Paying Cash for Gold Over $10,000? What Form 8300 Means, and Why Splitting Payments Is a Crime

Buying gold or silver with cash is legal. Federal law doesn't cap how much cash you can spend on metal, and it doesn't treat a cash buyer as a suspect. What it does is require the business that takes a large cash payment to report it.

That report is Form 8300, often called "the $10,000 rule." The real rule is more specific, and the details matter for coins and bullion: "cash" is broader in a metals purchase than in many others, separate payments can be added together, and trying to keep a purchase under the line is itself a federal crime.

This article explains the rule as written in the statute, the Treasury regulations, and the IRS's own Form 8300 reference guide (last updated July 27, 2026). It is general education, not tax or legal advice. It covers the buying side. For what dealers report when you sell metal, see our guides to Form 1099-B and precious metals reporting and the 2026 IRS correction to the 1099-B instructions.

What Form 8300 is, and where the rule comes from

Form 8300, "Report of Cash Payments Over $10,000 Received in a Trade or Business," is a joint IRS and FinCEN form. It satisfies two parallel statutes:

• 26 U.S.C. § 6050I, in the Internal Revenue Code, requires any person engaged in a trade or business who receives more than $10,000 in cash in one transaction, or in two or more related transactions, to file a return.
• 31 U.S.C. § 5331, part of the Bank Secrecy Act, imposes a parallel report for nonfinancial trades or businesses that receive more than $10,000 in coins or currency.

The detailed rules are in the Treasury regulation at 26 C.F.R. § 1.6050I-1. FinCEN's regulation at 31 C.F.R. § 1010.330 points to that same IRS regulation and the same form.

Three features of the threshold are worth getting exactly right:

• "More than $10,000." A payment of exactly $10,000 doesn't cross the line. One dollar more does.
• The dealer files, not you. The obligation falls on the business that receives the cash.
• It applies to a trade or business. The IRS guide gives the example of an individual who sells his own car for $11,000 in cash. He isn't in the business of selling cars, so he has no filing obligation. A private sale between two collectors works the same way. A coin shop or bullion dealer is in the business, so it does.

The IRS describes the purpose plainly: the information "assists law enforcement in its anti-money laundering efforts" and gives authorities an audit trail. Form 8300 is an information report. It isn't a tax bill, and a dealer filing one isn't an accusation.

What counts as "cash" when you buy coins or bullion

This is where metals purchases differ from many everyday transactions.

Currency always counts. Under the regulation, cash includes the coin and currency of the United States or of any other country.

Certain monetary instruments also count. A cashier's check (including a treasurer's check or bank check), bank draft, traveler's check, or money order with a face amount of $10,000 or less is treated as cash if it is received in a designated reporting transaction, or in any transaction where the business knows the instrument is being used to try to avoid the report.

A coin or bullion purchase is usually a designated reporting transaction. The regulation defines a designated reporting transaction as a retail sale of a consumer durable, a collectible, or a travel or entertainment activity. "Collectible" is defined by reference to the Internal Revenue Code's list in § 408(m)(2), which includes any metal, gem, stamp, or coin, and the regulation applies that list without the IRA bullion exception in § 408(m)(3). So for Form 8300 purposes, a bullion bar or coin is a collectible even if it would be IRA-eligible.

"Retail sale" has its own definition: a sale made in the course of a trade or business that principally consists of making sales to ultimate consumers. A typical coin shop or retail bullion dealer fits that description.

The regulation includes an example that could have been written for this site. A buyer purchases gold coins from a coin dealer for $13,200, paying $6,200 in currency and a $7,000 cashier's check. Because the sale is a designated reporting transaction, the cashier's check is treated as cash, the dealer has received more than $10,000 in cash, and the dealer must file.

What generally doesn't count as cash:

• A personal check drawn on the writer's own account.
• A cashier's check, bank draft, traveler's check, or money order with a face amount of more than $10,000. (The bank that issued it has its own reporting rules if it was bought with currency. The IRS guide notes that a financial institution issuing such an instrument for more than $10,000 in currency files a Currency Transaction Report.)
• A wire or other transfer of funds from a financial institution.

The regulation also has narrow exceptions, such as an instrument that represents the proceeds of a bank loan, or one received under certain installment or down-payment plans the business uses in the ordinary course. The IRS guide lists them.

When separate payments add up

A purchase can't be made "smaller" by dividing it. The rules aggregate in three ways.

Related transactions within 24 hours. Under the regulation, transactions between the same payer (or the payer's agent) and the same business within a 24-hour period are related. The IRS guide stresses that this means 24 hours, not a calendar day or a banking day.

Related transactions over a longer period. Transactions more than 24 hours apart are still related if the business "knows or has reason to know" that each is one of a series of connected transactions. The regulation's own example involves a coin dealer: a customer buys $9,000 of gold coins for cash on three successive days. If the dealer knows or has reason to know the purchases are connected, they are related transactions totaling $27,000.

One transaction is one transaction. The regulation says a transaction "may not be divided into multiple transactions in order to avoid reporting." Its example is a person with a tacit agreement to buy $36,000 of gold bullion from a dealer. That's a single transaction, and recasting it as four $9,000 sales doesn't change the reporting.

Installment payments and the 12-month count. If a single purchase is paid for in cash installments, the business adds the first payment and later payments received within one year of it. When the total exceeds $10,000, the business must file within 15 days of the payment that pushed it over. After filing, a new count begins. If more than $10,000 in additional cash payments arrives within a 12-month period, the business must file again.

What the dealer must do, and what you'll receive

When a dealer is required to file, the IRS guide and the regulation set out the following:

• Collect your identifying information, including your taxpayer identification number (usually your Social Security number). If a buyer refuses, the IRS guide tells the business to note "customer refused" on the form and encourages businesses to document the attempt.
• File within 15 days after receiving the cash. If the 15th day falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day. Many businesses must file electronically through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System.
• Give you a written statement by January 31 of the year after the year of the cash payment. The statement must include the business's name and address, a contact person and phone number, the total reportable cash received from you in the 12-month period, and a statement that the information is being furnished to the IRS. A dealer may use its invoice as the statement if the invoice includes all the required items.
• Keep records of each Form 8300, supporting documents, and the customer statement for at least five years.

That January notice is a legal requirement, not a sign that anything is wrong.

The "suspicious transaction" box

Form 8300 has a box a business can check to flag a transaction as suspicious. The IRS guide describes a transaction as suspicious if it appears a person is trying to prevent the business from filing, trying to cause a false or incomplete filing, or if there is a sign of possible illegal activity.

Two consequences follow:

• A business may file voluntarily below the threshold. The IRS guide says a business may file a Form 8300 for a transaction of $10,000 or less if it's suspicious. Staying at or under $10,000 doesn't guarantee that no form is filed.
• Suspicious filings are confidential. The written-statement requirement doesn't apply to voluntary filings, and the IRS guide states that under no circumstances should the parties be made aware of a Form 8300 marked suspicious.

Structuring: the crime is in the purpose

"Structuring" means arranging cash transactions to keep a business (or a bank) from filing a required report. The IRS guide defines it as "breaking up a large cash transaction into small cash transactions to disguise the true amount of cash involved in the transaction."

Two federal statutes prohibit it in the Form 8300 context:

• 31 U.S.C. § 5324(b) says no person shall, for the purpose of evading the reporting requirements of § 5331, cause or attempt to cause a nonfinancial trade or business to fail to file a required report, cause or attempt to cause it to file a report with a material omission or misstatement, or "structure or assist in structuring, or attempt to structure or assist in structuring, any transaction with 1 or more nonfinancial trades or businesses."
• 26 U.S.C. § 6050I(f) contains a parallel prohibition for the tax-code version of the report, and provides that a violator is subject to the same civil and criminal sanctions that apply to a person who fails to file or files an incorrect return.

A few points about how these statutes are written:

• The offense is defined by purpose. The text turns on acting "for the purpose of evading" the reporting requirement. Nothing in it requires that the money itself come from a crime. Lawfully earned savings can be the subject of a structuring charge.
• It reaches more than one business. Section 5324(b)(3) covers transactions "with 1 or more nonfinancial trades or businesses," so spreading purchases among several dealers is covered by the text.
• It reaches the helper. "Assist in structuring" applies to anyone who helps, which includes a dealer or salesperson who suggests or arranges the split.
• It applies to attempts. The statute covers attempts to structure, not only completed ones.
• The bank side has its own rule. Section 5324(a) separately prohibits structuring transactions with financial institutions to evade the Currency Transaction Report, which a bank files for a transaction in currency of more than $10,000 under 31 C.F.R. § 1010.311. Withdrawing cash from a bank in pieces to avoid that report is a separate structuring problem before the dealer is even involved.

Penalties. Under § 5324(d), a violation is punishable by a fine, imprisonment for not more than five years, or both. The maximum rises to ten years for a violation committed while violating another federal law, or as part of a pattern of any illegal activity involving more than $100,000 in a 12-month period. Civil penalties for the business's own failures to file, or to furnish the customer statement, are set by Internal Revenue Code §§ 6721 and 6722 and adjusted for inflation; the IRS guide lists them by year.

What this means at the counter

Without turning the law into a how-to, here's what the rules mean for an ordinary buyer:

• If you pay more than $10,000 in cash, the dealer will file. That's the dealer following federal law. Expect to provide identification and a taxpayer ID, and expect a written notice by January 31.
• Don't ask a dealer to split a purchase, and don't agree if one offers. A dealer who suggests ringing up one purchase as two, spreading it across days, or sending you to a sister location is describing conduct the statute covers, for both of you.
• Don't misstate the facts. Causing a business to file a report with a material omission or misstatement is a separate prohibited act under § 5324(b)(2).
• Keep your own records. Your invoices and the January statement document your cost basis, which matters when you eventually sell. See our capital gains tax guide for gold and silver.

A Form 8300 filing is routine. The legal risk in this area comes almost entirely from trying to avoid one.

For questions about a specific transaction, talk with a tax professional or attorney. To find dealers by location, see our dealer directory.