Currency Transaction Reports: The $10,000 Cash Rule Explained

What triggers a currency transaction report

The rule is in Treasury regulation 31 CFR 1010.311. Every financial institution other than a casino must report each deposit, withdrawal, exchange of currency or other payment or transfer that involves a transaction in currency of more than $10,000. Casinos have a parallel rule of their own.

Four details decide whether a report is filed:

• Cash only. The rule covers currency: paper money and coin. Checks, wires, card payments and transfers between accounts are not currency transactions.
• More than $10,000. A deposit of exactly $10,000 does not trigger a report. One of $10,001 does.
• Added up over one business day. Under 31 CFR 1010.313, several cash transactions count as one if the bank knows they were made by or for the same person and total more than $10,000 in cash in, or cash out, during one business day. All of a bank's domestic branches count as one institution. Night, weekend and holiday deposits count toward the next business day.
• Some customers are exempt. Under 31 CFR 1020.315, banks need not file for transactions with other banks, government agencies, companies listed on the major stock exchanges and certain other businesses that qualify.

The bank must collect the identity of the person handling the cash, including a Social Security number and a government ID, whether or not that person has an account there. The report goes to FinCEN within 15 days of the transaction, and the bank keeps a copy for five years, under 31 CFR 1010.306.

Structuring: where the legal risk is

Carrying cash is legal, and so is depositing it. FinCEN's own customer notice says there is no general prohibition against handling large amounts of currency, and that a CTR is required regardless of the reason for the transaction.

The crime is trying to avoid the report. Regulation 31 CFR 1010.314 bars anyone from structuring a transaction to evade the reporting rules, and the definition in 31 CFR 1010.100 is wide. It covers transactions "in any amount, at one or more financial institutions, on one or more days, in any manner". A deposit does not have to exceed $10,000 at any single bank on any single day to count.

FinCEN's notice gives examples. A man sells his truck for $15,000 in cash and deposits $7,500 in the morning and $7,500 in the afternoon with a different teller, hoping to avoid a report. That is structuring, even though the money came from a lawful sale.

Under 31 U.S.C. 5324, the penalty is up to five years in prison and a fine. The maximum prison term doubles to 10 years if the structuring is part of a pattern of illegal activity involving more than $100,000 in 12 months, or happens while breaking another federal law.

Banks watch for the pattern. A bank must file a suspicious activity report (SAR) on any transaction of $5,000 or more that it suspects was designed to evade the reporting rules, under 31 CFR 1020.320. Unlike a CTR, a SAR is confidential, and the bank may not tell the customer that one was filed.

How many CTRs are filed each year

Financial institutions filed 21.5 million CTRs in fiscal year 2025, according to FinCEN's Year in Review for FY 2025. That is roughly 59,000 a day.

Official figures cut both ways on how useful the reports are. The Government Accountability Office counted about 167 million CTRs filed from fiscal year 2014 to 2023 and found that law enforcement agencies accessed about 5.4% of them through FinCEN's database in that period, in a report published in December 2024. FinCEN's FY 2025 review points the other way: 66.8% of the investigations opened by IRS Criminal Investigation that year had a primary subject linked to a CTR.

The threshold has not moved. GAO noted that the Treasury set $10,000 by regulation in 1972 and never adjusted it for inflation. Adjusted, it would have been about $72,880 in 2023, and GAO estimated an inflation-adjusted threshold would have cut the number of CTRs by at least 90% a year since 2014. Our inflation calculator shows the same erosion for any amount and year.

Form 8300: the rule for businesses

Banks file CTRs. Car dealers, jewelers, lawyers, landlords and other businesses file a different report, Form 8300, when they receive more than $10,000 in cash in one transaction or in related transactions. The rule comes from two laws, section 6050I of the tax code and 31 U.S.C. 5331, so one form satisfies both the IRS and FinCEN.

• Deadline. Within 15 days of receiving the cash. Installments are added up: once payments within 12 months of the first one pass $10,000, the business has 15 days to file.
• What counts as cash. US and foreign coins and currency. Cashier's checks, bank drafts, traveler's checks and money orders of $10,000 or less also count in certain retail sales, such as a car or boat, or collectibles including coins, metals, gems and art, or when the business knows the customer is trying to avoid a report. In an IRS example, a $12,000 car paid with one $12,000 cashier's check needs no Form 8300, because the check's face value is over $10,000.
• The customer is told. The business must send each person named on the form a written statement by 31 January of the following year.
• Electronic filing. Since 1 January 2024, a business that must file at least 10 other information returns, such as W-2s or 1099s, must file Forms 8300 electronically.

Digital assets are written into the law but not yet into practice. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 added digital assets to the definition of cash in section 6050I. In Announcement 2024-4, the IRS said businesses need not count digital assets toward the $10,000 threshold until the Treasury and the IRS publish regulations. We found no such regulations in the Federal Register as of 28 October 2026.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

The nationwide threshold did not change. The electronic Code of Federal Regulations, current to 23 October 2026, still sets it at $10,000. The changes came in targeted orders and in bills.

• Southwest border order. A FinCEN geographic targeting order published 14 March 2025 required money services businesses (check cashers and money transmitters, for example) in 30 ZIP codes across seven California and Texas counties to file CTRs on cash transactions of more than $200. A later order, effective 10 September 2025, raised the floor to $1,000. The current version, effective 3 September 2026 and running to 1 March 2027, covers ZIP codes in eight Texas and New Mexico counties. Businesses protected by a court injunction against the 2025 order are excluded while the injunction lasts.
• Minnesota order. A separate order, in force from 11 August 2026 to 6 February 2027, requires banks and money transmitters in Hennepin and Ramsey counties to report funds transfers of $3,000 or more sent by customers with addresses there. It covers transfers of any origin, cash included, rather than cash deposits.
• Bills to raise the threshold. H.R. 1799, the Financial Reporting Threshold Modernization Act, would lift the CTR threshold to $30,000 and index it to inflation every five years. The House Financial Services Committee approved it 30 to 24 on 22 January 2026, and it has waited on the House calendar since 19 March 2026. The Senate's STREAMLINE Act, S. 3017, sets the same $30,000 figure. It was introduced on 20 October 2025 and remains in the Banking Committee.

Neither bill has passed a chamber. A higher threshold would also need a Treasury rule within 180 days of enactment under both texts.

Withdrawal limits and the digital dollar question

The CTR rule sets no limit on withdrawals. A customer can take out $50,000 in cash, and the federal consequence is the report. Daily ATM limits and notice periods for large cash orders are each bank's own policy.

The rule exists because cash leaves no record of its own. Bank transfers are recorded inside the banking system, and a stablecoin issuer is treated as a financial institution under the Bank Secrecy Act, as our GENIUS Act guide explains. How much Americans still use cash, and where businesses must accept it, is covered in our guide to whether cash is going away.