If someone gives me cash legally, can my deposit trigger an audit for them?
Am I right to worry about both of these? Of course. Who carries $75K in cash for no good reason? Your friend got the cash from somewhere, didn't he? If its legit - there's paper trail to show. Same for your parents. If you/they can show the legit paper trail - there's nothing to worry about, the hassle, at worse, is a couple of letters to the IRS. If the money is not legit (your friend is selling crack to the kids in the hood and your parents robbed a 7/11 to give you the money, for example) - there may be problems. "Yes you should worry and take care not to violate the law or provide any appearance of impropriety.   Every bank in the USA is required under the Bank Secrecy Act to report cash transactions over $10,000 the same day to the IRS -- and here's the fun secret part -- without notification to the depositor.   But splitting the deposits up into smaller amounts is also a crime, called ""structuring"".   On occasion there is a news story where a retail business that naturally must deposit cash from customers will be (falsely?) accused of structuring, e.g.:  Feds seize grocery store's entire bank account -- Institute for Justice defends grocer Under the legal doctrine of civil asset forfeiture, your money can be accused of a crime, seized, and tried separately from its owner.  The actual cases indicate the money as defendant, i.e. ""US v $124,700"" In this somewhat bizarre system of ""justice"", the owner need not be charged with a crime, and is not in immediate peril of going to prison (about the only upside in this, but might be temporary because the authorities haven't charged the owner yet).  When only the money is charged with a crime, there is no requirement for the government to supply a public defender for the owners who can not afford a lawyer.... can not afford a lawyer, because the government took all their money...." In the event of an audit, you AND your friends need to have already reported the cash the same way in previous tax filings. Even differences between legitimate sources can result in civil and criminal sanctions from the IRS, let alone questionable, dubious and illegal sources. Why would you even accept 75K in cash? If anything is going to trigger an audit, this will be it. 75K in cash deposited will look like money laundring, so you better have a paper trail ready to prove this is legal or this won't end well.
There are good reasons to not go the cash route here (see Jay's answer). If one insists however, at 30 k€ anti-money laundering regulations have to be considered (and are not mentioned by the existing answers so far). Depositing amounts larger than 10 k€ will trigger questions about the source of the money to fight tax evasion and organized crime (splitting the amount may still trigger the process). So prepare good proof concerning the origin of that money and a paper trail that shows it is legal money and that it has been taxed already.  I.e. the latest Anti-Money Laundering Directive is supposed to be implemented by national laws, thus including Spain. The European Union Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive is the most sweeping AML legislation in Europe in several years. On 25 June 2015, the EU Fourth Directive was enacted, which replaces the previous Third Directive. With a two-year window for implementation, all EU member states must be compliant with the new mandates by 26 June 2017. Source They cannot refuse to accept coins and demand some other payment after providing a good or service.  Legal tender is legal tender for all debts.  But until they provide the good or service, they don't have to accept it.   In this case, you want the service of depositing money.  But by its nature, they have to accept the payment first.  In that situation, they can refuse it.  There is no law that banks have to accept your deposits.  If they don't want you as a customer, that's their problem.   Consider switching banks.  Historically this was easier and some banks may still do things the old way.  Call your local banks and ask.  Perhaps you'll find someone happy to do business with you, on your terms.   As already said, some coin rolling machines will pay you with gift certificates.  If you plan to buy a sufficient amount from the place that accepts the gift certificate, this can get that place to play the fee.  That may help you, although it is obviously a limited solution.  The goal is to make it so that you only make purchases that you would have anyway.  The seller obviously has a different goal.   It's possible to buy coin sorters.  Heck, you could buy one with a gift certificate from a public machine.  Cheap ones require extra work to get the coins rolled and may jam a lot.  More expensive ones do more of the work for you.  Note that a given sorter that works better may be cheaper than another that doesn't work as well.  Cheap is more of a qualitative judgment than a financial measure in this case.   If you carry a small amount of change with you, pretty much everywhere accepts small amounts of change for purchases.  So if you have been always paying with dollars and dumping the change in a jar, instead always give the correct change (coins).  They may still give you dollars in change, but at least you won't get new coins.  And you'll use some of your existing coins.  Of course, this doesn't scale well.   For small purchases, say $1.50, you can often pay the whole thing in change without argument.  Or if something is $18.50, you might give them $10, $5, two $1 bills, and the rest in change.   If you are buying something and can see that they have little change in one of the coin buckets, offer to swap some change for bills.  Sometimes places find that easier than breaking a roll.   With vending machines, use change instead of dollar bills.  Especially use exact change so as not to convert bills to change.  They usually don't take pennies, but they're great with nickels and above.   This won't allow you to use change as a way to force yourself to save.  But it will keep your change down to a manageable level going forward.  And you might be able to use up your existing store.  I'm assuming that this isn't a fifty year coin collection that you are just now starting to process.  But if you have six months of change, you should be able to use it up in a year or so.   I tend to do this.  So I rarely have more than a couple dollars in change.  No one ever tells me that they don't take change, because I don't give anyone a lot.  Maybe $.99 here but more likely $.43 there.  Sometimes I give them, e.g., $.07 so as to get $.25 in change rather than $.18.   It's a little more work at every transaction, but it saves the big clump of work of rolling the coins.  And you don't have to buy wrappers. I am not going to discuss legality, because with family members you are able to give a lot of guidance and assistance without running into legal issues.  The biggest problem is that when they transfer the funds to you and you invest the money, all the tax rates and tax limits are determined by your situation; plus you have more investments than you should have so you hit those limits and brackets quicker. For example: In the United states a person can put $5,500 or $6,500 into a IRA or Roth IRA each year. If you combine the funds for three with your funds then you are giving up three quarters of the amount that you can invest in that type of account. The decision regarding Roth or not depends on age and income level. But now their decision is related to what is best based on your situation. The ability to even deduct IRA deposits would be based on your situation. Of course for taxable accounts the tax rate is determined by your income, not theirs. If they want you to have the ability to make investment decisions for them, then power of attorney is the way to go. The money is deposited in their name, and all the rules and tax rates are determined by their situation. You make sure they have all the information they need to login and review the accounts, but you make the all the moves within and between accounts. "&gt; Because something is legal doesn't make it the ethical choice.  &gt; &gt; You fail to demonstrate what is unethical about minimizing tax burdens.  Operating in a country that allows you to make profit, in my opinion, establishes a duty to pay one's fair share of taxes.  Paying legislators to make laws enabling tax avoidance is, in my mind, unethical.  Clearly we have a different idea of what is ethical and not. &gt; corporations making huge profits using the infrastructure of the region  &gt; &gt;Did the corporations have an option to refuse using that infrastructure, and instead provide their own or work with others to develop a competing infrastructure?  Yes.   &gt; Keep in mind that these favorable tax laws were lobbied by  corporations with the intent to avoid taxes in mind.  &gt;&gt;You have failed to support any argument that there is anything wrong with minimizing tax burden.  That's like your opinion man.  I don't think minimizing taxes by paying off legislators is equitable...call me crazy.  &gt;If I'm walking behind someone and they happen to drop a $100 bill without noticing, I can certainly pick it up and put it in my pocket legally, but its hardly the moral thing to do.  &gt;&gt;A more relevant example is if I order a pizza, have it sent to your house, then show up later with a bill for the pizza and my costs to send it to you, demanding you pay it. You never asked for the pizza, maybe you didn't want the pizza, maybe you didn't eat the pizza, maybe you don't like pizza, or don't like that kind of pizza. That I choose to send you a pizza does not obligate you to pay for that pizza.  Lost me on this one bro...I thought we were talking ethics...not surprise pizzas.  How about this one:   I go to your house, use your kitchen and ingredients to make a pizza, sell the pizza for a profit and give you nothing even though we had an agreement that if I could make a profit I would give you some.  However, I decide to talk to your roommate and give him a measly dollar to say ""forget about it bro...I said it's cool""." "If the answer were ""no,"" you still found the 'black swan' type exception that proves the answer to be ""yes,"" right? My experience is this - again just my experience, my bank - When by balance goes below $10, I have the account trigger an email. I wrote a check I forgot to register and subtract, so the email was sent and the account balance in fact showed negative. I transferred to cover the check and the next day, there was a history that didn't go negative, the evening deposit was credited prior to check clearing.  I set up my bills on line. I set a transfer in advance for the same dollar amount as a bill that was due, e.g. $1000 transfer for a $1000 bill. I woke up to an email, and the account showed the bill was paid prior to the transfer. So one line showed going -$900, and the next line +$100 after transfer. Even though it's the same online process. Again, the next day the history re-ordered to look like I was never negative. But even on a day I know I'm having payments issued, I can never just ignore that email.  The first time this happened, I asked the bank, and they said if the negative went until the next day, I'd get an overdraft/short balance notice.  This is a situation to ask your bank how they handle this." As far as I know (I am not a tax professional or IFA!) there would be no tax implications or other burden on the recipient of the loan under UK law, even if it ended up being treated as a gift rather than a loan. There are no clauses about money being in the account for 90 days in UK housing transactions, however under money laundering rules your brother's solicitor might need sight of loan agreements to verify where the funds came from (I think it would depend on whether you paid the money to your brother direct, in which case there would be no problem, or if you paid it direct to the solicitor for the purchase). What Canadian law might say about capital gains / inheritance tax (if the Canadian IRS did decide the loan counted as a gift) I have no idea. Sure; you can deposit cash. A few notes apply: Does the source of cash need to be declared ? If you deposit more than $10,000 in cash or other negotiable instruments, you'll be asked to complete a form called a Currency Transaction Report (here's the US Government's guidance for consumers about this form). There's some very important information in that guidance document about structuring, which is a fairly serious crime that you can commit if you break up your deposits to avoid reporting. Don't do this. The linked document gives examples. Also don't refuse to make your deposit and walk away when presented with a CTR form.  In addition, you are also required to report to Customs and Border Protection when you bring more than $10,000 in or out of the country. If you are caught not doing so, the money may be seized and you could be prosecuted criminally. Many countries have similar requirements, often with different dollar amounts, so it's important to make sure you comply with their laws as well. The information from this reporting goes to the government and is used to enforce finance and tax laws, but there's nothing wrong or illegal about depositing cash as long as you don't evade the reporting requirements. You will not need to declare precisely where the cash comes from, but they will want the information required on the forms.  Is it taxable ? Simply depositing cash into your bank account is not taxable. Receiving some forms of income, whether as cash or a bank deposit, is taxable. If you seem to have a large amount of unexplained cash income, it is possible an IRS audit will want an explanation from you as to where it comes from and why it isn't taxable.  In short, if the income was taxable, you should have paid taxes on it whether or not you deposit it in a bank account. What is the limit of the deposit ? There is no government limit. An individual bank may have their own limit and/or may charge a fee for larger deposits. You could always call the bank and ask. It all depends on the trust level you have in them handling it correctly. If they never deposit it, it doesn't matter what happens to the check, they could frame it and hang it on the wall. The risk is that someone someday deposits it (incorrectly double-charging you), and you need to do what think is appropriate to avoid this risk. If your trust in them is too small, only sending it back to you makes sure that you physically control the check.