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> what's the possible impact of having a SAR filed on you?

Your life is scrutinized. Example #1: Eliot Spitzer

redtop43

Last week when I paid a bill at Walmart for $5000, they logged my name in a book. Curiously, however, three weeks earlier, at the same Walmart, they did not log me when I tried to pay $9000.

It may have had to do with my being more insistent this time. The prior time, they had said the bill couldn't be paid. This time, I had pursued quite a few sources at WM, and ultimately got a call from someone in Bentonville (WM world HQ) telling me how to do it. When the clerk at the Money Center again said she couldn't, I escallated it to a manager who was eventually able to pay it using the technique given to me by WM HQ.

Of the many things I worry about in life, the IRS, FBI, or Secret Service leading me away in handcuffs is way way down the list.

AnitaBryant63

I've never had a SAR filled out on me, but I keep my transactions under 3k

lkar

From what I have read most banks are set up to make CTRs electronically with no input at all from the cashier. All the cashier does is indicate the form of payment and the report goes electronically to the IRS.

josephstern

I really don't see how you can know this.

Stoughton

Checks are not cash and CTR's don't require paperwork.

Flying Redhead

They don't do anything *that you see*. CTR's and SAR's are generally a combination of electronic info and back office staff discussing with front line staff. If the tellers are doing things correctly, you'll never know about a report like that. CTR's generally include info that your bank/credit union already have on you and you SAR's are never to be shared. If someone files a SAR on you, you're not allowed to be told.

A CTR is no big deal, that just means that you had over $X currency or monetary instruments (money orders). A SAR is no big deal *if* you're not doing anything illegal, which includes structuring. If you're specifically structuring your transactions to avoid a CTR, that is structuring. Don't do that. If you consistently do transactions right under the reporting threshhold then it's going to raise a red flag. If someone were to call you and ask you to explain the timing of your transactions and you have a legitimate answer other than "I didn't want a report filed" then you're probably fine. Don't do illegal things (intentionally avoiding reporting triggers is illegal) and you have no reason to worry.

The Walmart clerk in the OP pretty well screwed up every which way to Sunday. If they really are keeping all of that info in a binder at the desk then you should have a discussion with the manager about moving that info into a location that is properly secure so that the info will remain confidential. Not wanting your ID, address, DOB, SSN, and financial info stored in an open binder behind the Walmart service desk is a reasonable privacy concern.


For all of those saying that the reports go to the IRS, no they don't. They go to FinCEN which (like the IRS) is a part of the Department of the Treasury. They're part of the same department but are very different. The legal code is the Bank Secrecy Act.
http://www.fincen.gov/

stifle

In some jurisdictions it's illegal to tell the subject of an SAR that they are the subject of an SAR.

Tiki

Can a foreign tourist buy a money order using their passport as ID? Just wondering if it's worthwhile to have my Aussie husband buy the money orders, make them out to me and I can deposit them in my account.

Ducati

So there are jurisdictions where it is permissible? The answer is "NO" since there's only one jurisdiction that is of relevance.

I can see that there's a lot of misinformation being thrown around in this thread. A lot of Fters think they're experts. Quite amusing.

Sorry for trolling.

poser

In college I worked at a drug store that sold money order/grams and we never tracked anything. I used my 5% cash back credit card to pay rent every month and it was pretty awesome. This was a regional drug store and things changed after we were bought out by CVS and some bookkeeper embezzled about $200k from the company..

stifle

This is a global forum, so that is a very short-sighted statement.

Happy

I guess nobody here ever tries. You may be the first one to let us know the outcome.

lovenola

I have never been asked for an id when buying money orders, and in fact when I have had reports filed for me (at least the ones I knew about), they took all of the info from me verbally, and never asked to see id to confirm whether I was telling the truth

MikeR397

Correct. SARs go to FinCEN, not to the IRS.

I find it amusing when people speak as if they are experts for how these work yet don't even know who the reporting is going to.