Do I automatically get audited if I deposit more than $10,000 in one shot at my bank?
Answers
989 points
rvilmur answered one year ago …
I have done this many times in moving money around between investing accounts or to set up cash buys of real estate. The caveat is that the money was always moved with a check or an electronic cash transfer between accounts. No audits were triggered.
If you move that much money in cash, the bank is required to report it to a Federal Agency which may trigger an investigation into a possible money laundering attempt; so you are automatically assumed to be a drug dealer or other criminal and the cash could be confiscated and be very hard to get back.
180 points
kobla answered one year ago …
By law the bank has to fill out paper work and send a copy to the goverment
Read more from kobla180 points
kobla answered one year ago …
AND ,,, you don't want the IRS on your back,,, pulling up a tax-return from 5 years ago that made a donation & you lost the receipt
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450 points
SallyG answered one year ago …
The transaction will be reported to the IRS, but if there should be no repercussions. If you do this frequently, and/or in cash, and use amounts slightly below the $10,000 amount to avoid the bank-reporting requirements, this will be considered suspect. Basically, IMHO, the government knows too mych about our personal finances, especially since the PATRIOT Act (a misnomer, I believe), before which there was more freedom to do privately what you wanted with your money than there is now. Was the tradeoff worth it? That's for another blog.
To sum, what is triggered automatically is a bank report to the IRS, not an audit.
989 points
rvilmur answered one year ago …
Again, banks do not have to report large transactions that do not involve movement of cash. Checks and electronic fund transfers are not a problem.
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