Legitimate reason to have a pile of cash #0: Because I want to.
Innocent until _proven_ guilty. It is not "could be guilty until you prove your innocence" nor is it "assumed guilty just because it fits a narrative" and nor is it "guilty because that is something other people who turned out to be guilty also did"
Stockpiling cash isn't a crime and unless it reached ludicrous proportions like a 25 year old barista having $5 million in a safety deposit box then burden of proof should lie on the government obviously people would have records they paid taxes on said amount surely though.
My understanding of the US legal system (I'm British) is that stockpiling cash isn't a crime, irrespective of the amount.
Sure, sleeping on a mattress made of $100 bills might raise suspicion.. but that's still not a crime. If the government suspect you haven't paid your taxes, the burden is still on them to prove you didn't pay your taxes. If they have any evidence to bring this to a court, it would need to pass the threshold of actually being evidence of absent tax payments, it is not enough to say "They are sleeping on a bed of benjamins, your honor."
I'm well aware this is ignoring how hilariously broken actual legal proceedings are, of course, thus scenarios like the one that started this thread.
Innocent until _proven_ guilty. It is not "could be guilty until you prove your innocence" nor is it "assumed guilty just because it fits a narrative" and nor is it "guilty because that is something other people who turned out to be guilty also did"