Russia to ban cash transactions over $10,000

Russia Behind the Headlines ^ | March 26, 2013 | Viktor Kuzmin

[grumpygresh]

Russia may ban cash payments for purchases of more than 300,000 rubles (around $10,000) starting in 2015. The move is expected to boost banks’ cash reserves and put a damper on Russia’s shadow economy. However, the middle class will most likely end up having to pay the price for the scheme....Given the substantial criminal activity and illegal entrepreneurship, the grey and black economies account for 50–65 percent of GDP. Even former Central Bank Chief Sergey Ignatyev had to admit that about $50 billion was taken out of Russia illegally in 2012 alone.

[grumpygresh]

The noose is tightening on individuals everywhere. All transactions must be monitored by governments in preparation for a one world monetary system. The totalitarians desperately need fiat digital currency to defeat alternative currencies such as precious metals and bitcoin.

[azcap]

COMING SOON to a peoples republic near you!

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Somebody needs to buy a 3-acre island in the Pacific, found a country and start minting a sound universal currency.

When banksters start jumping from rooftops you'll know the new currency is working.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

"Given the substantial criminal activity and illegal entrepreneurship, the grey and black economies account for 50–65 percent of GDP."

Well, no. GDP does not include the grey and black economies: ∴ they cannot "account for" any percentage of GDP. They could total as much as 50-65 percent of GDP -- but, that would be an estimate, not the known quantity the sentence implies.

[Black Agnes]

"When banksters start jumping from rooftops Hellfire missile is incoming, you'll know the new currency is working."

[Jyotishi]

> ...start minting a sound universal currency.

Hmm... Bitcoin:

What Is Bitcoin and What Can I Do With It?

http://lifehacker.com/5991523/what-is-bitcoin-and-what-can-i-do-with-it?tag=ask-lifehacker

[Gen.Blather]

Cash transactions in the US over $10,000 have required special forms to be filed by the receiving party for well over a decade. This was to combat the Cocaine Cowboys of the ‘80’s. They’d regularly buy cars with cash.

[bgill]

Ok, put it on lay away and split the cash payments.

[Jyotishi]

This can never happen in the US because Obama is not a socialist-communist-Marxist-Muslim control freak and also because he did not tell the Russian leadership that he’ll have more freedom to do things once he gets elected to a second term.

[apillar]

Most people don't realize that large cash transactions have to be reported to the government here as well. Back in my college days I worked in car dealership and you would sometimes get “shady” characters come in and want to buy a $20,000 car with a wad of cash, most quickly left went told about the reporting requirement. One sales manager even got fired because he tried to slip a sale through by breaking into multiple smaller increments to avoid the reporting requirement, which I understand is a really big no-no and could have opened him and dealership up to money laundering charges.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Somebody needs to buy a 3-acre island in the Pacific, found a country and start minting a sound universal currency.

Such an economic terrorist would very quickly get to test the soundness of his currency against that of an existing currency backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Marine Corps. :)

[kingu]

Ahh, yes, I’ll have nine transactions for $9,500. I’ll pay cash. Will that be a problem? Didn’t think so.

[TheThirdRuffian]

I’ve started to do transactions in cash. Everything I can.

I even pay my lawyer in cash.

Because of the gubmint seizing cash, I have great records of where my cash came from.

Just because.

[yorkiemom]

Most people don't realize that large cash transactions have to be reported to the government here as well.

It's a big step from reporting to banning.

[Roccus]

Cash transactions in the US over $10,000 have required special forms to be filed by the receiving party for well over a decade.

Not true. Closed my MM acct. (more than $10K ) with a cash withdrawal four (4) years ago. ONLY had to write a check to myself.
Made a cash deposit over $10K a few months ago, didn't even have to fill out a deposit slip...the bank did that for me.

[elkfersupper]

Keep dreaming. The definition of money is "a means of exchange".

I didn't see anybody whipping out gold bars to buy non-existent gas and groceries after any recent natural disaster.

[elkfersupper]

It's a big step from reporting to banning.

No, reporting is is one of the initial steps. Banning is only one step away.

[elkfersupper]

Made a cash deposit over $10K a few months ago, didn't even have to fill out a deposit slip...the bank did that for me.

The transaction was nonetheless reported and you were captured on video.

Any bank not reporting that would be in danger of losing its charter. Your bank did not risk that.

[henkster]

The underground economy is an old Russian tradition going back to the Soviet Union, if not before. It was called living “na levo” or “on the side.” It was more than a way of life, it was a means of survival. You want to see your doctor when you need to see him? Build him a deck on his dacha. You need the lumber for the deck? Give the guy at the lumber yard a few bottles of vodka to look the other way while the lumber disappeared. Most of the concrete trucks headed from the cement plant to the big state project arrived with less than half their original load. The rest became garage floors and whatever else.

Of course, you had to make sure the authorities turned a blind eye to all of this. So you take care of the cop/KGB man in the apartment complex. The rise of the “Russian mafia” was no surprise, it was the KGB and they were getting their cut of the underground economy all along. All they did was discard the letters and uniforms, their practices didn’t change.

The average Russian will laugh at this latest edict as he laughed at all of the same attempts of the USSR to curb his lifestyle. Nothing will change.

[Roccus]

But as the receiving party on my withdrawal, I was not required to do anything. What the bank must do on my deposit is not my problem. I can prove where the money came from should the IRS come knocking.