What exactly does IRS Form 8300 require precious‑metals dealers to report and how are “related transactions” defined?

1. What the dealer must report: amount and the trigger

The statutory trigger for filing Form 8300 is receipt of over $10,000 in cash in a single transaction or in related transactions; that threshold applies to businesses generally and explicitly to dealers in collectibles, coins and metals ^{[2] [3]}. The IRS and FinCEN require that Form 8300 be filed within 15 days of the reportable cash receipt, and the filer must retain a copy for five years and provide a written statement to the customer by January 31 of the following year ^[1].

2. What “cash” means for these rules

“Cash” for Form 8300 purposes goes beyond loose currency: it includes U.S. and foreign currency, cashier’s checks, money orders and traveler's checks when used in an effort to avoid reporting, and certain monetary instruments are aggregated toward the $10,000 test ^{[3] [2]}. By contrast, non‑cash payments such as bank wires, personal checks, credit cards or ACH are generally not treated as cash for the Form 8300 trigger, per IRS guidance examples ^[3].

3. How “related transactions” are defined and applied

Transactions are “related” when they are part of a single purchase or a series of connected transactions or when the recipient knows, or has reason to know, that separate payments are one of a series of connected payments — for example, two cash payments made on different days that together exceed $10,000 ^{[4] [3]}. The IRS guidance highlights both temporal proximity (commonly cited as within 24 hours in dealer guidance) and the dealer’s knowledge or reason to know about the common motive or single agreement linking payments ^{[5] [6] [7]}.

4. Information dealers must collect and the legal purpose

When filing Form 8300 dealers must report customer identification and transaction data — typically the payer’s name, SSN, contact information and aggregate amount received — information the IRS and FinCEN use to combat money laundering and other illicit finance ^{[4] [2]}. The form’s purpose is cash‑movement transparency, not to single out ownership of a specific commodity: multiple industry sources emphasize that it is the cash, not the metal itself, that triggers reporting ^{[8] [9]}.

5. Common misunderstandings, exemptions and enforcement risks

A persistent market narrative confuses Form 8300 with capital‑gains reporting or Form 1099‑B rules; some bullion or coin types can trigger or escape 1099‑B treatment, but Form 8300 is driven solely by cash thresholds and aggregation rules, so coin type does not create a blanket exemption from 8300 reporting ^{[5] [10] [8]}. Dealers face penalties for failing to file, including civil fines and potential criminal exposure in cases of willful evasion; sellers can also face penalties when intent to structure payments is demonstrated ^{[7] [3]}.

6. Where reporting judgment matters and where guidance ends

Practical application depends heavily on dealer judgment about whether payments are related or structured, and IRS guidance expects businesses to aggregate payments when they “know or have reason to know” transactions are connected — a standard that creates operational gray areas for dealers and customers alike ^{[3] [4]}. Sources used for this account include the IRS Form 8300 reference and multiple dealer guidance pages; where source documents diverge on exact time windows (24 hours versus a broader “series”), this analysis reports both the IRS’s knowledge‑based standard and the common industry interpretation without asserting unprovided specifics beyond those sources ^{[3] [6]}.