# Taxes on found money? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 6, 2006, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669 "2006-01-06T00:07:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669/1 "2006-01-06T00:07:11Z")
Let’s say you’re walking down the street and you see a bag cast off into some bushes. Let’s say this bag is partly unzipped and you spy cash, gobs of green, filling it to the brim. Being a good citizen, you take your “lost & found” to te local police precinct and after a bit of time, it is returned to you after no one comes forward to claim the booty. Would there be a tax on your find? If so, how much would it be? Assuming there is, where is the line? Would you have to declaim the $20 you found near the bar last week at the club? ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669/2 "2006-01-06T00:09:03Z")
“declaim” = declare ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669/3 "2006-01-06T00:24:45Z")
Wouldn’t it just be taxed as ordinary income? Obviously you wouldn’t have a W2 but you’d have to list it as income on top of whatever you earned regularly. For example if you earn $50k this year and find $100k in a bag, your taxes would be based on “earning” $150k. It doesn’t sound like it’d fall into any other special category, like capital gains, a gift, etc. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669/4 "2006-01-06T00:59:40Z")
When (if actually, but we’ll assume) the police returned it to you, they’d have you sign forms. One would be your copy. You would use that to verify how much money you got to the IRS. I can’t see how it would be taxed as anything other than ordinary income ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669/5 "2006-01-06T04:26:08Z")
From the U.S. Annotated Tax Code: Title 26, Subtitle F, CHAPTER 70, Subchapter A, PART III, Sec. 6867, “Presumptions where owner of large amount of cash is not identified”: > [@](#): > > (a) General rule > > If the individual who is in physical possession of cash in excess of $10,000 does not claim such cash - > > (1) as his, or > > (2) as belonging to another person whose identity the Secretary can readily ascertain and who acknowledges ownership of such cash, then, for purposes of sections 6851 and 6861, **it shall be presumed that such cash represents gross income** of a single individual for the taxable year in which the possession occurs, and that the collection of tax will be jeopardized by delay. **Note:** The sections 6851 and 6861 referred to apply only to cases of jeopardy and receiverships; there’s another section directly on point, but I can’t find it right now. If I remember, I’ll look up the other cite when I get home. IIRC, and I think I do, it says exactly the same thing: It’s taxed as ordinary income. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669/6 "2006-01-06T04:27:25Z")
Oh yeah: IANAL. Yet. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669/7 "2006-01-06T08:52:52Z")
IANAL and IANAA, but in the US at least I believe that such found property would be considered a “[treasure trove](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_trove)” and thus taxable income as per Treas. Reg. 1.61-14(a). ---
**Author:** ![19ForMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/439d5e/32.png) [@19ForMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/19ForMe)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669/8 "2006-01-06T17:12:07Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > IANAL and IANAA, but in the US at least I believe that such found property would be considered a “[treasure trove](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_trove)” and thus taxable income as per Treas. Reg. 1.61-14(a). Yep. Treasure Trove is the term. Its a bit unusual but there are some cases. In Cesarini v. US, a couple purchased a used piano and later found a bundle of cash. Its taxable when found. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669/9 "2006-01-06T20:08:21Z")
> [@19ForMe](#): > > In Cesarini v. US, a couple purchased a used piano and later found a bundle of cash. Its taxable when found. Nitpick: Actually, the main point of that case was that it’s taxable **when discovered** , not when found. This has beeen bugging me, so I’ve dug up my case brief: They bought the piano in 1957, kept it for seven years, and then in the process of fixing it up for resale in 1964, they found $4,467 in cash stowed in it. They went ahead and paid $836.51 in income tax on it, then I guess thought better of it (or more likely talked to an attorney), and filed for a refund. The Commissioner rejected the amended return, and they appealed. They claimed it was not taxable income, alleging (among other alternatives) that the statute of limitations had expired: if it was income, they said, then they had realized it in 1957, seven years before they were taxed on it. The Court didn’t buy this. The 1958-1968 Treasury Regulations said “treasure trove is income for the year it is **reduced to undisputed possession**.” Suppose they’d sold the piano with the cash still in it, being unaware that it was there: Clearly they wouldn’t have been able to go get the cash from the buyer after the sale. Thus the cash wasn’t in **undisputed** possession until they found it, in 1964, and so it was income for that year. (Cite: 296 F.Supp. 3) ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669/10 "2006-01-06T20:10:06Z")
> [@jackelope](#): > > Nitpick: Actually, the main point of that case was that it’s taxable **when discovered** , not when found. :smack: Sorry, **19ForMe** ; for some reason I read your post as saying “when acquired,” instead of “when found.” You’re perfectly right, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669/11 "2006-01-06T21:02:58Z")
[Previous thread on treasure trove law](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=313999) (mostly about ownership of the treasure though). ---
**Author:** ![19ForMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/439d5e/32.png) [@19ForMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/19ForMe)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669/12 "2006-01-06T21:37:58Z")
> [@thinksnow](#): > > Assuming there is, where is the line? Would you have to declaim the $20 you found near the bar last week at the club? Sorry that no one has gotten to this one yet. The $20 would be taxable. There are very few instances where the US income tax law recognizes some lower bound on what is taxable. You technically should declare the penny you picked up for luck. ---
**Author:** ![Translucent\_Daydream](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/translucent_daydream/32/16170_2.png) [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxes-on-found-money/338669/13 "2006-01-06T22:42:16Z")
> [@jackelope](#): > > From the U.S. Annotated Tax Code: > > Title 26, Subtitle F, CHAPTER 70, Subchapter A, PART III, Sec. 6867, “Presumptions where owner of large amount of cash is not identified”: > **Note:** The sections 6851 and 6861 referred to apply only to cases of jeopardy and receiverships; there’s another section directly on point, but I can’t find it right now. If I remember, I’ll look up the other cite when I get home. IIRC, and I think I do, it says exactly the same thing: It’s taxed as ordinary income. I guess they think of everything! :rolleyes: I guess it is true what they say: > [@IRS](#): > > We got what it takes to take what you got.