xp0

I have heard this happening with other people. From reading this board, it seems many people have nothing to worry about. A few hundred K in MO's over an entire year? I'm surprised they came to see you.

This is a reality. If you dont want to get a visit, maybe you should reconsider what you are doing. If you dont care, carry on.

cashback

Lol you guys are funny. As I was told, "you arent a true HH until you get a visit from a 3 letter agency." Big brother is always watching. Get used it. Keep calling these claims BS if it helps you sleep.

MsArbi

Deleted.

AlohaDaveKennedy

As opposed to simply being a BSer and demanding a free pass?

AlohaDaveKennedy

Then we the people must push back demanding that the IRS first spend their effort building a reliable email system that does not afford the ability for IRS management to engage in illegal activities with impunity.

To quote our Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's newspaper (the Las Vegas Review-Journal)

"Do the folks at the Internal Revenue Service think we’re stupid? They must if they believe Americans will buy the agency’s increasingly suspicious explanations for its lack of cooperation with congressional investigators."

Andy2

They may or may not have done that much work beforehand, but they do not have to do much of anything prior to requesting an interview. No one knows. But if they have done a lot of homework , that goes even more to my point. Many MSers have 10 or so bank accounts. If they have subpoenaed and reviewed that many bank accounts and if they have done any outside interviews, that would represent a lot of work hours to just write in the file that they decided to not pursue this any further because it was just someone getting credit card rewards and someone at the top is going to want to stop this. I am not sure if the prepaid card pin feature is a statute that must be changed by a Congress, a regulation that can be changed by an agency with proper notice or just an interpretation that can be changed quickly by a few people. But if the government is expending resources on pursuing a lot of SARs filed for this, someone will work for a change, especially since this activity benefits so few people and can be argued to not benefit the country as a whole.

It would be nice to figure out how to do this without money orders. That has always been the weak point, since this'd have a stigma in the banking world. In small denominations they are purchased by the unbanked underclass due to their high cost per transaction As a result, purchases and deposits in large denominations are viewed as suspicious. Most of us had never purchased a money order prior to MSing.

Middle_Seat

Using what search term?

toxicity

This x1000

Mamibear

This is what it all boils down to, it all depends whether one is easily intimidated by talks like this cause if it doesn't bother them and they 'feel' safe doing what they're doing now, who cares? It's all up to the person to make the decision on what he/she is comfortable with.

Truth is BigB is watching us all, it just depends on who they'll focus on and give more attention.

seat17D

There seems to be a fervent belief that "if I just dont do X method" or "if I just keep it under $Y" then one will be "safe", whatever that word means. Or that visits only happen to those who deserve it. Or who are stupid.

Or that visits are just the petty mental inventions of malicious minds intend on trolling, scaring newbs or whatever other negative motivation might be.

None of that is true.

What I do is virtually indistinguishable from money laundering to the casual observer. I accept that I now am somewhat of a known entity in some LE circles. And I accept that I will continue to have a nonzero chance of periodic attention, much like fringe-but-legal commercial enterprises. Like the 20 something in a flashy car I expect to be pulled over every now and then.

MileageGoblin

Uhm no. They don't have access to bank records without a summons which would have to be given to the OP beforehand. As the OP's responses of using a mileage run debit card were recognized by the SA as common legal methods of using MOs, the SA decided not to pursue it any farther.

And if you think the IRS CI SAs lump all their case interviews into one neighborhood on one day, you have a pretty high opinion of IRS efficiency.

dweick

A money order can be considered cash for the purpose of filing a Form 8300.

But that is for a retail transaction and not a bank deposit. The IRS interest in bank deposits of large amounts of money orders can either be concern that the money orders were purchased with cash, potentially an illegal structuring issue, or if they were received from a "designated reporting transaction" and a Form 8300 wasn't filed.

See IRS Pub 1544

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1544.pdf

Purchasing money orders with a debit card and depositing them doesn't require any reporting by either the seller or the bank.

Andy2

I agree with what you are saying (EDIT: Actually when I re-read your post you mentioned what I said below, so it is redundant), but it is worth noting that even if the bank is not required to file a currency transaction report or make a record in its daily monetary log of money order deposits, that bank may choose to do a suspicious activity report (SAR) as a result of money order deposits. And it is really more than just voluntary. A bank faces penalties if it does not file a SAR when a reasonable person (as determined by those imposing the penalties) would believe the SAR should have been filed. A bank is specifically instructed to evaluate money order deposits, particularly when the money orders are in sequential order, to identify the aftermaths of structuring. The bank does not know whether the money orders were purchased with cash or with a debit card, so if it sees a lot of money order deposits it envisions a person who walks into various WalMarts and Grocery Stores with cash and buys money orders with them to deposit. The bank thinks that person is using money orders to avoid depositing cash that would trigger the filing of reports. It is likely these SARs that are causing the problem. The IRS, when examining the SARs that are filed with FinCen, sees a taxpayer that is depositing a lot more cash than he is reporting on his/her tax return.

MsArbi

Deleted.

andyandy

This is my primary reason for depositing at only one branch and establishing a rapport with the tellers at my branch. They know basically what I am doing and I am confident that no SARs have been filed by the front line folks. That wouldn't stop a back office type who doesn't know me from filing one, but I believe it limits my risk.

Andyandy

P.S.: FWIW, this is the branch I've been using since the Mint days. I'm still "the dollar coin guy" when I'm not "Mr. Andyandy."