Anyone transport over 10K currency from overseas through USA customs?

[OCGuy]

Obviously convert the money to drugs and hire a Mexican coyote to help get it across the border, then sell the drugs.


Noob.

 

[SKORPI0]

Glad your 30 years green card holder, non US citizen mom made it back. j/k.

 

[radhak]

pfft just walk through without saying anything. They're not gonna check unless you tell them. If anyone asks, just tell them it was a gift from a wedding or something and tell them you didn't know it had to be declared.

i did before, i didn't decalre it, i dont wire because its a fving rip off, exchange rate and fees. I wouldn't do it now as its a bit harder but if you are travelling with like 2-3 people together, you can split the 10k or up to 30k

You can make secret pockets in your clothes and hide the money in there, if you don't want to declare it. We did this once, but that was Pre-911. Each person had around 5 to 10,000 on them, and around 50 to 100K total, don't remember the exact amount, was too long ago. In the end no one noticed the hidden pockets.

If you care about that money, you would not try such stunts. If caught, all the money is impounded, irrespective of how legal was your acquisition of that cash. Some years ago somebody was caught at Miami Airport with around $85,000 in a handbag or so, and lost all of it, despite all sorts of representation and appeals - he was a legal immigrant from Mexico and had saved up that money after decades of hard work here. <sorry, unable to find that link>

Another case from last year : a family was caught with $125,000, and lost all of that, and faced arrest to boot. IIRC, there was nothing wrong with the money itself, but they just did not want to declare it, and tried to hide it in some silly ways.

Me, if I had any of my own money at stake, I'd rather go thru some hassle than risk losing it to Uncle Tom.

 

[NetWareHead]

Uncle Tom.

Uncle Sam?

 

[radhak]

From my banking days, I recall that if it appeared that someone was trying to circumvent the $10k cash limit, we had to fill out a "suspicious transaction report" which basically contained the same info as the other form. I would assume it's the same for customs.

It's truly not about $10k or not. $10k is where it's mandatory. An agent can put an investigation on even $2000 if they wanted/had suspicion.

Yes - if somebody tries to bring in $18K in two trips at $9K a pop, and is caught both times (ie, somebody can prove it), then there could be a problem. Or if that $2000 is traceable to some heist, that too !

But if I had to just take in around $10K, I'd rather take $500 less, and not run afoul of the law. Of course, I don't have any illegal funds, so I got less to worry about.

 

[radhak]

Uncle Tom.

Uncle Sam?

Oops! I'm sure there's some Freudian-slip joke for that!

 

[alkemyst]

If you care about that money, you would not try such stunts. If caught, all the money is impounded, irrespective of how legal was your acquisition of that cash. Some years ago somebody was caught at Miami Airport with around $85,000 in a handbag or so, and lost all of it, despite all sorts of representation and appeals - he was a legal immigrant from Mexico and had saved up that money after decades of hard work here. <sorry, unable to find that link>

Another case from last year : a family was caught with $125,000, and lost all of that, and faced arrest to boot. IIRC, there was nothing wrong with the money itself, but they just did not want to declare it, and tried to hide it in some silly ways.

Me, if I had any of my own money at stake, I'd rather go thru some hassle than risk losing it to Uncle Tom.

He was an illegal immigrant, it was $59,000 and it was in Stuart. His name was Pedro Zapeta. He was also Guatamalean.

 

[Anonemous]

/Dummies Guide to money laundering...

 

[DCal430]

Why would you be carrying this amount of cash and need to risk getting hit with a felony?

Sounds like a cool story to tell on the internet though.

1. I think my family might have thought it was 10,000 per person, but the goverment site says 10,000 per group.

2. It was for family, we were visting relatives in a third world dirt poor country and wanted to help them out.

3. The government of the dirt poor country is very corrupt, so if we delcared the money, they might have found out, and tried to take it.

We were not trying to hide it from the U.S government. Like I said this was pre-911, when security was very lax.

 

[Elganja]

any time my parents had to take a bunch of cash over seas they would use american express travelers checks ... myself, I haven't had a need to take that much cash (or would just use credit cards w/ no foreign fees)

 

[Baked]

This one time I walked into a bank to deposit just over 10K in cash. I pulled it out under my mattress. They didn't ask me to fill out a form or anything. Took a long time to count the money though.

 

[radhak]

He was an illegal immigrant, it was $59,000 and it was in Stuart. His name was Pedro Zapeta. He was also Guatamalean.

Hmmm - I remember a different case, from even earlier, because it was local to me here. But the case you mentioned seems to have had a good ending.

 

[alkemyst]

1. I think my family might have thought it was 10,000 per person, but the goverment site says 10,000 per group.

2. It was for family, we were visting relatives in a third world dirt poor country and wanted to help them out.

3. The government of the dirt poor country is very corrupt, so if we delcared the money, they might have found out, and tried to take it.

We were not trying to hide it from the U.S government. Like I said this was pre-911, when security was very lax.

We are talking about declaring cash in US customs...not some third world nation. There is nothing wrong with carrying the cash (up to a certain limit, when it becomes a legal nuisance/risk) so no reason to hide it from federal agents.

 

[alkemyst]

Hmmm - I remember a different case, from even earlier, because it was local to me here. But the case you mentioned seems to have had a good ending.

I live in South Florida.

 

[DCal430]

We are talking about declaring cash in US customs...not some third world nation. There is nothing wrong with carrying the cash (up to a certain limit, when it becomes a legal nuisance/risk) so no reason to hide it from federal agents.

We were not sure if we informed the Federal Government if they would inform the other country too. Can't risk the other country finding out.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

It was an interesting experience when plunking down cash for my LS.

 

[AlienCraft]

Been there done that. It was in the late '70s and we always split the band cash between members so if someone got a bag snatched, it wouldn't have the whole bank in it. Flew back into SFO after being out for 8+ weeks in South America. Probably holding about $500,000. in cash, as each of us (12personell + manager0 had about $48,000. in their enevlopes. I cleared cutsoms, was hugging on the GF when a guy in a Blue came out and said "Mr.Craft, please come back inside and bring the bag with the cash" :eek; After a couple of hours thet determined that we weren't rying to slip anything by them, just didn't fill out the correct form, asseds a $300.00 penalty and let us on our merry way. We still followed that procedure, just filled out another piece of paper prior to re-entry.

Getting hit with a snatch and grab outside the US is still less preferable than talking to US Customs.

 

[Imp]

Didn't someone try this and have their money confiscated (permanently) by customs...

 

[randomrogue]

Cashiers checks. Do they still make these? They're as good as cash so don't lose them but you go to a bank, give them money, pay a small fee, and they give you a check. In the next country you pay the foreign exchange fee and cash it. Pretty simple.

The issue you'll run into is if the sum is too large. I think the most I've moved this way was about $14,000 USD.

 

[NetWareHead]

Cashiers checks. Do they still make these? They're as good as cash so don't lose them but you go to a bank, give them money, pay a small fee, and they give you a check. In the next country you pay the foreign exchange fee and cash it. Pretty simple.

The issue you'll run into is if the sum is too large. I think the most I've moved this way was about $14,000 USD.

Yes but these still count towards the 10k limit and are considered monetary instruments.

 

[amish]

We explored that option but then if any of my family in Italy deposited the money to wire it, they would be subject to taxation which is why Mom wanted to bring it here. Its done already though. Mom filled out the necessary paperwork and made it through customs fine. We will deal with the taxation issues here if anything arises.

subject to taxation in Italy? the sale of the business is already going to be taxed there; if it were reported correctly. No sense in trying to hide the proceeds.

Your Mom is going to have to report her portion of the sale on her US return too since she is a green card holder. The US taxes all citizens, green card holders, and resident aliens on their world wide income. Any taxes paid in Italy would be taken as a credit on her US return.

Also, ignore any comments about the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion as it would not apply in this case.

 

[NetWareHead]

subject to taxation in Italy? the sale of the business is already going to be taxed there; if it were reported correctly. No sense in trying to hide the proceeds.

Your Mom is going to have to report her portion of the sale on her US return too since she is a green card holder. The US taxes all citizens, green card holders, and resident aliens on their world wide income. Any taxes paid in Italy would be taken as a credit on her US return.

Also, ignore any comments about the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion as it would not apply in this case.

I really dont know how Italian tax law works. But that was the excuse given by mom as to why a relative of ours could not deposit the cash for her.

 

[Wreckem]

Didn't someone try this and have their money confiscated (permanently) by customs...

Yes. Its actually fairly common. Its called civil forfeiture. You are more or less screwed if they confiscate it under civil forfeiture. You dont have to be convicted of anything to have assets permanently seized. You do get a hearing on trying to get the assets back but its extremely easy for the police/govt official to met the burden to keep your assets. Its on the rise nation wide. Its never a good idea to carry a ton of cash with you at any time, especially if you are an immigrant or minority.

 

[DaTT]

It's truly not about $10k or not. $10k is where it's mandatory. An agent can put an investigation on even $2000 if they wanted/had suspicion.

This is true.

 

[DCal430]

If you do hidden pockets make sure they are as flat as possible. Don't want to risk those scanners seeing something odd. Also make sure if you are given a pat down it won't be noticed, so make multiple secret pockets to put the money in, so it is as flat as possible.