Form 8300: reporting cash payments over $10,000

The rule in brief

• Who must file: any person in a trade or business. That includes an individual, company, corporation, partnership, association, trust or estate.
• When: the business receives more than $10,000 in cash in one transaction, or in two or more related transactions.
• Deadline: within 15 days after the cash is received. If day 15 falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the form is due the next business day.
• Tell the customer: by January 31 of the following year, give each person named on the form a written statement that you reported the payment.
• Keep records: keep a copy of each form and each customer statement for five years.

The IRS names these as typical filers: dealers in cars, boats, aircraft, jewelry and furniture, pawnbrokers, attorneys, real estate brokers, insurance companies and travel agencies. The rule is not limited to them. It applies to any business that takes a large cash payment.

What counts as cash

• Currency: U.S. and foreign coins and bills.
• Some bank instruments: a cashier's check, bank draft, traveler's check or money order with a face amount of $10,000 or less counts as cash in two situations:
  • It is received in a designated reporting transaction: a retail sale of a consumer durable priced over $10,000 (such as a car or boat), a collectible (such as art, a rug, an antique, a gem or a coin), or travel or entertainment for one trip or event that totals more than $10,000.
  • The business knows the customer is trying to avoid the reporting rule.
• Not cash: a personal check in any amount, a wire transfer, and a cashier's check, bank draft, traveler's check or money order with a face amount over $10,000.
• Digital assets: under IRS Announcement 2024-4, digital assets do not have to be counted as cash for Form 8300 until the IRS issues regulations.

Related payments and installments

A customer cannot avoid the form by splitting a payment, and a business cannot ignore payments that belong together.

• The 24-hour rule: payments between the same customer and business within any 24-hour period are related. The 24 hours do not have to fall on one calendar day.
• Connected payments: payments more than 24 hours apart are still related if the business knows, or has reason to know, that each is one of a series of connected transactions.
• Installments: add up the cash payments on the same purchase made within one year of the first payment. File within 15 days after the payment that brings the total over $10,000. After you file, the count starts over.

How to file

• Electronic filing: file through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System. It is free.
• When e-filing is required: since January 1, 2024, a business that must e-file its other information returns (10 or more in a calendar year, such as Forms W-2 and 1099) must also e-file Form 8300. A paper form filed when e-filing is required can be penalized as late.
• Customer information: the form asks for the customer's name, address and taxpayer identification number, and you must verify the customer's identity with an ID document.
• If the customer will not give a tax ID number: file the form on time anyway. Explain in the comments that the customer refused, and keep a record of your requests.
• Customer statement: the January 31 statement must show your business name, address and contact phone number, the total reportable cash you received, and that you reported it to the IRS.
• Proof of filing: save a copy of the form itself. The e-filing confirmation email is not enough.
• Late forms: a missed form should still be filed. Mark it "LATE."

How an IRS Form 8300 audit works

• Who conducts it: IRS examiners who specialize in Bank Secrecy Act compliance, in the Small Business/Self-Employed Division.
• What they review: they compare your records with the forms you filed. Expect requests for cash receipt records, bank deposits, sales files and customer files, and questions for the staff who handle payments.
• What they look for: missing, late or incomplete forms, missing customer statements, and signs that payments were split to stay under $10,000.
• What happens next: if the auditor finds violations, the IRS proposes penalties. You can respond with your explanation and request reasonable-cause relief, and you can usually ask the IRS Independent Office of Appeals to review the proposed penalties.
• After assessment: the usual route to court is to pay a penalty, file a refund claim, and sue for a refund in federal district court. State every ground, including reasonable cause, in the refund claim.

Penalties

These amounts apply to forms due in 2026. They are adjusted each year for inflation.

• Reasonable cause: no penalty applies if the failure was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect. The business must show significant mitigating factors or events beyond its control, and that it acted responsibly before and after the failure.
• Criminal exposure: willfully failing to file, filing a false form, or structuring payments to avoid the form can also be a federal crime. If that is a concern, get legal advice before you speak with the IRS.

Intentional disregard: what courts look at

Under the regulations, a failure is due to intentional disregard if it is knowing or willful. The decision rests on all the facts, including:

• whether the failure is part of a pattern,
• whether the business corrected it promptly after discovering it,
• whether the business corrected it within 30 days of a written IRS request, and
• whether the penalty is smaller than the cost of complying.

Five decisions show how this works in practice.

• Gerald B. Lefcourt, P.C. v. United States (2d Cir. 1997). A law firm filed Form 8300 but deliberately left off its client's name. The court upheld a $25,000 penalty. A choice to withhold required information is intentional disregard, even when the filer believes it has a legal reason.
• Tysinger Motor Co. v. United States (E.D. Va. 2006). A car dealer with a compliance system filed four of eight required forms. The court ordered the $100,000 penalty refunded. The misses were mistakes, and in the court's words, "Sloppiness is not the same as willfulness." Prior violations and general knowledge of the rule do not make every later miss intentional.
• Bale Chevrolet Co. v. United States (8th Cir. 2010). After an earlier audit, a dealer told the IRS it had put procedures in place, then missed four of five forms. The IRS refunded the $100,000 penalty in a settlement, but the court denied the dealer's attorney fees. It found the IRS's position reasonable: intentional disregard may apply when a business knows its reporting system is inadequate, does not fix it, and violates again.
• Mycles Cycles, Inc. v. United States (S.D. Cal. 2019). A San Diego motorcycle dealer filed nine forms without the customers' tax ID numbers, and the IRS assessed $225,000. The court refused to decide for the IRS without a trial, because knowledge from prior audits is not automatic proof of willfulness. The dealer lost its reasonable-cause defense because it had not raised it in its refund claim.
• Dealers Auto Auction of Southwest LLC v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2025-38. An auto auction blamed its software for 266 late or missing forms. The court agreed that a software malfunction can be reasonable cause, but upheld $118,140 in ordinary penalties because the business did not prove the malfunction or show that it had checks in place to catch errors.

Three lessons follow. A real, working compliance system is the best defense. Problems found in one audit must be fixed before the next one. Reasonable cause has to be raised early and supported with records.

A short compliance checklist

• Write down who identifies a reportable payment, who files the form and who sends the January statement.
• Record how each payment was made: bills, cashier's check, money order or wire, and the amount of each.
• Track cash by customer so that related payments and installments are added together.
• Calendar the 15-day deadline on the day the cash comes in.
• Collect the customer's ID and tax ID number at the time of payment.
• Keep copies of every form and statement for five years.
• Review a sample of sales files every few months. If you find a missed form, get advice and file it promptly.

Sources

• 26 U.S.C. §§ 6050I, 6721, 6722, 6724
• 26 C.F.R. §§ 1.6050I-1, 301.6721-1, 301.6724-1
• Rev. Proc. 2024-40 (penalty amounts for returns required to be filed in 2026)
• IRS Announcement 2024-4 (digital assets)
• Instructions for Form 8300 (Rev. December 2023); IRS Form 8300 Reference Guide; IRS Fact Sheet 2023-19
• Gerald B. Lefcourt, P.C. v. United States, 125 F.3d 79 (2d Cir. 1997)
• Tysinger Motor Co. v. United States, 428 F. Supp. 2d 480 (E.D. Va. 2006)
• Bale Chevrolet Co. v. United States, 620 F.3d 868 (8th Cir. 2010)
• Mycles Cycles, Inc. v. United States, No. 3:18-cv-00314 (S.D. Cal. Sept. 4, 2019)
• Dealers Auto Auction of Southwest LLC v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2025-38

General information only. This guide is not legal or tax advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Penalty amounts are adjusted annually for inflation; check current figures before relying on them.