Would you turn it in?

[NorthCyd]

No I’m saying it’s easy to tell who the owner of the car is so no I’m not taking it. Money with no identifiable feature is fair game.

I dropped $50 I had just taken out of the ATM a couple years ago and I couldn’t find it. The person who picked that up off the ground didn’t steal it from me unless they saw me drop and could have been able to give it back to me.

Did you not read the op? We're not talking about $50, or even a couple hundred bucks in an unmarked envelope. The people found a million dollars in bags that had identifiable features. Something that if you got caught trying to keep it would be a major crime.

 

[3TrueFans]

The money is not stolen, it's found, that is a big difference. The main difference is you are not paying income tax on it. You only hear about the people once they are caught, many never are, that is important to understand. Businesses make cash deposits every night, nothing suspicious about it. My wife used to work for our local city, when utilities came do, it was nothing to take $15,000 to $20,000 up to the bank to deposit, more than half in cash. The fake business is used to launder the money, you really think any bank is going to notice a business that is depositing $25,000 over a year and call the feds? You are still paying with cash for as much as you can.
Sure I am filing tax returns on my mowing business and taking every deduction I can get. Hell, I know people that start businesses just to write crap off and never plan to make money from it. Its not any different than a farmer or a trucker, they are writing off everything they can.

It's stealing if you just take it and make no efforts to return it, probably doesn't matter if it's $20 you find, matters a bit more if it's a million. If I find a bike on the sidewalk I don't just get to keep it because the owner isn't around.

The internet tells me that large amounts of cash deposits is often a trigger for IRS audits of small businesses. Then you get to try to explain how you don't have any invoices for jobs you do, how you work another full time job while doing this job, how you have no expenses, no equipment bought, etc.

 

[FerShizzle]

Turn it in to who?

 

[simply1]

I’d move to the Ozarks and buy a strip cub.

 

[FerShizzle]

I’m buying gas and groceries with cash for the rest of my life.

 

[simply1]

I’m buying gas and groceries with cash for the rest of my life.

And then the marked bills show up and there you are on video!

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

It's stealing if you just take it and make no efforts to return it, probably doesn't matter if it's $20 you find, matters a bit more if it's a million. If I find a bike on the sidewalk I don't just get to keep it because the owner isn't around.

The internet tells me that large amounts of cash deposits is often a trigger for IRS audits of small businesses. Then you get to try to explain how you don't have any invoices for jobs you do, how you work another full time job while doing this job, how you have no expenses, no equipment bought, etc.

Again, define a large amount of cash, I am not talking $300,000, I am talking like $25,000 to $30,000 a year to each bank. The goal being to get 30% to 40% percent of the money in the bank, the rest I am using by paying for as much as I can in cash. Go out drinking tonight, start a tab, and then pay it all off in cash. Stay at a hotel, put the charge on the card, then pay if off in cash when I check out. I am retired, but I know a couple of teachers that mow in their off hours and during the summer. Its not nearly has hard to work for cash, people drawing unemployment do it all the time.

This is not a bike sitting in front of a house on the sidewalk, this is a bag of money laying in the middle of the road, people are dodging it to avoid it.

 

[isucy86]

I hope I would return. But I am pretty comfortable with my life.

After reading the article under those circumstances (the bills were packaged), not sure the people had a choice. Just a guess, but the bills were probably traceable and probably difficult to spend without coming to someone's attention.

I didn't see in the article how long the bills were on the highway. Banks might want to reconsider having the USPS transport cash. I am assuming the bills "fell out" of a semi-truck vs. local delivery truck. I have a tough timing believing $1M could just fall out of a truck in the middle of no where. Sounds like an inside job. I am watching the Soprano's on TV

 

[3TrueFans]

Again, define a large amount of cash, I am not talking $300,000, I am talking like $25,000 to $30,000 a year to each bank. The goal being to get 30% to 40% percent of the money in the bank, the rest I am using by paying for as much as I can in cash. Go out drinking tonight, start a tab, and then pay it all off in cash. Stay at a hotel, put the charge on the card, then pay if off in cash when I check out. I am retired, but I know a couple of teachers that mow in their off hours and during the summer. Its not nearly has hard to work for cash, people drawing unemployment do it all the time.

This is not a bike sitting in front of a house on the sidewalk, this is a bag of money laying in the middle of the road, people are dodging it to avoid it.

Large as in number of deposits. If your small business with $60-100k in revenue was all cash deposits the IRS may end up wanting to look at your records.

I don't know where this idea came from that if you find something and you don't know whose it is then it's automatically yours.

If you report it to the police and the owner doesn't claim it you probably get like $750k after taxes that you can actually spend, rather than a million that you have to commit various forms of fraud to keep.

 

[3TrueFans]

Turn it in to who?

The popo

 

[mkadl]

If this actually happens to any of you then contact me and I will help you launder it.............................................For a small fee.

So your moving to the Ozarks?

 

[CyCrazy]

Hell no.

 

[Yellow Snow]

And then the marked bills show up and there you are on video!

Laundering money isn't as complicated as some of you seem to believe. Just saying....

 

[FerShizzle]

And then the marked bills show up and there you are on video!

Fine. Then I am having tacos at the local cash only taco truck all day, everyday.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

Large as in number of deposits. If your small business with $60-100k in revenue was all cash deposits the IRS may end up wanting to look at your records.

I don't know where this idea came from that if you find something and you don't know whose it is then it's automatically yours.

If you report it to the police and the owner doesn't claim it you probably get like $750k after taxes that you can actually spend, rather than a million that you have to commit various forms of fraud to keep.

But like I said, I am not putting 60 to 100K in a year, I am talking $25 to $30K. How hard would it to be to go to Des Moines and walk in to 10 Wal Marts, Targets and other stores and purchase $500 dollar Visa gift cards, not difficult at all. Go to Casey's and Kum and Go and purchase $200 dollar charge card from them. Not difficult at all. The goal would be to use say 40 to 50 grand a year, either through the bank, paying cash or with Visa gift cards, all paid for with cash that you found.

In the case we are talking about, the owners did claim it, if they hadn't taxes would eat about a third, so instead of clearing $750K you are clearing around $650K.

 

[3TrueFans]

But like I said, I am not putting 60 to 100K in a year, I am talking $25 to $30K. How hard would it to be to go to Des Moines and walk in to 10 Wal Marts, Targets and other stores and purchase $500 dollar Visa gift cards, not difficult at all. Go to Casey's and Kum and Go and purchase $200 dollar charge card from them. Not difficult at all. The goal would be to use say 40 to 50 grand a year, either through the bank, paying cash or with Visa gift cards, all paid for with cash that you found.

In the case we are talking about, the owners did claim it, if they hadn't taxes would eat about a third, so instead of clearing $750K you are clearing around $650K.

That definitely sounds like a better way to do it than depositing it in the bank.

 

[clonedude]

I’m too paranoid to keep it. I’d be worried it was a set up and there was a hidden camera recording me taking it.

Or the bills were all marked somehow.

Somehow…. I’d get screwed and end up in prison, or more likely dead.

 

[BCClone]

Not really, you are using the home business to show a place where you got income from. Have a relative or two that you give them $600 cash and they write you a check for $500 and then deposit it.
You are not depositing the same amount each week, you are breaking it up. Go back to my mowing yards, you deposit $800 one week in a couple of banks. Make small talk about what a great week you had, then next week you deposit $250 in each bank, slow mowing week with lots of rain.
Banks only report you if you are depositing $10,000 or over, keep the deposits small always less than $800 to $1000 and do it every now and then, its not going to be a problem at all.

That belief is what trips up several people.

 

[BCClone]

Again, define a large amount of cash, I am not talking $300,000, I am talking like $25,000 to $30,000 a year to each bank. The goal being to get 30% to 40% percent of the money in the bank, the rest I am using by paying for as much as I can in cash. Go out drinking tonight, start a tab, and then pay it all off in cash. Stay at a hotel, put the charge on the card, then pay if off in cash when I check out. I am retired, but I know a couple of teachers that mow in their off hours and during the summer. Its not nearly has hard to work for cash, people drawing unemployment do it all the time.

This is not a bike sitting in front of a house on the sidewalk, this is a bag of money laying in the middle of the road, people are dodging it to avoid it.

The meal/bar tab is a sticky spot also. If you do it at a busy place, they have to report their deposits, and could be checked on where the cash came from. So if you do that, best to not have a large tab and be paying as you go, because now you have to have a card on file if you want a tab. If you do it at a small spot, it will talked about the guy who had a 500-1000 tab. So you need to find a semi busy place but not one that will deal with major cash deposits.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

The meal/bar tab is a sticky spot also. If you do it at a busy place, they have to report their deposits, and could be checked on where the cash came from. So if you do that, best to not have a large tab and be paying as you go, because now you have to have a card on file if you want a tab. If you do it at a small spot, it will talked about the guy who had a 500-1000 tab. So you need to find a semi busy place but not one that will deal with major cash deposits.

You are paying the tab after every visit, using the prepaid card to open the tab, and then pay with cash when you are finished for the night. Remember you are not trying to move large amounts of money all at once. Small amounts done over say 5 to 10 years, few if anyone would be caught.
Prepaid Visa gift cards have no record of who purchased them, so there would be nothing to trace, much like Casey's cards, you fill out no forms, just give them the cash and they program it to the cards.