Just like online poker was not made illegal but bank transactions involving online poker were.
That’s weird. Just last month I withdrew 12K in cash from my Chase account and no one batted an eye.
its all part of the deep states war on cash https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=865345
It’s not uncommon after a drugs raid, for police to find bags full of cash just laying around. A successful dealer who is making hundreds or thousands a day profit soon runs out of things they can and want to buy.
I went into the largest local branch of a particular statewide bank to withdraw $17K to buy a used pickup truck about five years ago. I was told they didn’t have that much cash available, and I should have called beforehand. Never having withdrawn that much, I had never head of such a policy. They called another branch in town, and between the two branches, they could cover the withdrawal. I don’t remember filling out any special forms, but it’s possible.
I suspect lack of cash on hand was all the bank, not any banking industry rules. I believe it’s the largest bank in the state, though. Not exactly insolvent.
To be honest, I’m not sure the purpose of the question. Banks have surveillance teams that basically compare their customers against various law enforcement watch lists and analytics systems looking for suspicious transactions. So I’m not really sure what additional information some teller at the local Bank of America branch is going to gain from having someone fill out a form.
I feel that’s fairly common though. It’s fairly common for old people with a bit of money to avoid inheritance taxes by taking advantage of the Federal gift tax exclusion ($15,000). IOW, you can give your grandkids $15k a year tax free instead of waiting to die and give them a taxable inheritance.
The $15k is the limit on when you have to report it. The current estate tax minimum is $11.18m. So if you gave $15k a year to someone for 40 years that comes out to $600k. You’d have to be giving over 18 people that much for that many years to avoid estate taxes.
The limit is for paperwork reasons for all practical purposes.
To clarify, above $15k you not only have to report it, via a gift tax return, but the excess amount is subtracted from your estate tax threshold.
So the way to look at it is not whether it eliminates all estate tax to give $15k, but what portion of $15k it avoids. Which is 40%, $6k, for every $15k you move to heirs while alive if you’ll be over the estate tax limit. If you give it in a big lump of $600k then your personal estate tax threshold effectively moves down $585k and you don’t accomplish that savings. And while the nominal threshold is currently $11+mil that’s only till 2027 even under the GOP tax bill when it halves. And the Democrats might well move it below 5.5 whenever they get back in full power (and maybe GOP then raise again further down the road, but point is it’s very much in political play).
It’s irrelevant paper work if you’re pretty sure your assets will always be below the lowest Congress would ever set the estate tax threshold.
I agree the amount though is based on the idea of including ‘normal’ gifts without making taxpayers or the authorities track down all kinds of relatively small stuff. But if you might be above the threshold and you use it to xfer assets $15k at a time once a year, especially to multiple heirs, and it could held in trust (with some paperwork hoops to jump through in the trust): it’s 40% discount on the $15k, that’s worth doing IMO.
They simply filed a CTR on you. They don’t need your signature for that.
In the OP’s case, the bank was trying to be helpful. They didn’t want to possibly have to file a SAR on him, and they wanted to make sure he wasn’t being the victim of some scam.
In other words, his bank is better than yours.
Like I said- the more information that bank has the better, the more KYC the better- for everyone.
People who withdraw large amounts of cash are often the victims of scams. If he had said “I need it to wire the taxes in for my large lottery winnings!” - they could help him not lose his money. Or : “They called me to tell me my nephew is in jail and I need to wire this cash to them right aways” and so forth.
Next, good banks don’t want to fire SARs on their good clients. Assuming you are not a crook, the more information that they have the easier it is to *write their way out of filing a SAR. *
I don’t find taking out my own money all that suspicious. They can file whatever the hell they want, I simply refuse to sign those forms or give any explanation as to what I plan to do with my own money.
File away!!!
Also, I’m not giving my ID with my personal data on it to a minimum wage Walmart hack just because I want 2 money orders instead of 1. This shit is ridiculous and it isn’t solving nor preventing anything.
Well, of course you don’t find it suspcisou, and they are just wanting to feel the same way.
You may have put them into a position where they have to. By refusing to act the way that most people would act in a situation like that, you have made your transaction suspicious. If you end up being contacted or tracked by law enforcement due to this, it is not their fault, it is entirely your own.
I do note your classist attitude there, implying that because someone works at walmart, they are a subhuman that is not worth any dignity, but do you feel the same way about having to give your ID with personal data on it to a MW worker when you buy tobacco or beer? Do you feel the same way when you give your ID with personal data on it to an unpaid (or less than MW paid in some jurisdictions) poll worker for Voter ID?
It is hard to say whether it is solving or preventing anything. Many criminal enterprises do use cash primarily, and they do use money orders and transfers to move money around, so limiting the freedoms of cash based financial transactions does restrict the illegal activity that it is used for.
Whether it is worth it or not, is up to the individual voter, when they decide issues and candidates. If you want more privacy and are more concerned about your personal freedom than about making sure to give law enforcement all possible tools it could ever ask for, then pay attention to who it is that you vote for.
Being able to buy 1 money order but not two without showing ID is preventing nothing. All I had to do was stop at another store on the way home.
And I’m not real worried about anyone contacting me. Be my guest. But I am not writing on a form what I plan to do with my own money like a kid asking his mommy for his allowance.
Which is actually structuring and a federal Crime.
What on earth do you think someone can do to you after glancing at your ID? Yeah, they see your full name & address - for decades you could see that shit in any phone book.
They do not make copies of it, for heavens sake, like they do at the doctor’s office. Where I also have to hand over ID if I want my insurance to chip in for payment, and have not yet suffered any repercussions.
I should have pasted my post from another thread.
They told me because I was buying more than $1000 worth at one time they had to enter my info on some data base. And sure enough, a form popped up on hs screen to enter ALL my info from my ID, including eye color, height and weight. He told me that you can buy as many money orders as you want without showing ID as long as they don’t total more than $1000.
Would you not agree this is not the same as showing an ID to buy booze?
If the feds want to chat with me for buying 2 money oders at two different places to pay my credit card bill and my truck payment, come on over. The guy was rude to me after buying the first one and I decided to take my 80 cents he would make elsewhere.
Lock me up!:rolleyes:
BTW, nothing has happened from me not writing on the banks form last summer. No lights, no sirens, no clickity click of little spiders.
The spiders have been vastly improved.
My data point - withdrew $9000 cash to buy a trailer. No questions, just a “hope you are buying something fun!” No mention of a CTR, but I wouldn’t be surprised if something was filled out.
I think the factual aspects of this were answered some time ago. Let’s move it over to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator