Firms that receive over $10,000 in cash from a customer must file Form 8300. These include casinos, car dealers, pawn shops and other types of businesses that tend to take in large amounts of cash. Banks that receive large cash deposits file FinCEN Form 112. These filings help IRS sniff out unreported income of the payers.
Businesses that don’t file accurate Forms 8300 can face large penalties… $340 per 8300 for inadvertent slip-ups or $60 for errors fixed within 30 days. The penalty is much higher for businesses that intentionally disregard the rules.
IRS has a reference guide that instructs firms on their 8300 filing obligation. Reporting is required not only when a customer pays over $10,000 cash at one time, but also for multiple cash payments within 24 hours that total more than $10,000. Note that cash doesn’t include personal checks or funds transmitted from a bank. Filings by the business are due within 15 days of receiving the cash.
There is also a key recordkeeping rule: The business must retain a copy of each Form 8300 it files, along with any supporting documents and statements that it sends to customers, for a mandatory five years from the date of the filing. E-filing is required for firms required to file at least 10 information returns, other than the 8300, during a year. Otherwise, filers can e-file or mail in the form.
A company lacks reasonable cause for its failure to timely file Form 8300… So it must pay penalties assessed by IRS, the Tax Court rules. The business sells cars through an auction house and regularly receives cash payments from buyers, with some payments exceeding $10,000. The firm uses software to help it determine whether and when it should file Form 8300. On audit, IRS determined that the firm filed 266 fewer Forms 8300 than it should have, and IRS assessed delinquency fines. The firm argued it shouldn’t be hit with penalties, claiming it had reasonable cause for failing to file all the required Forms 8300. It argued that software malfunctions outside its control led to the nonfiling. The Tax Court sided with IRS, saying the firm didn’t prove that the software failed to perform as intended, and it didn’t have controls to identify noncompliance (Dealers Auto Auction of Southwest, TC Memo. 2025-38).