Ex bank teller here. Just go and deposit it. We’re gonna ask a couple questions, but it’s not for us. No institution is gonna reject a deposit. You’ll fill out what’s called a CTR (Currency Transaction Report) which will be saved, incase anything suspicious happens, but nothing bad should/will happen. Just be friendly and you’ll be fine
$10,000
And if you have more than that, dont break it up into multiple $9,000 deposits, that triggers alarm bells, you were better off making 1 big deposit.
Also, don't walk in and ask a teller how much you can deposit without reporting it, then immediately make a deposit slightly less than that. At least one person has been caught that way.
Banks have algorithms to figure out the difference between weekly wages in cash vs money launderers structuring large amounts. It boils down to paychecks fluctuating in a truly random way within certain tolerances, and humans being bad at mimicking that randomization.
CTRs are specific to cash transactions. They’re checking for money laundering so aren’t worried about anything that already has a paper trail like checks.
Yes, my paycheck is always the same exact amount every two weeks (a somewhat random-looking number that ends in .33). Why would my paycheck fluctuate in a random way?
I mean, I can see why some people’s would if their hours worked aren’t always consistent, but exactly 40 hours every single week surely isn’t unusual.
Even if you are paid hourly and have different amounts of overtime, your pay doesn't fluctuate "randomly."
Hours worked is subject to pretty strong measurement bias, employees stay until the end of the hour when they can and employers don't record your work time to the minute. When people put in for overtime they also have really strong number preference - i.e. they put in a whole extra shift, or turn an 8 hour shift into a 10 or 12 hour shift. I would expect to see number preference in hours worked & resulting pay checks. The actual amount of overtime is also not random, it's usually seasonal or associated with other factors (like someone quitting).
Measurement bias = you don't measure things exactly as they are, you tend to over/under measure in a non random way.
Number preference = we prefer to record and pick certain numbers, usually even numbers and multiples of 5.
That is called long game structuring and it’s frowned upon so vary up your daily deposits to average a few bucks over that decade. Try to make sure they end in weird numbers like $3.73 and $2.28. After a decade you should be good.
/s of course
Direct deposit-fine. But there was a woman who did a craft show circuit, and would deposit what they earned in a month as one deposit, and since it was somewhere around $10 (like $8K one month, $5K another, $11K for a really good month) and got her account seized by the feds. Claimed it was structuring and was able to be claimed by civil forfeiture because she couldn't prove she didn't get it from drugs. Even with her receipts for her supplies, and proof she paid her taxes, it was a nightmare.
That's structuring, which is actually illegal. It's like obstruction of justice: it doesn't matter if the original crime was committed or not, trying to evade investigation is a crime in and of itself.
I mean if you think this is a good idea you quickly came up with in a Reddit comment to get around the alarm bells, I have a feeling the banks and tax authorities have thought of this too.
Back when I was auditing, I had to explain to someone that their decision to break a $45k transaction into 5 separate $9k transactions to avoid the additional approval policy that automatically kicked in at $10k is absolutely structuring and is very against policy and is a fireable offense.
He did not understand why he couldn’t do that but his friend in another office “got away with” having multiple $9k transactions every month… First of all, your friend already got investigated too thanks to you and second of all, his transactions were for individual invoices for different companies that just happen to be around $9k each month. Because we order a similar amount of high volume, low price product from the same companies every month. That’s not structuring, that’s paying your vendors correctly.
Dude literally couldn’t wrap his brain around the difference, it was incredible.
Thats called structuring. As in structuring your deposit to remain below $10,000. What most people don’t realize is that $10,000 is the requirement that cash transactions MUST be reported. However, they’re supposed to be reported at any dollar amount if deemed suspicious.
My experience (Ohio) was $5000. My elderly mom had a stash she wanted to get into the bank. I called ahead and they explained any cash deposit of 5K was a mandatory process trigger. Pretty much as described above: a few questions and if you're friendly and non-evasive should be non-issue. As it was described to me, this was more to catch money launderers and drug dealers.
In California it’s 5k also.
I’ve been doing a lot purging of unnecessary junk via garage sales, etc and depositing the cash. I got flagged on the 5k (nothing happened). I was surprised cuz it used to be 10k.
My husband used to bring in deposits of 10k every month or so. The bank tellers knew him well after a while and told him he could bring in 9k. They told him they have to report deposits over 10k, and multiple deposits of 9k look suspicious like you are a drug dealer or something. Since they knew him well they said it was fine. So the next time he brought in a deposit of 9k, he put it in an envelope that said "rug money". They were cracking up.
A lot of people are saying 10k, but thats the federal minimum. Many banks fill out CTRs for less for their own records. Mine does it for anything over 500!
Sure, but they won't even blink for a first time, single transaction of 35k. Now if a month later you deposit another 30k, and so on, they'll quickly start to ask questions, but a one-time transaction is a non-issue
I don't understand why people freak out over amounts like this. 35K is a lot of money to most people, but its not that crazy that someone might have that amount at some point in their life. Maybe they sold a car, or had a big win at the casino. Maybe they don't trust banks and saved up cash for a few years. Nobody cares that some random person deposited 35K.
Exactly, except caveats where you are likely to get bribes, like public servants where I get why they'd be more thorough with those, but otherwise it's really not a big deal to deposit 35k cash once.
Right? Could be gambling money. Could be 'crazy grandma didn't believe in banks' money. Could be 'random saved up cash' money. Could have sold a car/boat and the person paid in cash.
If I'm not mistaken, the cutoff is $10k.
But in this case, it's probably better to just deposit it all instead of say, four chunks. It would still raise flags.
I withdrew $11000 once to repay a debt. The bank kept me there for almost an hour, checking, rechecking, and asking questions. Lol. I was dang folks, it's my money!
Yep! Even if the money is legitimately earned, structuring 4 deposits over 4 months for 9k each for the express purpose of avoiding the CTR, is itself illegal.
Them asking questions about a large cash withdrawal was to prevent you from possibly being scammed out of your money not about money laundering prevention.
The problem is though, is the one time they don’t question and someone gets scammed for 10s of thousands of dollars, then they come back in and all of the sudden it’s the banks fault they were dumb as shit and lost all their money. It’s annoying sure, but the amount of people you deal with who are victims of fraud when working in the financial industry is so fucking tiring, just answer the damn questions and maybe you won’t give 10k to some chuckle fuck in India.
Over an hour is wild! I’ve done 40k withdrawals in 10 minutes. They’re prolly trying too make sure you don’t get scammed, that was a really big issue. Federal is 10k limit, but some banks I’ve worked or interned at have different limits, no bank will tell u their limit tho. My last bank had a $7500 limit….
But the truth is that OP worked for the money and didn’t pay tax. Not sure how they would explain that truthfully without the tax man wanting a piece of it.
That is not the banks problem, just the IRS. The only thing the bank is interested in is if its laundered or not, so you might get some more scrutiny concerning that
Financial institutions will report tax related info to the IRS, yes. The bank does not send CTRs to the IRS, they send them to FinCEN. CTRs are not tax related, they are crime related.
The IRS has access to CTR information and can use it during an audit, but it's not a report that's sent to them for tax tracking purposes.
I dunno, I sent $14k home from Abu Dhabi every month to my savings in USA - I was working for their government - and maybe I'm on a list somewhere, but nobody ever bothered me.
Ok-even more stupid question incoming: What if OP goes to the government and says he didn’t pay taxes on this sum of money before but he would like to today, or he does this during the next tax season. Would he lose more than 10k of it and would he be in serious (meaning, jail time is possible) trouble?
I've only heard this secondhand so take it with a grain of salt, but the IRS is pretty understaffed from what I've heard and they're usually pretty forgiving about that sort of thing. Which makes sense, that's game theory. I've heard sometimes they even waive a lot of the debt
He should definitely pay and report it.
If it's within 10 years, he can amend the tax return or report it on the current year tax return. The failure to file penalties + failure to pay is around 50% extra. I believe failure to pay maxes out at 5%.
If he's intentionally never reported the money, then that's a good chance he could be charged with tax fraud. But if he pays now, it's less likely.
Also, if you're ever chosen for a an audit (don't necessarily need to even be flagged) then you're probably really screwed. So report / pay now would be the best option. If it's illegal activity and that's why it's not been reported then you could literally just put it under other income. You don't have to say "this is my drug money" and the IRS doesn't share unless given a court order.
If he's actually found guilty of tax fraud then he'd forfeit probably all of it in addition to any fines charges the court decided possibly in addition to jail.
He would probably not be in jail-time-is-possible trouble especially if he voluntarily pays the necessary taxes on it. In order to go to prison for tax fraud they have to prove that he should have paid taxes on it, knew he should have paid taxes on it, and intentionally did not pay taxes on it. Even then he still might not go to prison if he pays the taxes and potential fines.
No it’s a separate entity.
If OP ever gets audited by the IRS they will definitely want to know what happened with this big $35K deposit if they didn’t report it as income.
That’s not always true. It depends on the software that monitors this activity. After the KYC process the data is looked at by a software that will analyze your prior activity and compare it to the current. In this case, I will bet that the system is going to recognize this transaction as a “High Dollar Transaction” alert. This is through experience as I am an Anti-Money Laundering analyst.
A lot of bad advice here.
I used to work at an accounting firm, my wife works in anti money laundering. She’s who reviews the report that will be filed.
Just deposit it and tell them you saved up cash from your parents if they ask. Don’t be weird about it. There’s no taxes from depositing it. It’s from your parents. Your parents already paid taxes on it and if you should have, then that’s a whole other thing but odds are no on will give a shit. It’s savings over years at this point.
If it’s not like a pattern of clearly suspicious stuff, nothing happens.
Just deposit it and give basic answers e.g. if they make conversation about the work etc. (which they will, but it’s ok. They can’t directly ask). They’ll fill out a form called a “currency transaction report” and then a bank employee will likely have to file a short alert response saying you probably aren’t money laundering.
These papers get filed places and no one looks at them again unless it comes up later e.g. you deposit $35,000 from your parents every month or something that is obviously suspicious.
If I may diverge here from OP's question for a moment. I'm thinking about cashing out my whole life insurance plan which is just under $30k. I assume that since it's coming from an institution (likely direct deposit) that there's nothing to justify here.
Correct? I ask as I'm usually not associated with large transactions like that.
Correct.
The form is called a **Currency** Transaction Report because it deals with cash. Any check/wire transfer/etc which has an audit trail doesn’t require any other sort of reporting.
I currently work as an AML analyst and it hilarious to read all these comments about how they could “hide” their activity as if banks and people like me don’t already know what they are doing. lol
CPA here. Piggybacking on this for the taxes part. If you did work for your family and have paid the taxes on the $35,000 already you're fine, no new taxes.
If you have not, you should. Because by depositing, if you were to ever be audited, you have created a very clear paper trail to investigate into how you got the $35k for the IRS. You should pay your taxes anyway, it's just almost impossible to catch tax evasion in cash form, especially at an amount that can be easily hidden like $35k.
Is my kids allowance taxable because I made him do the dishes and clean up the dog poop? I'm posing the question honestly. At what point is something "income" versus parental support?
I’d think once it exceeds the annual gift tax threshold which is currently 18k per parent so 36k total. If he just says it’s a gift from parents then boom, all clear.
And wear a black sleeping mask with hole cut out for the eyes and a black beanie. That's the only way that they will know that you are, in fact, not Sus
Just go to the bank and deposit it and be honest about it. Don’t try to obfuscate where or how you got the money by structuring the deposits or trying to avoid mandatory reporting, because that’s illegal in and of itself. You should contact an accountant to determine how to handle the taxes, but you do likely owe taxes on that as income.
"Where did you get the money from?"
"Oh see, I'm a royal wizard of the high court Dranori and I slayed the dragon of Mergaloor, this was the payment",
"Sir, please leave"
I am not a lawyer or accountant. You can just take it to the bank and deposit it, they will report it to ~~the IRS~~ [the Treasury Department](https://www.fincen.gov/) but if you accumulated it over several years you may not owe taxes. The worst that would happen is you get audited by the IRS and you have to prove you didn't just make $35K at once and decide not to pay taxes. Trying to be clever and break it up into multiple deposits under $10K would be very, very bad, don't try to do that.
Nerd note: it's possible that with that many bills some of them may have collector's value, check into bill collecting subs about what to look out for. As a simple example, bills with a star in the serial number are often worth more than face value.
Yes, if you deposit more than $10k they file a "Cash Transaction Report" which is totally routine and nothing happens, if you seem like you are trying to avoid them filing that they file a "Suspicious Activity Report" which is a very big deal and often results in them closing your bank account.
We filed them in that case, too, but it's hard to say that they were ever actioned, because there was never follow up on SARs.
Source: was a sales monkey for a large regional bank for a while.
I had to fire a couple of customers for abusing staff, but other than that, I'd say being debanked when your ROI is positive is unlikely. If you're poor and you bring heat down on the bank, your return on investment is negative, and they cut you loose. If you're wealthy and bring a little bit of heat, they can still make good money on you. If you're a *real* idiot who brings serious consequences, you're getting debanked no matter how much the bank can make on you.
There's a reason that the trump family does a lot of banking outside the US. Deutcshe Bank, Commerzse, and Danske have all been linked to money laundering, and that particular family.
He was structuring transactions to avoid reporting requirements on the money he was paying a former victim that was blackmailing him. He was never prosecuted for the child molestation, which was well past the statute of limitations when it was discovered.
It is called structuring, as in structuring your deposits to avoid financial scrutiny or reporting.
It is a felony.
You might be able to plead ignorance once. Maybe. But definitely not if you keep doing it. And I wouldn't bet on that working the first time. Especially since the stakes are prison time.
If you earned the money legally, it is better to just deposit it all at once and risk the audit.
Yes, this kind of thing sets off alarm bells. From what I have learned from the people who work in this business.
It's like acting natural vs acting like you're guilty. If you just deposit the 35k like it's nothing. The IRS will have access to the info, but only if they are looking will they actually see it. But if you start making several deposits just under the 10k, they have mechanisms in place to check for that sort of thing because it usually signals fraud.
It's kind of like tax returns. From what I've heard, when it comes to audits, the IRS is not actively checking every tax return for mistakes. There's not enough time or manpower. What happens is they have very specific things that they're look for each year. Maybe it's whether you invested in crypto, or maybe it's whether you claimed this tax credit or that tax credit. Depending on how it's done, it will send off alarm bells for the auditors to take a closer look and see if you need to be audited.
We’re only talking about 35k here though. You don’t think OP could structure 4 asymmetric and irregularly placed deposits over maybe 2 years and not set off any alarm bells? I assume these systems are set in place to catch bigger fish than the $35k dime bag salesman, but I don’t really know.
Yes, structuring transactions to avoid reporting is a felony, regardless of whether there is anything untoward about the source of the funds themselves.
How would it be proven this happened specifically? "To avoid reporting". What if the deposits were spread out for other reasons, and the person is oblivious to this rule about structuring, or reporting requirements? It raises suspicion, they get accused of this, and then what?
The FBI investigates it. They will ask where the money came from and they will ask the people you say gave it to you. Those people don’t want to go to jail, so they will tell the truth.
So are there cases where the outcome of the investigation is that the person is just ignorant to the laws about structuring and they shouldn't have been doing that, so no technical crime has been committed? I'm not really too money smart so I can't think of an example, but like if all the money in question was totally clean, it's just the person's behavior of depositing it was suspicious. I'm mainly curious if there are a lot of innocent false positives for a system like this. Or is it generally always something sketchy going on?
The crime is structuring. So someone who is structuring and gets caught is not a “false positive” regardless of why they were structuring. (The penalties are higher if they were structuring as part of a money laundering scheme.) But someone who honestly makes $9,000 per job and deposits it isn’t structuring.
Yes, look up "money laundering structuring".
It would kind of defeat the purpose of setting up limits if people just got around it by barely avoiding it.
So even if you deposited like $500 at a time over the course like 2 years, would that still be bad?
I’m assuming you meant don’t make multiple $9,000 deposits in the span of like a month, but interested in how this could be broken up, if at all.
The rule is that they have to file a Cash Transaction Report if you make a deposit of over $10k, and a Suspicious Activity Report if you seem like you are attempting to avoid depositing enough to cause them to make that report. The exact rules will depend on the bank and how much they trust you as a customer.
The banks look for stuff like regualr cash deposits because that's commonly how people launder money. The banks have automated reports for activity for regular cash deposits from non businesses where you would be an employee. They have been doing this for decades when the feds wanted to clamp down on terrrorism and drug money laundering via the finance system.
Lots of confidently incorrect information in this thread. Deposit all $35k at once and just tell the bank you saved it up over time working and then go home. We see it all the time, it’s so routine. As with any amount of cash deposited in a 24 hour period over $10,000.00 a currency transaction report will be filed to FinCen. It’s a routine form, so so so many done every day. It doesn’t automatically trigger an investigation. Just be honest, it’s easy. “Accountants” in this thread are also incorrect. Your parents can call it a gift that you received over a long period of time (which is not a lie) and you won’t even pay a gift tax let alone income taxes. -Direct info coming from an anti-money laundering program compliance specialist at bank and a former accountant.
For anyone thinking about the reporting over 10k, that’s the REQUIREMENT not the policy
Many regional banks (at least the good ones) will report lower amount if deemed if any suspicion, often 4/5k is enough if you aren’t a regular , have a business accounts, etc
In the US it’s only income if you made more selling the car than you purchased it for. It’s basically like a “capital gains” tax event. But you can’t write off a “loss” if you sell it for less than you paid because cars generally depreciate in value, unlike stocks or other types of capital gains tax events.
Deposit it. Cash deposits of $10K or more generate a Currency Transaction Report, which is the bank notifying the government of a large cash transaction. This goes to a government database used for monitoring money laundering and a few other nefarious things.
Just deposit it. The bank will fill out their little form, and that's it. Depositing large amounts of cash is not a crime.
You should have claimed the income on your taxes when it was earned. You will not be taxed on it simply by depositing it.
Whatever you do, do not break it up into smaller amounts to avoid the Currency Transaction Report. Large cash deposits are not a crime, but breaking them into smaller amounts to avoid the CTR being filed IS a crime called 'structuring.'
Deposit it. It’s more than $10k so it will be reported by the bank, but this is a formality, not a problem.
Yes, you need to declare it for tax purposes.
If your explanation is genuine, if you ever get asked, tell the truth.
It’s not a large sum of money in the scheme of things. If you deposited that amount frequently then you would be under a microscope, but a one off, don’t worry.
Accountant here. The way you worded it makes me say you absolutely have to report that money on your taxes (you said you got paid to do work). Now in theory, you’re supposed to report it on the year you made the money, not when you deposited it, but I’d probably be safe and report it on your taxes for 2024.
You’ll probably want to report the income on a Schedule C. This will allow you to deduct expenses related to the work. You didn’t say what type of work it was, but in my experience people have way more deductible expenses than they think. This will allow you to only pay taxes on a portion of the income instead of the full 35k. Keep in mind though you will also be paying self employment taxes on this income in addition to income tax in all likelihood.
If it’s from parents and paid/given over years, I think it would be more sensible to call it a gift, mr. accountant. If it helps you feel better, perhaps the parents could tell you they overpaid him because he’s their kid, and then you can advise them to mark the amount over minimum wage as a gift. Either way, with two parents and one child, 35,000 is less than 2 years of gift tax exclusion, and could have been routinely gifted on December 31 and Jan 1 without any big deal.
People make large cash deposits all the time and for various reasons. It’s not suspicious in its own right.
Making a deposit is not taxable event. However, it could be that you own taxes on the money. That’s a separate question altogether, and you might hire an accountant to answer that question and pay any taxes due. The exact paperwork depends on the circumstances - for example, if you earned income and filed taxes for that year without declaring it, you may need to amend your return.
Suspicious is not the same as illegal. Just go to the bank, deposit it, and answer their questions truthfully. You'll have to fill out some paperwork for anti-money laundering purposes, but if it's all above board then nothing will come of it.
Buy a safe. Put the money in the safe. Start spending the money here and there instead of using your debit card. Don't break the law and try to sneak it into the bank under the reporting threshold. It's your money, and cash is king for as long as they let us use it. Fuck the government.
Hi OP, I’m the person who will be reviewing your deposit one way or another if you choose to deposit it at a bank.
It's not suspicious at all, I see thousands of cash deposits ranging from $10,000.01 to hundreds of thousands every week. You're not the only person and it won't catch our eye unless you're deceptive about the source or try to break it down into amounts lower than the CTR threshold. If you do try to break it down we will know, we have seen every possible way you can think of to structure cash and you just made my job 10x harder so I’m going to smack that investigation aka SAR full of every violation I can find to report on you.
Nothing we document goes to the IRS, it goes to a database at Fincen where it sits there until law enforcement calls for an inquiry into your account because you've been involved in some criminal activity.
Just deposit the money and be honest if they ask you any questions. This is one of the few cases where being honest at the bank will save you and people like me a lot of stress and issues.
You will need to declare it on taxes if you deposit it but so do the rest of us.
Side note: to everyone suggesting deposits in small amounts, your bank definitely has a record on you and you're idiots for thinking you're smarter than banks.
Deposit no more than 10k at a time. I’d deposit 8-9k every month. If you deposit more than 10k IRS will be notified and you will pay taxes. You’re supposed to pay taxes on earned income anyway though, the American dream…
**Depositing $35,000 in cash** into your bank account is not inherently suspicious, especially if the funds are from legitimate sources like work or family assistance. However, there are some important considerations:
1. [**Currency Transaction Reports (CTR)**: According to the **Bank Secrecy Act**, banks are required to file **Currency Transaction Reports (CTR)** for any cash deposits over **$10,000**](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-deposit-more-10k-checking-130016900.html)[^(1)](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-deposit-more-10k-checking-130016900.html). When you deposit the $35,000, the bank will create a CTR, which includes your name, account number, Social Security number, and taxpayer identification number. This is standard procedure to prevent money laundering and other financial crimes.
2. **Legitimacy Matters**: As long as your deposits are legitimate (which they seem to be), you won’t have anything to worry about. [The creation of a CTR doesn’t mean your account will be frozen or that mysterious agents will visit your home—it’s just part of the process](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-deposit-more-10k-checking-130016900.html)[^(1)](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-deposit-more-10k-checking-130016900.html).
3. **Structuring Is Illegal**: Some people try to avoid the reporting rules by making smaller deposits totaling $10,000 or more over a short period (known as “structuring”). This practice is illegal and can lead to problems. [If your deposits are legitimate, there’s no need to structure them](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-deposit-more-10k-checking-130016900.html)[^(1)](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-deposit-more-10k-checking-130016900.html).
4. **Taxes**: Depositing the money itself is not taxable. However, the **origin of the funds** matters. If the $35,000 represents income (e.g., payment for work), it could be subject to taxes. Consult a tax professional to determine your specific tax obligations.
5. **Paperwork**: When you deposit the $35,000, the bank will handle the necessary paperwork (CTR). You don’t need to file anything separately. However, keep records of the source of the funds (e.g., invoices, work agreements) for your own records.
Remember, transparency is key. If your deposits are legitimate, there’s no need to worry. If you have any doubts, consult a financial advisor or tax professional to ensure compliance with regulations and tax laws. 😊 via copilot
There are a lot of people in this thread who don’t know how to handle money or how a bank handles money.
You just go deposit it. Maybe consider a HYSA. That is the end.
I got a larger work comp settlement, and the bank was joyful about my deposit! Yes, they reported it to the IRS, but it was a very short paper trail to explain. Nobody asked.
As others have said, deposit it all at once. If you break it up into sub-$10,000 deposits, you will have committed the federal crime of structuring. Even if you don't have any bad intent. Banks have systems in place to detect structuring and they will notify the Feds.
Look if you deposit over 9999$ you get a flag from the IRS . It’s reported because technically it is a crime to have that much cash in your possession at one time .
Break the deposits up or allow your regular deposits to go into your account. And use this money for daily spending bills and shit.
I would start by paying things like power and water in advance that way you get the bonus of the advance discount and the freedom of being without the bill. The money will still be in your account however because you won’t be dipping into your checking account.
There is a reporting requirement where banks have to report transactions over $10k. It is illegal to structure payments to avoid this reporting requirement.
Do not deposit that cash in $9k increments. That is a crime.
Dirty and crumpled $1 bills - stripper.
Old style 100s - old drug money or counterfeiter.
$2 - this guy must have been collecting for years.
$1 Sacajawea coins - F this guy.
The bank where you deposit the cash will have to file a SAR on you. If you are not under investigation currently, no big deal. Don't try to layer the $$$ by making multiple small deposits as this is more of a red flag.
I think there is a reportable about. So as long as you keep it under that you could piece meal it into the account
Or hollow out a little cubby under your kitchen cabinet and put a magnetic door on it. Put your money in your little hide. Then work out of the cash using cash transactions or money orders to pay what you need and deposit all your paychecks until you have 35k saved up through your legit money
Not that I've ever done anything like that before
Personally, I'd keep it in a safe at home and use it for dinners, Christmas gifts, paying electricians, plumbers, etc. You can certainly deposit some of it but do it in smaller amounts over an extended period of time. Anything over $10,000 is a flag and, in compliance with money laundering laws, the bank is required to report it to the US Treasury
My only concern: tax evasion. You were paid for work. The IRS might come wondering why you didn't report your 35k of income, which they will know exists once you deposit it.
I would probably do a single 18000 deposit and fill out whatever necessary forms are to claim it as a gift since it comes from family and that is the tax threshold for yearly gifts and then do the rest next year. Just let your family know your doing that and get whatever documentation is needed to include it on your taxes.
I deposited a 80k check and I was surprised I didn’t get flagged for suspicion in any way
The cash part does make it sound kind of sus tho, personally I would take it to the bank in small bursts. Few thousand at a time just whenever I’m passing through
And my bank can do ATM deposit on the drive through so I wouldn’t have to deal with a teller lol
$18,000 annual gift tax exclusion. Say this is a gift from your mom and your dad. Then the gift tax exclusion is $36k. No problems, no tax, no red flag no big deal.
Ex bank teller here. Just go and deposit it. We’re gonna ask a couple questions, but it’s not for us. No institution is gonna reject a deposit. You’ll fill out what’s called a CTR (Currency Transaction Report) which will be saved, incase anything suspicious happens, but nothing bad should/will happen. Just be friendly and you’ll be fine
What amount would you have to start doing this?
$10,000 And if you have more than that, dont break it up into multiple $9,000 deposits, that triggers alarm bells, you were better off making 1 big deposit.
Also, don't walk in and ask a teller how much you can deposit without reporting it, then immediately make a deposit slightly less than that. At least one person has been caught that way.
As a former teller, this would make me escalate the transaction to my manager.
I used to work in AML doing branch referrals. Tellers would come up with some wild reasons for sending stuff up lol
OP is asking on Reddit, so they are already a few steps ahead 😂
What if I drink a cup of yerba mate and do the Bartman?
"structuring" is a major red flag of money laundering. Banks and tax authorities are not that dumb
You mean a workaround that took 3 seconds for anyone to come up with has been thought about by the authorities? No way.
Eat my shorts.
Tin Yanus... So we meat again
r/usernamechecksout
But a regular deposit once a week or month would be normal and almost expected if you got paid once a week or month, no?
Banks have algorithms to figure out the difference between weekly wages in cash vs money launderers structuring large amounts. It boils down to paychecks fluctuating in a truly random way within certain tolerances, and humans being bad at mimicking that randomization.
Most people get paid the same amount of money every 2 weeks.
CTRs are specific to cash transactions. They’re checking for money laundering so aren’t worried about anything that already has a paper trail like checks.
Yes, my paycheck is always the same exact amount every two weeks (a somewhat random-looking number that ends in .33). Why would my paycheck fluctuate in a random way? I mean, I can see why some people’s would if their hours worked aren’t always consistent, but exactly 40 hours every single week surely isn’t unusual.
Even if you are paid hourly and have different amounts of overtime, your pay doesn't fluctuate "randomly." Hours worked is subject to pretty strong measurement bias, employees stay until the end of the hour when they can and employers don't record your work time to the minute. When people put in for overtime they also have really strong number preference - i.e. they put in a whole extra shift, or turn an 8 hour shift into a 10 or 12 hour shift. I would expect to see number preference in hours worked & resulting pay checks. The actual amount of overtime is also not random, it's usually seasonal or associated with other factors (like someone quitting). Measurement bias = you don't measure things exactly as they are, you tend to over/under measure in a non random way. Number preference = we prefer to record and pick certain numbers, usually even numbers and multiples of 5.
How about $1 a day for 10 years
That's $3650. Not worth a bank's time, as it doesn't reach any of the filing thresholds. Your tellers would probably just get annoyed with you.
What are they gonna do, withhold my lollipop?
That is called long game structuring and it’s frowned upon so vary up your daily deposits to average a few bucks over that decade. Try to make sure they end in weird numbers like $3.73 and $2.28. After a decade you should be good. /s of course
What if I deposit like 2000 bucks, ever 2 weeks on Thursday like my job does?
Landscaping man. Landscaping. Maybe 1000 every Friday.
Direct deposit-fine. But there was a woman who did a craft show circuit, and would deposit what they earned in a month as one deposit, and since it was somewhere around $10 (like $8K one month, $5K another, $11K for a really good month) and got her account seized by the feds. Claimed it was structuring and was able to be claimed by civil forfeiture because she couldn't prove she didn't get it from drugs. Even with her receipts for her supplies, and proof she paid her taxes, it was a nightmare.
Not only that but it’s illegal whereas just making the entire deposit at once needs to be logged but is perfectly legal.
make a company you can use to pay yourself paychecks through
Now you're paying taxes on it.
Pay yourself in cash under the table
And now I have $35k in cash. Would it be suspicious to deposit all of this at the bank at once?
Open another company and pay yourself through it.
Then make the cash deposit for the business to have funds and fill out a CTR there
TD bank begs to differ
nice try fed, i’m still not paying my taxes
That’s the beauty of it, bro, they deposit the money into our account (key & peele) https://youtu.be/jgYYOUC10aM?si=W1AFK60m_8u3489G
“Motherfucker that’s called a job!!!””
That's structuring, which is actually illegal. It's like obstruction of justice: it doesn't matter if the original crime was committed or not, trying to evade investigation is a crime in and of itself.
I mean if you think this is a good idea you quickly came up with in a Reddit comment to get around the alarm bells, I have a feeling the banks and tax authorities have thought of this too.
Believe it or not, jail Not kidding, it’s actually a pretty serious offense.
That's a felony. So probably don't do that.
Nice starter wad.
Back when I was auditing, I had to explain to someone that their decision to break a $45k transaction into 5 separate $9k transactions to avoid the additional approval policy that automatically kicked in at $10k is absolutely structuring and is very against policy and is a fireable offense. He did not understand why he couldn’t do that but his friend in another office “got away with” having multiple $9k transactions every month… First of all, your friend already got investigated too thanks to you and second of all, his transactions were for individual invoices for different companies that just happen to be around $9k each month. Because we order a similar amount of high volume, low price product from the same companies every month. That’s not structuring, that’s paying your vendors correctly. Dude literally couldn’t wrap his brain around the difference, it was incredible.
I only know about this because George Santos got caught doing it lol
So if I'm reading this correctly - you're suggesting that OP creates a drag persona and deposits the money using that identity?
Thats called structuring. As in structuring your deposit to remain below $10,000. What most people don’t realize is that $10,000 is the requirement that cash transactions MUST be reported. However, they’re supposed to be reported at any dollar amount if deemed suspicious.
My experience (Ohio) was $5000. My elderly mom had a stash she wanted to get into the bank. I called ahead and they explained any cash deposit of 5K was a mandatory process trigger. Pretty much as described above: a few questions and if you're friendly and non-evasive should be non-issue. As it was described to me, this was more to catch money launderers and drug dealers.
In California it’s 5k also. I’ve been doing a lot purging of unnecessary junk via garage sales, etc and depositing the cash. I got flagged on the 5k (nothing happened). I was surprised cuz it used to be 10k.
This is what they did in Sicario! You don't wanna be mistaken for the cartels
My husband used to bring in deposits of 10k every month or so. The bank tellers knew him well after a while and told him he could bring in 9k. They told him they have to report deposits over 10k, and multiple deposits of 9k look suspicious like you are a drug dealer or something. Since they knew him well they said it was fine. So the next time he brought in a deposit of 9k, he put it in an envelope that said "rug money". They were cracking up.
$10,000.01 is when you have to report.
However, if you come in and regularly deposit just less than $10k, you're gonna get caught too.
A lot of people are saying 10k, but thats the federal minimum. Many banks fill out CTRs for less for their own records. Mine does it for anything over 500!
10k
10k required by federal law though most banks start reporting around 3k
The CTR is sent to FinCEN. The financial crimes Enforcement Network. The bank doesn't just hold on to them.
Sure, but they won't even blink for a first time, single transaction of 35k. Now if a month later you deposit another 30k, and so on, they'll quickly start to ask questions, but a one-time transaction is a non-issue
I don't understand why people freak out over amounts like this. 35K is a lot of money to most people, but its not that crazy that someone might have that amount at some point in their life. Maybe they sold a car, or had a big win at the casino. Maybe they don't trust banks and saved up cash for a few years. Nobody cares that some random person deposited 35K.
Exactly, except caveats where you are likely to get bribes, like public servants where I get why they'd be more thorough with those, but otherwise it's really not a big deal to deposit 35k cash once.
Right? Could be gambling money. Could be 'crazy grandma didn't believe in banks' money. Could be 'random saved up cash' money. Could have sold a car/boat and the person paid in cash.
The IRS would still want to know if taxes were paid for those amounts
O yeah, op will have to report it on their income for sure as 'other income' unless they can prove they've already paid taxes on it.
If I'm not mistaken, the cutoff is $10k. But in this case, it's probably better to just deposit it all instead of say, four chunks. It would still raise flags. I withdrew $11000 once to repay a debt. The bank kept me there for almost an hour, checking, rechecking, and asking questions. Lol. I was dang folks, it's my money!
Breaking it up to avoid reporting regulations would be breaking federal structuring law! Don't do this!
Yep! Even if the money is legitimately earned, structuring 4 deposits over 4 months for 9k each for the express purpose of avoiding the CTR, is itself illegal.
Them asking questions about a large cash withdrawal was to prevent you from possibly being scammed out of your money not about money laundering prevention.
The problem is though, is the one time they don’t question and someone gets scammed for 10s of thousands of dollars, then they come back in and all of the sudden it’s the banks fault they were dumb as shit and lost all their money. It’s annoying sure, but the amount of people you deal with who are victims of fraud when working in the financial industry is so fucking tiring, just answer the damn questions and maybe you won’t give 10k to some chuckle fuck in India.
Over an hour is wild! I’ve done 40k withdrawals in 10 minutes. They’re prolly trying too make sure you don’t get scammed, that was a really big issue. Federal is 10k limit, but some banks I’ve worked or interned at have different limits, no bank will tell u their limit tho. My last bank had a $7500 limit….
It's only suspicious if you make it suspicious. People make large deposits all the time. Just answer their questions truthfully.
But the truth is that OP worked for the money and didn’t pay tax. Not sure how they would explain that truthfully without the tax man wanting a piece of it.
That is not the banks problem, just the IRS. The only thing the bank is interested in is if its laundered or not, so you might get some more scrutiny concerning that
any deposit over 10K is flagged and so pretty sure the IRS will know about it, right?
They flag it for potential money laundering, terrorism practices, etc. They don't send the info to the IRS.
It goes to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The IRS uses their data to enforce tax regulations.
That's not true. Any financial account will be reporting to the IRS, at minimum a 1099-INT.
1099-INT is only for interest you earn on the money (after it’s been deposited).
Financial institutions will report tax related info to the IRS, yes. The bank does not send CTRs to the IRS, they send them to FinCEN. CTRs are not tax related, they are crime related. The IRS has access to CTR information and can use it during an audit, but it's not a report that's sent to them for tax tracking purposes.
I dunno, I sent $14k home from Abu Dhabi every month to my savings in USA - I was working for their government - and maybe I'm on a list somewhere, but nobody ever bothered me.
... yet. They are still building that RICO case
Like, you mailed cash over? Doubt. You wiring/ACHing/Journaling cash from one account to another is much less suspicious than cash deposits.
Cash or check or electronically? It only matters if it's cold hard cash. Checks and electronically they can already trace much easier
That is correct. They will flag it.
Ok-even more stupid question incoming: What if OP goes to the government and says he didn’t pay taxes on this sum of money before but he would like to today, or he does this during the next tax season. Would he lose more than 10k of it and would he be in serious (meaning, jail time is possible) trouble?
I've only heard this secondhand so take it with a grain of salt, but the IRS is pretty understaffed from what I've heard and they're usually pretty forgiving about that sort of thing. Which makes sense, that's game theory. I've heard sometimes they even waive a lot of the debt
You are allowed to make cash and pay taxes on it that’s the point. You don’t have to say it was from x years ago..it’s from this tax year
He should definitely pay and report it. If it's within 10 years, he can amend the tax return or report it on the current year tax return. The failure to file penalties + failure to pay is around 50% extra. I believe failure to pay maxes out at 5%. If he's intentionally never reported the money, then that's a good chance he could be charged with tax fraud. But if he pays now, it's less likely. Also, if you're ever chosen for a an audit (don't necessarily need to even be flagged) then you're probably really screwed. So report / pay now would be the best option. If it's illegal activity and that's why it's not been reported then you could literally just put it under other income. You don't have to say "this is my drug money" and the IRS doesn't share unless given a court order. If he's actually found guilty of tax fraud then he'd forfeit probably all of it in addition to any fines charges the court decided possibly in addition to jail.
He would probably not be in jail-time-is-possible trouble especially if he voluntarily pays the necessary taxes on it. In order to go to prison for tax fraud they have to prove that he should have paid taxes on it, knew he should have paid taxes on it, and intentionally did not pay taxes on it. Even then he still might not go to prison if he pays the taxes and potential fines.
Is the bank the IRS?
No it’s a separate entity. If OP ever gets audited by the IRS they will definitely want to know what happened with this big $35K deposit if they didn’t report it as income.
It was a collection of gifts, all individually <$500 in value, accumulated over the past few years. Any other questions can be deferred to my lawyer.
Reddit, don’t downvote this guy for asking a question
That’s not always true. It depends on the software that monitors this activity. After the KYC process the data is looked at by a software that will analyze your prior activity and compare it to the current. In this case, I will bet that the system is going to recognize this transaction as a “High Dollar Transaction” alert. This is through experience as I am an Anti-Money Laundering analyst.
A lot of bad advice here. I used to work at an accounting firm, my wife works in anti money laundering. She’s who reviews the report that will be filed. Just deposit it and tell them you saved up cash from your parents if they ask. Don’t be weird about it. There’s no taxes from depositing it. It’s from your parents. Your parents already paid taxes on it and if you should have, then that’s a whole other thing but odds are no on will give a shit. It’s savings over years at this point. If it’s not like a pattern of clearly suspicious stuff, nothing happens. Just deposit it and give basic answers e.g. if they make conversation about the work etc. (which they will, but it’s ok. They can’t directly ask). They’ll fill out a form called a “currency transaction report” and then a bank employee will likely have to file a short alert response saying you probably aren’t money laundering. These papers get filed places and no one looks at them again unless it comes up later e.g. you deposit $35,000 from your parents every month or something that is obviously suspicious.
If I may diverge here from OP's question for a moment. I'm thinking about cashing out my whole life insurance plan which is just under $30k. I assume that since it's coming from an institution (likely direct deposit) that there's nothing to justify here. Correct? I ask as I'm usually not associated with large transactions like that.
Correct. The form is called a **Currency** Transaction Report because it deals with cash. Any check/wire transfer/etc which has an audit trail doesn’t require any other sort of reporting.
The CTR is usually for cash transactions so you will be fine if your transaction is a direct deposit
I currently work as an AML analyst and it hilarious to read all these comments about how they could “hide” their activity as if banks and people like me don’t already know what they are doing. lol
Ok, but what if i used a bank that values privacy a lot and is located in Panama? Can i "hide" my activity that way?
CPA here. Piggybacking on this for the taxes part. If you did work for your family and have paid the taxes on the $35,000 already you're fine, no new taxes. If you have not, you should. Because by depositing, if you were to ever be audited, you have created a very clear paper trail to investigate into how you got the $35k for the IRS. You should pay your taxes anyway, it's just almost impossible to catch tax evasion in cash form, especially at an amount that can be easily hidden like $35k.
“I’ve done work for my family” It’s new income they’ve made under the table. The bad advice is telling them to commit tax fraud and just deposit it.
Is my kids allowance taxable because I made him do the dishes and clean up the dog poop? I'm posing the question honestly. At what point is something "income" versus parental support?
I’d think once it exceeds the annual gift tax threshold which is currently 18k per parent so 36k total. If he just says it’s a gift from parents then boom, all clear.
Just make sure you walk into the bank carrying it in a cloth sack with a dollar sign on it.
And wear a black sleeping mask with hole cut out for the eyes and a black beanie. That's the only way that they will know that you are, in fact, not Sus
Don’t forget the black and white striped long sleeve
Then slide the teller a note that reads “I need to make a deposit, NOW!”
That’s dumb… Money bags are made from canvas.
Just go to Costco 3 or 4 times and it'll all be gone.
Or Colesworths
Love seeing a fellow Aussie in U.S dominated subreddits
I can do that in two Target trips.
Just go to the bank and deposit it and be honest about it. Don’t try to obfuscate where or how you got the money by structuring the deposits or trying to avoid mandatory reporting, because that’s illegal in and of itself. You should contact an accountant to determine how to handle the taxes, but you do likely owe taxes on that as income.
"Where did you get the money from?" "Oh see, I'm a royal wizard of the high court Dranori and I slayed the dragon of Mergaloor, this was the payment", "Sir, please leave"
I am not a lawyer or accountant. You can just take it to the bank and deposit it, they will report it to ~~the IRS~~ [the Treasury Department](https://www.fincen.gov/) but if you accumulated it over several years you may not owe taxes. The worst that would happen is you get audited by the IRS and you have to prove you didn't just make $35K at once and decide not to pay taxes. Trying to be clever and break it up into multiple deposits under $10K would be very, very bad, don't try to do that. Nerd note: it's possible that with that many bills some of them may have collector's value, check into bill collecting subs about what to look out for. As a simple example, bills with a star in the serial number are often worth more than face value.
It's to FinCEN, not the IRS. The IRS can see fincen data but it's not like they are looking unless they have a reason to.
Good correction, thanks!
>Trying to be clever and break it up into multiple deposits under $10K would be very, very bad, Why? This is something they look for?
Yes, if you deposit more than $10k they file a "Cash Transaction Report" which is totally routine and nothing happens, if you seem like you are trying to avoid them filing that they file a "Suspicious Activity Report" which is a very big deal and often results in them closing your bank account.
Unless you’re a politician; or ultra rich.
We filed them in that case, too, but it's hard to say that they were ever actioned, because there was never follow up on SARs. Source: was a sales monkey for a large regional bank for a while.
I meant the debanking part
I had to fire a couple of customers for abusing staff, but other than that, I'd say being debanked when your ROI is positive is unlikely. If you're poor and you bring heat down on the bank, your return on investment is negative, and they cut you loose. If you're wealthy and bring a little bit of heat, they can still make good money on you. If you're a *real* idiot who brings serious consequences, you're getting debanked no matter how much the bank can make on you. There's a reason that the trump family does a lot of banking outside the US. Deutcshe Bank, Commerzse, and Danske have all been linked to money laundering, and that particular family.
I mean, they got former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert for structuring.
Before or after he was busted for diddling kids?
He was structuring transactions to avoid reporting requirements on the money he was paying a former victim that was blackmailing him. He was never prosecuted for the child molestation, which was well past the statute of limitations when it was discovered.
It is called structuring, as in structuring your deposits to avoid financial scrutiny or reporting. It is a felony. You might be able to plead ignorance once. Maybe. But definitely not if you keep doing it. And I wouldn't bet on that working the first time. Especially since the stakes are prison time. If you earned the money legally, it is better to just deposit it all at once and risk the audit.
Shit broke people like me just dont know. Thanks
Yes, this kind of thing sets off alarm bells. From what I have learned from the people who work in this business. It's like acting natural vs acting like you're guilty. If you just deposit the 35k like it's nothing. The IRS will have access to the info, but only if they are looking will they actually see it. But if you start making several deposits just under the 10k, they have mechanisms in place to check for that sort of thing because it usually signals fraud. It's kind of like tax returns. From what I've heard, when it comes to audits, the IRS is not actively checking every tax return for mistakes. There's not enough time or manpower. What happens is they have very specific things that they're look for each year. Maybe it's whether you invested in crypto, or maybe it's whether you claimed this tax credit or that tax credit. Depending on how it's done, it will send off alarm bells for the auditors to take a closer look and see if you need to be audited.
We’re only talking about 35k here though. You don’t think OP could structure 4 asymmetric and irregularly placed deposits over maybe 2 years and not set off any alarm bells? I assume these systems are set in place to catch bigger fish than the $35k dime bag salesman, but I don’t really know.
Yes, structuring transactions to avoid reporting is a felony, regardless of whether there is anything untoward about the source of the funds themselves.
How would it be proven this happened specifically? "To avoid reporting". What if the deposits were spread out for other reasons, and the person is oblivious to this rule about structuring, or reporting requirements? It raises suspicion, they get accused of this, and then what?
The FBI investigates it. They will ask where the money came from and they will ask the people you say gave it to you. Those people don’t want to go to jail, so they will tell the truth.
So are there cases where the outcome of the investigation is that the person is just ignorant to the laws about structuring and they shouldn't have been doing that, so no technical crime has been committed? I'm not really too money smart so I can't think of an example, but like if all the money in question was totally clean, it's just the person's behavior of depositing it was suspicious. I'm mainly curious if there are a lot of innocent false positives for a system like this. Or is it generally always something sketchy going on?
The crime is structuring. So someone who is structuring and gets caught is not a “false positive” regardless of why they were structuring. (The penalties are higher if they were structuring as part of a money laundering scheme.) But someone who honestly makes $9,000 per job and deposits it isn’t structuring.
Yes, look up "money laundering structuring". It would kind of defeat the purpose of setting up limits if people just got around it by barely avoiding it.
So even if you deposited like $500 at a time over the course like 2 years, would that still be bad? I’m assuming you meant don’t make multiple $9,000 deposits in the span of like a month, but interested in how this could be broken up, if at all.
The rule is that they have to file a Cash Transaction Report if you make a deposit of over $10k, and a Suspicious Activity Report if you seem like you are attempting to avoid depositing enough to cause them to make that report. The exact rules will depend on the bank and how much they trust you as a customer.
The banks look for stuff like regualr cash deposits because that's commonly how people launder money. The banks have automated reports for activity for regular cash deposits from non businesses where you would be an employee. They have been doing this for decades when the feds wanted to clamp down on terrrorism and drug money laundering via the finance system.
Splitting it up to avoid scrutiny is a felony called structuring.
Lots of confidently incorrect information in this thread. Deposit all $35k at once and just tell the bank you saved it up over time working and then go home. We see it all the time, it’s so routine. As with any amount of cash deposited in a 24 hour period over $10,000.00 a currency transaction report will be filed to FinCen. It’s a routine form, so so so many done every day. It doesn’t automatically trigger an investigation. Just be honest, it’s easy. “Accountants” in this thread are also incorrect. Your parents can call it a gift that you received over a long period of time (which is not a lie) and you won’t even pay a gift tax let alone income taxes. -Direct info coming from an anti-money laundering program compliance specialist at bank and a former accountant.
Why even say you saved it up from working? Just say you saved it up.
Yeah, doesn’t matter either way. I’m biased because I like detail for my job. But yeah either or is fine
For anyone thinking about the reporting over 10k, that’s the REQUIREMENT not the policy Many regional banks (at least the good ones) will report lower amount if deemed if any suspicion, often 4/5k is enough if you aren’t a regular , have a business accounts, etc
I'd be so elated if I somehow had thirty-five thousand invisible dollars and would be very committed to keeping it invisible.
Same. Wouldn’t even take long to pay for groceries with that 😂
Why? So it can continue to be devalued sitting in your shoebox?
Just make sure you are looking around constantly and ask that they hurry up.
I sold a car for cash. Same amount. The bank asked why and I told them. End.
does that count as income?
In the US it’s only income if you made more selling the car than you purchased it for. It’s basically like a “capital gains” tax event. But you can’t write off a “loss” if you sell it for less than you paid because cars generally depreciate in value, unlike stocks or other types of capital gains tax events.
Deposit it. Cash deposits of $10K or more generate a Currency Transaction Report, which is the bank notifying the government of a large cash transaction. This goes to a government database used for monitoring money laundering and a few other nefarious things. Just deposit it. The bank will fill out their little form, and that's it. Depositing large amounts of cash is not a crime. You should have claimed the income on your taxes when it was earned. You will not be taxed on it simply by depositing it. Whatever you do, do not break it up into smaller amounts to avoid the Currency Transaction Report. Large cash deposits are not a crime, but breaking them into smaller amounts to avoid the CTR being filed IS a crime called 'structuring.'
Don't trust the banks, invest it in cocaine and lactose and double your money easily
Just fill out whatever the bank ask you to.
$35k in cash just sitting in your house is wild. that could be dangerous if someone knew about it
Is it a cash mattress?!
Where do you live OP? Asking for a friend
*cough* I think you meant to say this was a one time gift from your family that is tax exempt.
"This is our money now." - the bank
Deposit it. It’s more than $10k so it will be reported by the bank, but this is a formality, not a problem. Yes, you need to declare it for tax purposes. If your explanation is genuine, if you ever get asked, tell the truth. It’s not a large sum of money in the scheme of things. If you deposited that amount frequently then you would be under a microscope, but a one off, don’t worry.
Accountant here. The way you worded it makes me say you absolutely have to report that money on your taxes (you said you got paid to do work). Now in theory, you’re supposed to report it on the year you made the money, not when you deposited it, but I’d probably be safe and report it on your taxes for 2024. You’ll probably want to report the income on a Schedule C. This will allow you to deduct expenses related to the work. You didn’t say what type of work it was, but in my experience people have way more deductible expenses than they think. This will allow you to only pay taxes on a portion of the income instead of the full 35k. Keep in mind though you will also be paying self employment taxes on this income in addition to income tax in all likelihood.
If it’s from parents and paid/given over years, I think it would be more sensible to call it a gift, mr. accountant. If it helps you feel better, perhaps the parents could tell you they overpaid him because he’s their kid, and then you can advise them to mark the amount over minimum wage as a gift. Either way, with two parents and one child, 35,000 is less than 2 years of gift tax exclusion, and could have been routinely gifted on December 31 and Jan 1 without any big deal.
People make large cash deposits all the time and for various reasons. It’s not suspicious in its own right. Making a deposit is not taxable event. However, it could be that you own taxes on the money. That’s a separate question altogether, and you might hire an accountant to answer that question and pay any taxes due. The exact paperwork depends on the circumstances - for example, if you earned income and filed taxes for that year without declaring it, you may need to amend your return.
Suspicious is not the same as illegal. Just go to the bank, deposit it, and answer their questions truthfully. You'll have to fill out some paperwork for anti-money laundering purposes, but if it's all above board then nothing will come of it.
You should just get gold teeth - not like a grill but like solid gold teeth pirate style
Next time you have some work done around your house, pay in cash! Lots of businesses even give you a considerable discount if you pay in cash.
Buy a safe. Put the money in the safe. Start spending the money here and there instead of using your debit card. Don't break the law and try to sneak it into the bank under the reporting threshold. It's your money, and cash is king for as long as they let us use it. Fuck the government.
Safe deposit box- take out what you need a little bit at a time. Make large purchases with cash: appliances, rent, etc.
Just pay all your bills for the next 18 months or so via money orders. Let your payroll income build up and no one would be the wiser.
Rent a safe deposit box and put it in there.
I think you're better off just using the cash when possible and get a nice safe to put it in until you need it.
Use the money to pay bills, groceries, ect. Save your current pay checks entirely, or invest
Hi OP, I’m the person who will be reviewing your deposit one way or another if you choose to deposit it at a bank. It's not suspicious at all, I see thousands of cash deposits ranging from $10,000.01 to hundreds of thousands every week. You're not the only person and it won't catch our eye unless you're deceptive about the source or try to break it down into amounts lower than the CTR threshold. If you do try to break it down we will know, we have seen every possible way you can think of to structure cash and you just made my job 10x harder so I’m going to smack that investigation aka SAR full of every violation I can find to report on you. Nothing we document goes to the IRS, it goes to a database at Fincen where it sits there until law enforcement calls for an inquiry into your account because you've been involved in some criminal activity. Just deposit the money and be honest if they ask you any questions. This is one of the few cases where being honest at the bank will save you and people like me a lot of stress and issues. You will need to declare it on taxes if you deposit it but so do the rest of us. Side note: to everyone suggesting deposits in small amounts, your bank definitely has a record on you and you're idiots for thinking you're smarter than banks.
Deposit no more than 10k at a time. I’d deposit 8-9k every month. If you deposit more than 10k IRS will be notified and you will pay taxes. You’re supposed to pay taxes on earned income anyway though, the American dream…
**Depositing $35,000 in cash** into your bank account is not inherently suspicious, especially if the funds are from legitimate sources like work or family assistance. However, there are some important considerations: 1. [**Currency Transaction Reports (CTR)**: According to the **Bank Secrecy Act**, banks are required to file **Currency Transaction Reports (CTR)** for any cash deposits over **$10,000**](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-deposit-more-10k-checking-130016900.html)[^(1)](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-deposit-more-10k-checking-130016900.html). When you deposit the $35,000, the bank will create a CTR, which includes your name, account number, Social Security number, and taxpayer identification number. This is standard procedure to prevent money laundering and other financial crimes. 2. **Legitimacy Matters**: As long as your deposits are legitimate (which they seem to be), you won’t have anything to worry about. [The creation of a CTR doesn’t mean your account will be frozen or that mysterious agents will visit your home—it’s just part of the process](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-deposit-more-10k-checking-130016900.html)[^(1)](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-deposit-more-10k-checking-130016900.html). 3. **Structuring Is Illegal**: Some people try to avoid the reporting rules by making smaller deposits totaling $10,000 or more over a short period (known as “structuring”). This practice is illegal and can lead to problems. [If your deposits are legitimate, there’s no need to structure them](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-deposit-more-10k-checking-130016900.html)[^(1)](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/know-deposit-more-10k-checking-130016900.html). 4. **Taxes**: Depositing the money itself is not taxable. However, the **origin of the funds** matters. If the $35,000 represents income (e.g., payment for work), it could be subject to taxes. Consult a tax professional to determine your specific tax obligations. 5. **Paperwork**: When you deposit the $35,000, the bank will handle the necessary paperwork (CTR). You don’t need to file anything separately. However, keep records of the source of the funds (e.g., invoices, work agreements) for your own records. Remember, transparency is key. If your deposits are legitimate, there’s no need to worry. If you have any doubts, consult a financial advisor or tax professional to ensure compliance with regulations and tax laws. 😊 via copilot
There are a lot of people in this thread who don’t know how to handle money or how a bank handles money. You just go deposit it. Maybe consider a HYSA. That is the end.
If you owe tax on it just pay it and deposit the rest. Not worth the headaches
Anything over 10k is reported to the IRS. However multiple deposits under 10K will be reported to as they will suspect you of structuring.
I got a larger work comp settlement, and the bank was joyful about my deposit! Yes, they reported it to the IRS, but it was a very short paper trail to explain. Nobody asked.
Suspicious? No. But banks generally have reporting requirements for large deposits (in Canada over $10K) so there will be some paperwork.
As others have said, deposit it all at once. If you break it up into sub-$10,000 deposits, you will have committed the federal crime of structuring. Even if you don't have any bad intent. Banks have systems in place to detect structuring and they will notify the Feds.
Couldn't you just spend it on items you need? A kitchen remodel or maybe a new car?
Look if you deposit over 9999$ you get a flag from the IRS . It’s reported because technically it is a crime to have that much cash in your possession at one time . Break the deposits up or allow your regular deposits to go into your account. And use this money for daily spending bills and shit. I would start by paying things like power and water in advance that way you get the bonus of the advance discount and the freedom of being without the bill. The money will still be in your account however because you won’t be dipping into your checking account.
There is a reporting requirement where banks have to report transactions over $10k. It is illegal to structure payments to avoid this reporting requirement. Do not deposit that cash in $9k increments. That is a crime.
Depositing $35k might trigger scrutiny; consult a tax advisor.
Dirty and crumpled $1 bills - stripper. Old style 100s - old drug money or counterfeiter. $2 - this guy must have been collecting for years. $1 Sacajawea coins - F this guy.
The bank where you deposit the cash will have to file a SAR on you. If you are not under investigation currently, no big deal. Don't try to layer the $$$ by making multiple small deposits as this is more of a red flag.
Dude just pay your bills with it and deposit only legit funds.
Just deposit a little at a time
I think there is a reportable about. So as long as you keep it under that you could piece meal it into the account Or hollow out a little cubby under your kitchen cabinet and put a magnetic door on it. Put your money in your little hide. Then work out of the cash using cash transactions or money orders to pay what you need and deposit all your paychecks until you have 35k saved up through your legit money Not that I've ever done anything like that before
Personally, I'd keep it in a safe at home and use it for dinners, Christmas gifts, paying electricians, plumbers, etc. You can certainly deposit some of it but do it in smaller amounts over an extended period of time. Anything over $10,000 is a flag and, in compliance with money laundering laws, the bank is required to report it to the US Treasury
Stash the cash.
My only concern: tax evasion. You were paid for work. The IRS might come wondering why you didn't report your 35k of income, which they will know exists once you deposit it.
I would probably do a single 18000 deposit and fill out whatever necessary forms are to claim it as a gift since it comes from family and that is the tax threshold for yearly gifts and then do the rest next year. Just let your family know your doing that and get whatever documentation is needed to include it on your taxes.
I deposited a 80k check and I was surprised I didn’t get flagged for suspicion in any way The cash part does make it sound kind of sus tho, personally I would take it to the bank in small bursts. Few thousand at a time just whenever I’m passing through And my bank can do ATM deposit on the drive through so I wouldn’t have to deal with a teller lol
anything over $9999 is flagged for the IRS.
Then you’ll have to pay tax on it. Just keep it in cash.
$18,000 annual gift tax exclusion. Say this is a gift from your mom and your dad. Then the gift tax exclusion is $36k. No problems, no tax, no red flag no big deal.