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There are many similar restrictions on other countries. Here is a list for Europe: https://www.europe-consommateurs.eu/en/shopping-internet/cash-payment-limitat

There are many similar restrictions on other countries. Here is a list for Europe: https://www.europe-consommateurs.eu/en/shopping-internet/cash-payment-limitations.html https://www.europe-consommateurs.eu/en/shopping-internet/cas... The equivalent of 3,000 - 4,000 Euro seems to be the norm.

potatototoo99 3y ago
Spain's 1,000€ may be the most restrictive, close to Romania's 5,000 lei.
- jWhick 3y ago
  I'm quite sure they are not enforcing it since i was traveling to and walking with across spain with much more.
  - ajmurmann 3y ago
    But did you make a single payment with more? I understand that's the limitation
  - addandsubtract 3y ago
    What did you buy for over 1k in cash? I can only imagine a car or bike, but you said walking, so I'm curious...
    - orangepurple 3y ago
      Food, shelter, transportation, adult entertainment, and adult beverages
    - qup 3y ago
      Lawnmower, motorcycle, four wheeler, tractor, excavator, specialty tools, toolboxes, computers, phones, safes, firearms are some big ticket things I and those around me have paid for in cash, all used.
  - awelxtr 3y ago
    They are. I could not pay in cash for my lasik surgery some years ago due to this. I wasn't planning on paying in cash but they dily informed me.
  - afdezl 3y ago
    The rules in Spain apply for business transactions, i.e.: Business <-> Business and Individual <-> Business, NOT between individuals. The funny thing about it is that in the hypothetical case you would be caught, whichever party reports it first, before getting caught, would not be penalised.
  - jaclaz 3y ago
    There are different (distinct) laws. You cannot enter any EU state with more than the equivalent of 10,000 Euro cash unless you declare the amount at the point of entrance. If border controls finds you with more than 10,000 Euro you will have to pay a fine. Then you can walk with any amount of money, but when you pay for something there is a limit (500 in Greece, 1,000 in Spain, 5,000 in Italy (was 2,000 in 2022), no limits in Germany, etc.) to any single payment in cash. And there is usually a provision prohibiting "artificial fractioning" of payment, i.e. in theory if you buy something worth 1,200 and the limit is 1,000 you cannot pay that with two invoices/receipts 600 Euro each.
    - valdiorn 3y ago
      > And there is usually a provision prohibiting "artificial fractioning" of payment, i.e. in theory if you buy something worth 1,200 and the limit is 1,000 you cannot pay that with two invoices/receipts 600 Euro each. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuring Also illegal in the US.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
sakisv 3y ago
Wow Greece has a limit of 500 euro, but: "There is no cash limit for car purchases" wth? EDIT: Also this something that I didn't know about the UK > With regard to the change, there are unlimited payments of £ 5, £ 2 and £ 1. Coins with a face value of 50p, 25p and 20p can pay amounts up to £ 10, with 10p and 5p up to £ 5 and with 2p and 1p up to 20p.
- hef19898 3y ago
  That's because a lot of used car sales p2p, and in cash. Reason being, normal people usually do not have terminals to pay by card (which has limits as well), and doing a wire transfer is somewhat risky. Either because the seller is left without money nor a car if the wire transfer is stopped by the buyer, or the buyer is left without a car and money, if the wire transfer goes through but zhe car doesn't show up. Sure, that can be resolved, but it is a major pain. Exchanging cash for keys and papers so is saver for everyone involved. And depending om zhe car, the amoints can he pretty high. Car dealers, used or new, are different so.
- seydor 3y ago
  The most corrupt countries tend to have the worst limits. In greece for example real estate sellers will try to officially declare a price much lower than the real one to the taxman, taking the rest in cash under the table. That's why there are government-appraised, official "objective" prices according to which real estate is taxed
  - ilyt 3y ago
    Also common for car purchases. Put lower amount on documents to pay less tax. Which often causes problem when the cars is defective and seller goes "sure, I will pay you back in full, the amount that is on documents". And buyer got no recourse for that.
- michaelt 3y ago
  > "There is no cash limit for car purchases" wth? Cash isn't great, but some people don't use online banking - and in a private sale, only a fool would hand over their car keys to a stranger in exchange for a cheque. (Of course, this was a much bigger issue 15 years ago - these days we have faster payments, and the vast majority of people can make payments from their phone.)
mrmanner 3y ago
> Remember: A trader in the EU is not obligated to accept more than 50 metal coins for the same payment. I shall try and remember that.
- raverbashing 3y ago
  Interesting. That's max 100EUR in coins And I'm glad coins are more popular in Europe than in the US because those $1 notes take too much space
  - jkaplowitz 3y ago
    And it’s also not a mandatory 100EUR coin acceptance limit - it is left to the discretion of the trader.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      In the US, a lot of places won't readily (or at all) take $100 bills. The US is sort of in bill and coinage denomination stasis (denominations are essentially the same as they were over 50 years ago) though it's probably largely academic at this point given that many people basically don't use cash.
      - jkaplowitz 3y ago
        Fully agreed about $100 bills - even $50 bills are often rejected at places with lots of counterfeiting risk and/or mostly small purchases. Many people in the US basically don’t use cash, quite true - but in some parts of the country like NYC, many restaurants and convenience stores are cash-only or only accept cards with a higher price or a minimum purchase amount. So cash is still very commonly carried in NYC and similar cities. The pandemic made it rarer than before for cards not to be accepted at all, but it still happens, as do minimums and price differences. In case you’re wondering about legality: the policies I describe above can be legal or illegal depending on the specifics, but both legal and illegal versions of them are commonly seen in practice.
nonethewiser 3y ago
I guess this terrible practice is more widespread than we realized.
- pif 3y ago
  Terrible practice? That's your opinion.
  - anononaut 3y ago
    Any other opinion is support of nanny state oppression.
  - nonethewiser 3y ago
    It is. My point is that it being "normal" doesn't suggest that it's fine.
SileNce5k 3y ago
Nice to see that there's no limit where I live which is Norway. Hopefully, there are no plans to introduce one.
- jkaplowitz 3y ago
  That article does indicate limits in Norway when an entrepreneur is involved, though not when both parties are private individuals.
  - NorwegianDude 3y ago
    True. The rule is actually max 40k for goods purchased from a merchant. Services have no limit.
- throwaway2037 3y ago
  I am confused by your post. What are some good reasons to allow cash payments above 3000 EUR?
  - OkayPhysicist 3y ago
    Used cars, rent, nicer computers, there's all sorts of relatively large purchases that could be reasonably paid in a stack of large bills. Cash has a nice permanence to the transaction, where I as a seller don't need to be too concerned with the purchaser's background, as their proof of payment is the physical payment itself.
  - lost_tourist 3y ago
    I would flip the script and say why is it a good idea to let the government have that much influence in your life without probable cause and a warrant to know what your financial transactions are?
  - vbezhenar 3y ago
    Banks are not obliged to open accounts to everyone. So there are people who can't use banks, even if they want to. You must accept plenty of agreements between bank and you, and there are only so many banks, so it's very possible for some people to find bank terms to be unacceptable for them. Right now those people have cash as an alternative. Making it illegal removes some freedom from those people.
helsinkiandrew 3y ago
In the US don't cash transactions over $10K (by businesses anyway) need to be notified? https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8300.pdf https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8300.pdf I assume this and most other restrictions are to stop tax evasion and money laundering.
- jkaplowitz 3y ago
  Looks like that’s the case, yes. Still, that’s a reporting requirement, not a limit.
yreg 3y ago
Hmm, our limit is 15k and I consider it somewhat reasonable — it doesn't seem to be too big of a privacy invasion. 3-4k is something else, I had no idea the rest of the EU has it so low. I don't like it.
Karellen 3y ago
I am curious about the status of legal tender in such regions. If someone were to owe a business a debt above €5,000, does the fact that they legally cannot accept payment in cash mean that they could legally refuse all proffered forms of payment ("sorry, we don't accept X"), and get that person declared a bad debtor for failure to pay? The incredibly important thing about legal tender in the form of cash is that, if it is refused as a means of payment, the debt is declared void. It effectively cannot be refused.

potatototoo99 3y ago

Spain's 1,000€ may be the most restrictive, close to Romania's 5,000 lei.

jWhick 3y ago
I'm quite sure they are not enforcing it since i was traveling to and walking with across spain with much more.
- ajmurmann 3y ago
  But did you make a single payment with more? I understand that's the limitation
- addandsubtract 3y ago
  What did you buy for over 1k in cash? I can only imagine a car or bike, but you said walking, so I'm curious...
  - orangepurple 3y ago
    Food, shelter, transportation, adult entertainment, and adult beverages
  - qup 3y ago
    Lawnmower, motorcycle, four wheeler, tractor, excavator, specialty tools, toolboxes, computers, phones, safes, firearms are some big ticket things I and those around me have paid for in cash, all used.
- awelxtr 3y ago
  They are. I could not pay in cash for my lasik surgery some years ago due to this. I wasn't planning on paying in cash but they dily informed me.
- afdezl 3y ago
  The rules in Spain apply for business transactions, i.e.: Business <-> Business and Individual <-> Business, NOT between individuals. The funny thing about it is that in the hypothetical case you would be caught, whichever party reports it first, before getting caught, would not be penalised.
- jaclaz 3y ago
  There are different (distinct) laws. You cannot enter any EU state with more than the equivalent of 10,000 Euro cash unless you declare the amount at the point of entrance. If border controls finds you with more than 10,000 Euro you will have to pay a fine. Then you can walk with any amount of money, but when you pay for something there is a limit (500 in Greece, 1,000 in Spain, 5,000 in Italy (was 2,000 in 2022), no limits in Germany, etc.) to any single payment in cash. And there is usually a provision prohibiting "artificial fractioning" of payment, i.e. in theory if you buy something worth 1,200 and the limit is 1,000 you cannot pay that with two invoices/receipts 600 Euro each.
  - valdiorn 3y ago
    > And there is usually a provision prohibiting "artificial fractioning" of payment, i.e. in theory if you buy something worth 1,200 and the limit is 1,000 you cannot pay that with two invoices/receipts 600 Euro each. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuring Also illegal in the US.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

sakisv 3y ago

Wow Greece has a limit of 500 euro, but: "There is no cash limit for car purchases" wth? EDIT: Also this something that I didn't know about the UK > With regard to the change, there are unlimited payments of £ 5, £ 2 and £ 1. Coins with a face value of 50p, 25p and 20p can pay amounts up to £ 10, with 10p and 5p up to £ 5 and with 2p and 1p up to 20p.

hef19898 3y ago
That's because a lot of used car sales p2p, and in cash. Reason being, normal people usually do not have terminals to pay by card (which has limits as well), and doing a wire transfer is somewhat risky. Either because the seller is left without money nor a car if the wire transfer is stopped by the buyer, or the buyer is left without a car and money, if the wire transfer goes through but zhe car doesn't show up. Sure, that can be resolved, but it is a major pain. Exchanging cash for keys and papers so is saver for everyone involved. And depending om zhe car, the amoints can he pretty high. Car dealers, used or new, are different so.
seydor 3y ago
The most corrupt countries tend to have the worst limits. In greece for example real estate sellers will try to officially declare a price much lower than the real one to the taxman, taking the rest in cash under the table. That's why there are government-appraised, official "objective" prices according to which real estate is taxed
- ilyt 3y ago
  Also common for car purchases. Put lower amount on documents to pay less tax. Which often causes problem when the cars is defective and seller goes "sure, I will pay you back in full, the amount that is on documents". And buyer got no recourse for that.
michaelt 3y ago
> "There is no cash limit for car purchases" wth? Cash isn't great, but some people don't use online banking - and in a private sale, only a fool would hand over their car keys to a stranger in exchange for a cheque. (Of course, this was a much bigger issue 15 years ago - these days we have faster payments, and the vast majority of people can make payments from their phone.)

mrmanner 3y ago

> Remember: A trader in the EU is not obligated to accept more than 50 metal coins for the same payment. I shall try and remember that.

raverbashing 3y ago
Interesting. That's max 100EUR in coins And I'm glad coins are more popular in Europe than in the US because those $1 notes take too much space
- jkaplowitz 3y ago
  And it’s also not a mandatory 100EUR coin acceptance limit - it is left to the discretion of the trader.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    In the US, a lot of places won't readily (or at all) take $100 bills. The US is sort of in bill and coinage denomination stasis (denominations are essentially the same as they were over 50 years ago) though it's probably largely academic at this point given that many people basically don't use cash.
    - jkaplowitz 3y ago
      Fully agreed about $100 bills - even $50 bills are often rejected at places with lots of counterfeiting risk and/or mostly small purchases. Many people in the US basically don’t use cash, quite true - but in some parts of the country like NYC, many restaurants and convenience stores are cash-only or only accept cards with a higher price or a minimum purchase amount. So cash is still very commonly carried in NYC and similar cities. The pandemic made it rarer than before for cards not to be accepted at all, but it still happens, as do minimums and price differences. In case you’re wondering about legality: the policies I describe above can be legal or illegal depending on the specifics, but both legal and illegal versions of them are commonly seen in practice.

nonethewiser 3y ago

I guess this terrible practice is more widespread than we realized.

pif 3y ago
Terrible practice? That's your opinion.
- anononaut 3y ago
  Any other opinion is support of nanny state oppression.
- nonethewiser 3y ago
  It is. My point is that it being "normal" doesn't suggest that it's fine.

SileNce5k 3y ago

Nice to see that there's no limit where I live which is Norway. Hopefully, there are no plans to introduce one.

jkaplowitz 3y ago
That article does indicate limits in Norway when an entrepreneur is involved, though not when both parties are private individuals.
- NorwegianDude 3y ago
  True. The rule is actually max 40k for goods purchased from a merchant. Services have no limit.
throwaway2037 3y ago
I am confused by your post. What are some good reasons to allow cash payments above 3000 EUR?
- OkayPhysicist 3y ago
  Used cars, rent, nicer computers, there's all sorts of relatively large purchases that could be reasonably paid in a stack of large bills. Cash has a nice permanence to the transaction, where I as a seller don't need to be too concerned with the purchaser's background, as their proof of payment is the physical payment itself.
- lost_tourist 3y ago
  I would flip the script and say why is it a good idea to let the government have that much influence in your life without probable cause and a warrant to know what your financial transactions are?
- vbezhenar 3y ago
  Banks are not obliged to open accounts to everyone. So there are people who can't use banks, even if they want to. You must accept plenty of agreements between bank and you, and there are only so many banks, so it's very possible for some people to find bank terms to be unacceptable for them. Right now those people have cash as an alternative. Making it illegal removes some freedom from those people.

helsinkiandrew 3y ago

In the US don't cash transactions over $10K (by businesses anyway) need to be notified? https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8300.pdf https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8300.pdf I assume this and most other restrictions are to stop tax evasion and money laundering.

jkaplowitz 3y ago
Looks like that’s the case, yes. Still, that’s a reporting requirement, not a limit.

yreg 3y ago

Hmm, our limit is 15k and I consider it somewhat reasonable — it doesn't seem to be too big of a privacy invasion. 3-4k is something else, I had no idea the rest of the EU has it so low. I don't like it.

Karellen 3y ago

I am curious about the status of legal tender in such regions. If someone were to owe a business a debt above €5,000, does the fact that they legally cannot accept payment in cash mean that they could legally refuse all proffered forms of payment ("sorry, we don't accept X"), and get that person declared a bad debtor for failure to pay? The incredibly important thing about legal tender in the form of cash is that, if it is refused as a means of payment, the debt is declared void. It effectively cannot be refused.