Has anyone had an issue with taking large sums in cash out of your bank account? I've been doing a lot of hobbying lately, and I'm wondering if the 5-6k I take out over a month is going to put up red flags at the bank (usually around 2k at a time). I also wonder, do the tellers have an inkling as to what the money's for? I'd hate to have an IRS agent show up at my door.
If they s how up just tell them you have a gambling problem
I doubt the government will come running for large cash withdrawals. Now they will come running for those of us who make large cash deposits.
I'm pretty sure you'll be ok but always... always proceed with caution and do your research.
-- Modified on 3/26/2017 9:22:26 PM
It should not be a problem. I withdrawl large somes of money all the time. The only time its ever reported is if you withdrawal 10K or more at one time. You could also go to a few different branch locations to make cash withdrawals.
Just say you're trimming some hedges. You'll be fine.
... amounts over $2000 can trigger a report to the IRS under certain circumstances... such as if the person at the bank suspects or has reason to suspect that the transaction or pattern of transactions is suspicious. So... be cool.
The AML/Anti terrorism rules about cash amounts isn't reported to the IRS -- it's reported to Treasury. There is a 10,000 cash threshold that does require a bank to report it. There is also a "know your customer" standard that banks and other financial institutions are expect to follow.
So basically if you've been with the bank for a few years or more and done any type of business with the branch staff it's very unlikely any of them will care about a few grand. If it starts looking like you're trying to skirt the 10K per transaction limit for some reason (multiple smaller but still large amounts over a few days) then they might ask you about it and depending on your reaction decide to report or not report. 5-8K for the month -- they don't care unless you start talking about how great IS is and how you want to support their wonderful efforts. In that case though I suspect the money just doesn't matter.
Governor Eliot Spitzer, aka Client 9, was taking out about $5 k in cash, per withdrawal, which is below the mandatory reporting threshold of $10k. However, some banks voluntarily report smaller amounts. That's how they nabbed Spitzer.
Nobody has ever asked me about my regular cash withdrawals ("in large bills, please") and it's none of their business. Sometimes I wish the cute tellers would ask me so I can tell them, "Sex, drugs and alcohol. You busy tonight?"
This has been the reason many people have been caught trying to skirt the laws. The smarter thing is to not deposit all of your cash.
by withdrawing the maximum before the reporting threshold kicks in. That was considered to be illegal in and of itself in some recent scandal. I think it was with the former House Speaker Dennis Hassert who was paying blackmail regarding an underage sex scandal.
I routinely withdraw 4k to 8k cash from my account. I like to use cash for everything. 
It's not just the amount. It's also your pattern. Your bank is required to report the withdraw if they feel it's suspicious. If you always withdraw the same amount at the same time interval then it's suspicious because it could be structuring which is serious.
It's understandable to be somewhat paranoid in this hobby, but don't let it get out of hand.
$10k. I wanted to leave it blank so much. haha
large sum of money. I was told I have to come back the next day because they will need time to prepare the cash for my withdraw. When I went back the next day, I was been asked a lot of questions. I spent over 30 minutes answering them. I am sure the questions were prepared by some government agency because only they will know to ask those questions. The only upside is there was no other problem.
To get info for their report to the Feds, I'm thinking.
Once I was sitting in a bank waiting for a loan officer to process paperwork and I overheard a conversation between a customer and a banker about a large cash withdrawal. I don't know how large it was, but they really grilled the guy and his answers seemed nervous and evasive to me. The banker explained they were required to ask those questions to report to the Feds. I left before the interrogation was over so I don't know what happened, but I suspect it wasn't a good outcome for the guy.
anything illegal. When they asked those questions, they had the answers to those questions. There's no way my bank had those kind of info so it was definitely Fed (my guess is DHS). There was no negative consequence but I am pretty sure my trip was more closely monitored than normal (my reason for the cash was for my Vegas trip).
I had to take out $25,000 in cash a few months ago to pay off some tax liens on some properties I was taking over and the only way to do it "right now" to close on the deal was to send the money through a money gram and the only way to pay them was either by cash or debit card. My debit card had a $5,000 daily limit so the only way to pay the liens was to go to Walmart with $25,000 in cash. lol
My bank gave me the money without question, although I explained it to the branch manager anyhow as I tried to get my daily limit raised to $25,000 on my debit card first, which she tried to do, but I was in a hurry and when she got put on hold for what seemed like forever, I told her to forget about it and just give me cash.
I think it's just like walking through hotel lobbies when visiting a hooker, if you don't "act" like you are doing anything wrong, nobody "thinks" you are up to no good. When you play all these cloak and dagger games, people start thinking that maybe you are up to no good. The one thing you NEVER want to do is break a large cash transaction into smaller transactions hoping to fly under the radar, that is called STRUCTURING and will land your ass in hot water. There have been a few times when I needed nine thousand in cash, and I went ahead and pulled out ten just to get OVER the threshold and not look like I was purposely trying to stay under the limit for reporting.
I guess you didn't want to fill a truck with rolls of pennies and drive it over to the government offices, either. Maybe next time!
The local office would not accept payment, I couldn't send a bank wire, every other remedy required a couple of weeks processing time, so the only solution was a "moneygram" even Western Union was not an option.
You should have seen the look on the face of the girl who worked at Walmart when I started plopping down stacks of hundreds. lol
If there were going to be any red flags raised in regards to your bank account, I would think it would happen putting money IN the bank, not taking it OUT. If you put it in lawfully how can there be anything illegal about taking it out for whatever reason you want?
It's about large cash transactions -- deposits or withdrawals. The 10K amount used to trigger a form be filed -- suspect it's still the case.
You should probably go look up the old John Oliver skit about civil asset forfeiture. Not quite the same but similar principle in terms of how the government views our legal tender.
Cash TRANSACTIONS of 10K or more ARE by law reported.
Less than 10K are routinely audited, and CAN be reported. Some banks have software that scans for these kind of transactions and match with account history/patterns.
especially if you are using the same bank/branch and are known as a regular with a routine.
Banks have to report "suspicious" activity at any level of $$, but in practicality they don't worry about sums under $5k per withdrawal. At $10k aggregate cash withdrawals in a week, the bank MUST report possible suspicious activity to FINCEN.
I always visit the same bank/branch and always mix some deposits with some cashing of checks or cash withdrawals, up to $10k and above at times. I've simply established a pattern of legitimate business behavior that masks hobby cash, and no one bothers me. If ever asked about the cash, I say I'm going to an auction and need cash to pay if I buy.
It seemed like I was taking out $5-10,000 every week or two back when I was hitting Latin America multiple times a month several years ago. I just called it my "Charlie Harper" money, the only questions any of the tellers would ask me was "what country are you hitting this weekend?" lol
Damn, I long for those days of $100 oil. lol