[conductr]

> A Form 8300 must be filed by any trade or business (including real estate) that receives more than $10,000 in cash in the course of a single transaction or two or more related transactions. It is not a SAR and is not used to report suspicious activity. Form 8300 is an information report that is required to be filed by any trade or business (such as a car or boat dealer) that receives in excess of $10,000 in cash in a single transaction. Therefore, if for any reason a real estate agent or broker receives more than $10,000 in cash from a buyer or seller in the course of a real estate transaction, the form must be filled out and filed, and can be found at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8300.pdf(link is external).

https://www.nar.realtor/money-laundering-and-terrorism-finan...

This is also usually how drug dealers get busted after paying cash for a car. It goes to the IRS and then basically every federal agency has it (DEA, FBI, etc)

[heelix]

Ah man. The dealerships do not appreciate a large bag of cash. I found a car that I wanted and got a cashiers check for it at my local bank. They wanted what I considered an outrageous amount of fees (like $8) to do it. So... I asked for cash. Nope - don't have that on hand... will take time, yada yada. At that point, it was the principal of the thing... and said fine, see you in a day or two. Eventually I got it - drove over to pick up the car, and the dealership freaked out. They took it. Filled out all sorts of extra forms. My Bride is correct - I am a dumbass. Won't do that again.

[Aperocky]

I suspect the "cash" referred in the article are actually 2 distinct things. First being literal dollar bills and the second being bank account balance.

When you buy a house using account balance no actual paper note is involved but it is referred to as "cash".

[conductr]

IRS considers many things beyond currency “cash.” See section 32 of the form where it has you quantify how much value of each of 6 financial instruments were received in the transaction.

If you’re expecting a wire transfer being a loophole, the cash has to get into the bank where the funds exist and they are required reporters for AML/SAR.

[deckard1]

$10k seems really low. Like 1980s low. That's not even earnest money on a $1M house typical of California. That's a down payment on a car slightly nicer than a Civic today. Saw a Civic listed for $30k at the dealer last week.

[from]

There was a bill to raise it to $30k and reform various other parts of the Bank Secrecy Act that would have likely passed congress but then the Coronavirus hit and derailed the whole thing. Now with this whole Russia-Ukraine thing any effort to sensibly update reporting thresholds will probably never happen.

[conductr]

I think it was set in the 80s as part of the war on drugs.

[novok]

Yup, and that was the point I think. Set it at a high for the 80s / 50s / etc point and never scale with inflation.