EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments • Hacker News Board

Re: EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments

#641

Post by tormeh » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:35 AM UTC

yrgulation wrote: post #579

tastysandwich wrote: post #506

A similar thing was attempted in Australia [1]. I just ask people to consider that even though we all have bank accounts and we take that for granted, there _are_ actually people who don't, and they're not operating a criminal enterprise. My grandparents came as refugees. My grandfather has never had a bank account. He bought a car with $50 bills once. It was so funny, they were all stuck together and the clerk had t…

A lot of eu countries have a threshold of how much you can pay in cash, and it works just fine. No one is missing hospital treatment because of it and even illiterate folks can use banks and open accounts.

Agreed. It's tried. We know it works. What are we even debating?

Re: EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments

#642

Post by alasdair_ » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:36 AM UTC

Teandw wrote: post #456

ur-whale wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This likely affects a number of people that is so small, that it's irrelevant. Citation required.

No citation needed. It doesn't take much brain power to know that certain things are or aren't likely. It would be like asking me to prove that not many people have done the calculation of 15435 divided by 12.5 in their life. I can just tell you from basic logical thinking, that it's not likely that many people have.

Have you ever spent time in Germany? It is a very cash-based culture because people are understandably worried about government surveillance of their financial transactions.

Germany initially wanted there to be 10,000EUR notes for this very reason.

There are a whole lot of people there that want to pay cash for everything, including things like cars and houses.

Re: EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments

#643

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:36 AM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #568

pclmulqdq wrote: post #555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$10,000 in US $20 bills weighs about 1 pound. In $100 bills, it fits nicely in your pocket or in a small purse. I assume 100 euro notes are about the same.

It's a lot of money to put in your pocket. I didn't say anything about weight .

[deleted]

Re: EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments

#644

Post by epolanski » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:40 AM UTC

alphanullmeric wrote: post #536

Quoted post unavailable.

I don't know, as an Italian we have massive issues with tax evasion in Europe, Italy especially. I very welcome limiting cash, I'm sick of paying taxes for all those that don't because they only want cash.

This surveillance thing coming from people shoving all their info online seems hugely overblown.

Re: EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments

#645

Post by from » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:40 AM UTC

American perspective: There are lots of conspiracies out there about CBDCs but in my opinion CBDCs would be preferable to the current banking system. Right now banks can arbitrarily decide to freeze your account for "compliance reasons" and there is nothing you can do about it. They can deny you service because you were born in a country they don't like. They can deny you service because they don't like your business regardless of whether it's legal or not (https://www.wsj.com/articles/gas-station-atms-are-a-banking-..., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point). A government run CBDC would offer constitutional protections and replace this weird arrangement we have where anti money-laundering enforcement is outsourced to banks and banks fear of being fined leads them to being petty tyrants.

And people talk about the trucker protests like it was this unprecedented thing. That's just the tip of the iceberg. There's a company called World-Check and if you ever end up in the World-Check database you will never get a bank account again except maybe if you're an ultra high net worth individual.

Re: EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments

#646

Post by alasdair_ » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:40 AM UTC

tormeh wrote: post #617

ETH_start wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

€10K is not that much.

1k EUR is a lot to carry in cash. 10k is absurd. I'd guess 95% of people doing it are doing it because they're doing something illegal.

When I played a lot of poker, I would routinely carry 30k or more. A single buy-in could be 10k. The people I played with all did similar things.

Moreover there are some countries (like Germany) where people routinely use a lot of cash to (say) buy a car or a business.

Re: EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments

#647

Post by macNchz » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:40 AM UTC

ithkuil wrote: post #529

macNchz wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a somewhat rare car with cash several years ago. The seller had a buyer lined up across the country (and showed me evidence), but said that if I could bring him cash he’d sell it to me instead. I went to the bank, brought him an envelope of $100 bills, and it was mine.

> I went to the bank [..] Would a certified check so the same trick?

The seller can turn around and spend the cash instantly, anywhere, whereas the cashier’s check takes at least a day to clear, and in theory the bank could hold the funds for some period of time while it investigated the transaction for fraud. https://www.helpwithmybank.gov/help-topics/bank-accounts/cas...

Re: EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments

#648

Post by SergeAx » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:40 AM UTC

yrgulation wrote: post #579

tastysandwich wrote: post #506

A similar thing was attempted in Australia [1]. I just ask people to consider that even though we all have bank accounts and we take that for granted, there _are_ actually people who don't, and they're not operating a criminal enterprise. My grandparents came as refugees. My grandfather has never had a bank account. He bought a car with $50 bills once. It was so funny, they were all stuck together and the clerk had t…

A lot of eu countries have a threshold of how much you can pay in cash, and it works just fine. No one is missing hospital treatment because of it and even illiterate folks can use banks and open accounts.

Well, tell that to Russian war emigrants. Opening bank account in EU for non-residents is a hard endeavor right now. Those who did it before the hot part of war started in February often finding their accounts frozen and literally were unable to receive their paychecks.

Re: EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments

#649

Post by epolanski » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:42 AM UTC

eddsh1994 wrote: post #206

I know someone in England who paid for their houses construction by going to an ATM and maxing out the cash withdrawal per card, putting the cash in a bin bag, and giving it to the builders on a daily basis. I don't believe it'd be realistically possible to stop this from occurring.

And the builders and your friend loved to not pay any tax this way.

Yet another example why cash has to be limited as much as possible.

Re: EU-wide maximum limit of €10K for cash payments

#650

Post by SergeAx » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:45 AM UTC

Teandw wrote: post #386

olivermarks wrote: post #253

'By limiting large cash payments, the EU will make it harder for criminals to launder dirty money. ' Bizarre how the EU is penalizing everyone in order to 'make it harder for criminals to launder dirty money'. People pay taxes in order to have their bureaucrats serve them by creating a safe financial and social environment, not to have them assume everyone is a criminal/terrorist and greatly impede access to their as…

"Bizarre how the EU is penalizing everyone in order to 'make it harder for criminals to launder dirty money'." This likely affects a number of people that is so small, that it's irrelevant. Not sure it makes sense to say that such a law that effects a tiny number of individuals is penalizing everyone.

> This likely affects a number of people that is so small, that it's irrelevant

We as society are spending literally billions to make our cities and infrastructure accessible for people with disabilities. Their number also very small, but we decided it is well relevant.