Try paying cash for something costing more than 10k USD. Things get hairy pretty quickly.
[edit]And if your bank has no issues with that, then I'd love to know what bank it is. Mine was pretty sketchy about moving more than 3k at once per day.[/edit]
Technically, it just means extra paperwork. Tell their compliance department to hop to it.
Just because it's uncommon, doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. In fact, the justification for these types of controls is normal people don't do those type of transactions.
Think about that carefully, and you'll start to smell the rat decaying under the floor. In a way, the system is architecting itself to keep the fiscal freedom of the populace low to catch outliers that may just be criminals.
I've just never been able to convince myself that there isn't some economic reality shaping going on there that people don't feel comfortable either talking about or admitting. If I can't easily do a transaction, but that transaction would be an example of good business that everyone wins from; I'd possibly be dissuaded from even trying.
That seems counter to incentivizing good business to facilitate economic mobility.
I do not see how anyone can say it is difficult to comply with this, regardless of the issue of whether or not it should or should not be required.
If there is any part of the system that is designed against lower socioeconomic classes, it is law enforcement (and TSA) being able to seize cash for no reason (civil asset forfeiture). But that has nothing to do with banks or the IRS.
I mainly use BoA, but while I have not had to withdraw or deposit $10k in paper cash in some time, as far as I know, the law requires you to fill out a form.
But I wire much larger amounts of cash all the time online for real estate transactions, and I generally do not even have to talk to someone at the bank. I can do it all online.
Edit: I have not needed to send $3k via Zelle yet, but according to BoA’s website, $3,500 in 24 hour time period should not be a problem:
[edit]And if your bank has no issues with that, then I'd love to know what bank it is. Mine was pretty sketchy about moving more than 3k at once per day.[/edit]