cash purchase

[ksmiley04]

We are trying to purchase a mobile home as a "cash" purchase. I am confused as the dealer is asking us to fill out forms with our social security number,etc and the forms are from a lending institute. Does anyone know why we would have to fill out these forms? We have already filled out a purchase agreement. Thanks for any help!

[David Oxhandler]

There is NO legitimate reason that I know of for a cash buyer to give a retailer his SS# or to fill out a loan application. Just say NO!

[ksmiley04]

Thank you for your help! We are in Texas and the dealer states that they need this info for new "Homeland Security" law to ensure that we are U.S. citizens and money laundering??? We will be providing a certified check (or whatever they ask) from our credit union so the funds can easily be traced as to where they came from.

[David Oxhandler]

Anything is possible.... but the terror excuse sounds a bit thin to me also. Texas has a comprehensive set of laws and rules pertaining to manufactured housing. Do yourself a favor and contact The Manufactured Housing Division of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs with your concerns.

Consumer Protection and Consumer Complaints
Phone: (877) 313-3023
Fax: (512) 475-3506
Email: [email protected]

Enforcement and Licensing
Phone: (877) 313-3023
Fax: (512) 475-3506
Email: [email protected]

Please come back and let us know what you find out.

[trmimo]

These days you have to do it for any transaction that is over, I believe $10,000. Even to deposit into your own bank account.

[David Oxhandler]

YIPES!!!

I have never found trmimo to be wrong! The American Dream continues to morph to 21st century standards. I guess Ill just have to continue to bury my money in mason jars behind the skirting of my doublewide..... both dollars

Thanks for keeping us straight "t"

Happy New Year Y'all

[mhbratt]

David,

Well I hate to disappoint you but, trmimo is WRONG!!!! As a former Bank Secrecy Act/Money Laundering Act Compliance Officer at a very large bank I can tell you with absolute certainty that ONLY CASH transactions larger than $10K must be reported. The form is #4789. To that I would add, there are exemptions that can be permitted for certain types of businesses with assigned limits. Paper transactions are not reporable as they already provide a paper trai.

Happy New Year!

Jennifer

[David Oxhandler]

Jennifer

Can you give us details on what a "paper transaction" is?

[mhbratt]

Hi David,

Any transaction that is done with paper, i.e., deposits, checks, wire transfer forms, etc., thereby creating a trail with paper that follows the money. That could be any type of check, e.g., personal, business, cashiers etc. Wire transfers also have a paper trail.

For purposes of this forum, if I was selling a home for $15K and you wanted to buy it with cash to me, I'd have to report that transaction to the IRS. The form requires me to provide identifying information on the person who is giving me the cash. Additionally, if I go to deposit that $15K (cash) into my bank account, the bank will also be required to complete a 4789 form, requiring my personal identifying iformation.

Additionally, for the example above, if the buyer had withdrawn that money from a bank or cashed a check from someone else, that would also be required to be reported. It doesn't matter that it's coming or going, so to speak.

So for this example, the buyer goes to their bank and withdraws $15K in cash from their account. Then gives me the cash to buy the home. Then I deposit the cash in my account. A paper trail is created following the $ from the buyers account to me to my bank. 3 paper forms were completed and sent to the IRS and they can see the "paper trail" created.

People involved in illegal activity that deal in cash have no paper trail. Illegal activity can be and is anything from drug dealers, bribery, extortion, embezzlement, etc. Any attempts to circumvent the reporting requirements is a felony. Such as reducing the amount of your transaction to under $10K into more than one transaction to evade the reporting requirements is called "structuring".

I hope this answers your questions about "paper transactions". I don't want to get too bogged down in the details as I don't think most come here for this type of information.

Jennifer