizens who pull out cash in increments of a few thousand dollars, yes there will be a report, but no it won't result in anything happening to you. Maybe if you work in a sensitive job with a top secret clearance then your sudden change in behavior might be an issue for your clearance, but the IRS doesn't care if the average citizen has a gambling problem or is being blackmailed or whatever.
Once you've established a pattern of semi-regular cash withdrawals for the weekend, the bank will just ignore your now usual transaction pattern and (probably) stop generating reports. Just don't try depositing a lump sum of cash later -- cash deposits are massive red flags!