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The Treasury Department announced today (5/21/21) that transfers of $10,000 USD or more to/from crypto accounts will have to be reported to the IRS, following the old pattern of requiring reporting of $10,000 or more in cash transactions. The announcement doesn't say when this will start, but it will likely be very soon.

Does anyone think (based on what's out there) that this could be interpreted to apply to cumulative totals, rather than single-transaction events? In other words, if I transfer a total of $10k over some short time period (say a week), is it likely they will expect that to be reported, even though no single transaction crossed the threshold?

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    I don't think speculation over the details of a pending regulation is really on-topic.
    – chepner
    May 20 at 17:35
  • My thoughts are "who cares," generally. IIRC when the IRS got an order against coinbase to turn over customer records it was for $25k total transactions in a year. I don't know if that still persists each year. I suspect this is just the same $10k anti money laundering thing which is $10k or any suspicious or unusual activity.
    – quid
    May 20 at 17:45
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As a comparative, performing cash transactions under 10k, with the intent to move larger balances without reporting them, is called 'structuring', and is generally viewed more seriously than just wiring 20k in the first place, as it indicates intent to break the law.

I presume similar principles will be used in considering these new rules about funds from crypto exchanges.

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    This is so important. Plenty of folks out there think it's smart to make repeated $9k transfers, often for the most inane reasons. You just upgraded from "minor tax evasion" to "structuring."
    – Orange Coast- reinstate Monica
    May 20 at 17:23
  • That being the case, it creates one heck of a compliance issue for exchanges that aren't set up to do this if they assumed it would never happen (although that seems kinda stupid, really). Too much money is sloshing around the crypto markets for governments to ignore it.
    – RiverNet
    May 20 at 17:27

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