Tax question/CTR's.....
sparkyl2
Senior Member
If you are claiming your gambling winnings for the year on your taxes, is there any reason to shy away from depositing over the 10k threshold in cash at banks and having to do a CTR every time? Feel like you are just asking for extra scrutiny from the IRS/DOJ etc but aren't you already doing that by being legit and filing your gambling income on your taxes? My understanding is with all the software out there now, banks DOJ/IRS are really cracking down on "structuring" deposits and with the software, it's pretty easy to get caught. In the past I was always wary of depositing more than 10K but it seems if you are filing anyway, that is the most legit way to handle your bankroll with financial institutions.
Comments
Yeah my friend who is a banker said the same more or less. Said they have large sums of cash deposited all the time and it isn't a big deal. He said if he wasn't a drug dealer, a terrorist, or a thief, he wouldn't think twice about depositing it and doing the CTR. However, while not a drug dealer, terrorist, or thief, being a gambler does kinda fall into a gray area. I want convenience and peace of mind but I also don't want to be audited every 3 or 4 years.
Could you further explain the moneypak scenario? Are you saying move money from there to pay pal at 500 a clip and then from pay pal to my bank account? The long and short of it is that I would like to move about 140k in currency from gambling into my bank accounts before Dec 1 to be used for a purchase. I was advised that recently software and enforcement regarding structuring (SAR's) were a lot more aggressive than it use to be. If I can document the winning sessions, I would be better off doing a CTR and just depositing it all at once or just doing it in two or three transactions of 40-50k. I'm not necessarily asking on how to be a bank/tax cheat but I'm also not dismissing any and all suggestions.
You are certainly not better off depositing it all. You $140k just became $90k real quick next April.
The PayPal scenario turns the money into echecks and certainly wouldn't trigger any SARs. Just looks like you are running a business. I would use a smaller bank just to be sure but if nothing else, not Chase. Set up your PayPal as a business account. Buy the greendots (these are $500 max per card but you can buy as many cards as you want) and load em onto your PayPal account. I would then withdraw via ACH anywhere from $6-9k per week. Use weird amounts with cents as well. It will hit your bank on Friday and look like a regular Friday payday direct deposit. In addition to this, deposit like $3k per month in actual cash. Your family is allowed to give you up to $13k tax free gift per year. You could give your dad the cash for a check. Same with your mom. This is only good if your parents don't mind the cash, if they have real jobs and pay their taxes, they shouldn't be too worried about it. That would take care of $26k pretty quickly. If you did all of the above, you'd have that $140k taken care of pretty quickly.
I wouldn't call it being a tax cheat. You worked hard for your money, why willingly give it away? Whatever you filed last year, I would file a similar amount again. Your risk of an audit in this scenario is virtually zero.
Even when you win at gambling you have issues to deal with. White collar problems.
I appreciate the advice. I actually just went by a Walgreens and bought a moneypak card to check it out. The clerk said "I think I have to see ID now. They just started some new policy because of all the cash scams." So I show him my ID, which he proceeds to scan into the computer. Not sure what that is all about. Seems big brother is always watching!
Right. Between the proceeds from a recent sale of real estate and the income shown on my W2 I don't think the added cash in my account will set off alarm bells with a loan officer. Regardless, I want it in there by December 1st because that would allow it to be in there about 3 months prior to closing. I'm assuming the underwriter would just want to see 60 or 90 days worth of bank statements. White collar problems indeed.
Since you have no problems paying the taxes, I would just do one transaction a month between now and December for the same amount.
That's crazy. It could be a state thing though. I know in Arizona, just to send out a Western Union they wanted my ID. But just the other day in Chicago, I bought a moneypak with no ID. Or it could be the store, maybe check out a different one.
Another idea is to buy gold. If you bought from an individual (which obviously has risks) you wouldn't need to keep your transactions under $10k. But if you bought from a business, you would. At any rate, even if you had to stay under $10k it wouldn't take long. After you have it all, then sell it all at once to a high volume seller and have them pay you via wire. Wires aren't reported IRS.
Yeah, if you don't mind about getting smoked out of $50k for nothing, then all my advice is moot and just go ahead and deposit it. lol
I know. I hate throwing that money away. Because I'm not Ed or Billy Walters. I've had plenty of losing years where I certainly didn't claim the losses. I miss the good old days pre 9-11 when we actually had a semblance of privacy with regards to banking laws.
Set up your PayPal as a business account. Buy the greendots (these are $500 max per card but you can buy as many cards as you want) and load em onto your PayPal account. [/QUOTE]
Found this in their FAQs section.
"How much money can I add to my PayPal account using the MoneyPak?
You can add up to $4,000 a month by providing your name, address, date of birth, and Social Security Number securely online. Green Dot will collect, verify, and record this information on behalf of PayPal, but this information will not be used for a credit check or marketing purposes."