I agree, cash is the way to go, IF you don't want to waste the time of some alphabet agencies that have nothing better to do than to take an interest in finding ways to violate your civil rights. Excessive banking transactions bring on the sort of scrutiny that is normally focused on suspected criminals or terrorists.
Most members of the forums only seem to be aware of the mandatory IRS reporting limit, and feel that lower transaction amounts are not scrutinized. Nothing could be further from the truth. The IRS is but one of many agencies interested in monitoring everyones financial transactions. I will not go into any classified information here, but even that which is not classified should be enough to concern every single citizen of the US.
Whether everyone is aware of it or not, EVERY SINGLE TRANSACTION entered into a financial institutions computer system is reported to a central intelligence community database, where patterns are analyzed by computers and specialists for suspect activity. Even though we're not doing anything wrong or illegal, do we really want to waste even more taxpayers money by setting off alarm bells that cause these agencies to waste their virtually unlimited resources on us?
By the way, automatic mandatory IRS reporting may apply to larger transactions over a set amount. But that is no guarantee that a lower amount transaction will not trigger an automatic IRS report. Every financial institution has the option of setting their own voluntary IRS reporting limit that will trigger an automatic IRS report. They are required to tell you what that limit is if you ask. Again, that is still no guarantee, as there is also non-automatic voluntary IRS reporting that can be done by any teller or other bank employee.
Just so you know, all online communications activity, including email, is also being scanned for suspect activity, so don't even think that you're not already in someones database
Doesn't this all make you feel so loved... and protected
Bob
