$10,000+ Deposits

14 May 2024 · 1 min

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In this video, Jerry Taylor explains U.S. bank reporting rules for cash deposits exceeding $10,000. He clarifies that a single deposit over $10,000 triggers a mandatory FinCEN Currency Transaction Report (CTR) that includes the depositor’s account number, Social Security number, and taxpayer ID, but the act of depositing that amount is not illegal. He then describes the illegal practice of "structuring"—splitting a larger sum into multiple sub‑$10,000 deposits to evade reporting. Taylor warns that banks may detect structuring and report it, leading to fines, penalties, and possible criminal prosecution.

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If you deposit over $10,000 at one time at your bank, they're going to have to report you to the federal government. The bank will have to file a report with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and that report will include your account number, your Social Security number, and your taxpayer identification number. Now, depositing over $10,000 at one time is not illegal. It just means that the bank has to report it. It happens every day, and as long as there's no illegal purpose associated with doing that, you're fine. But you may not know this. Let's say you've got $50,000 you want to deposit in the bank. And because you don't want the bank to report any of it, you make several deposits of smaller amounts of money, less than $10,000. That, my friends, is considered to be illegal. That is what is known as structuring. And if the bank thinks that's what you're doing, they may well report that. And structuring your deposits like that in order to avoid reports to the federal government can result in fines, penalties, and legal consequences.