Form 8300 – Is Your Business Filing the Proper Cash Transaction Forms?

Has your business ever received a large cash payment, and you were not quite sure what your reporting obligations were regarding that large payment? The general rule is that you must file Form 8300, Report of Cash Payments Over $10,000 Received in a Trade or Business, if your business receives more than $10,000 in cash from one buyer as a result of a single transaction or two or more related transactions.

The Form 8300 provides valuable information to the Internal Revenue Service and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in their efforts to combat money laundering. This is an important effort, since money laundering is a tool used to facilitate various criminal activities, ranging from tax evasion to terrorist financing to drug dealing, to hide the proceeds from their illegal activities.

Filing Form 8300

Generally, any person in a trade or business who receives more than $10,000 in cash in a single transaction or in related transactions must file a Form 8300. Persons includes an individual, a company, a corporation, a partnership, an association, a trust, or an estate. Persons must file a Form 8300 with the IRS if any part of the transaction occurs within any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. possession or territory (American Samoa, The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands).

If you are required to file Form 8300, you must do so by the 15th day after the date the cash transaction occurred. A person can file Form 8300 electronically or by mailing the form to the IRS at: Detroit Computing Center, P.O. Box 32621, Detroit, Michigan 48232.

In addition to filing Form 8300 with the IRS, companies need to furnish a written statement to each person whose name is required to be included in the Form 8300 by January 31 of the year following the transaction. This statement must include the name, address, contact person, and telephone number of the business filing Form 8300, the aggregate amount of reportable cash the business was required to report to the IRS from the person receiving the statement, and that the business provided this information to the IRS.

Meeting the proper filing requirement and the requirement to furnish a written statement to each person named on the Form 8300 is very important, because there are potential civil and criminal penalties for failure to file Form 8300. Penalties for violation of the Form 8300 filing and furnishing requirements have been increased by the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015. Increased penalties apply to Form 8300 and related notices requiring filing or furnishing after December 31, 2015. In addition, penalty amounts are now adjusted annually for inflation.

Review IRS Reporting Requirements.