Form 8300
Also called IRS Form 8300
Form 8300 is the IRS and FinCEN form a business must file when it receives more than $10,000 in cash in one transaction or in related transactions.[1]
It must be filed within 15 days of receiving the cash, the customer must be given a written statement, and a copy must be kept for five years.[2]
For a watch dealer, the rule applies to cash you receive when selling, not to what you pay out. The federal guide explains what counts as cash and how related payments add up.
Related terms
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Where this comes up
Pages on this site that use the term.
- What records does a watch dealer have to keep?Article
- Business banking and payments for watch dealersArticle
- Do you need a license to sell watches?Article
- Form 1099-K: why the number on it isn't what you madeCompliance guide
- How to price a watch trade-inArticle
- Selling a watch to a buyer in personArticle
Learn the trade, not just the word
Plain-English guides to buying, pricing and selling watches as a business. Free, and written to be used at the counter.
Sources
- IRS - Form 8300 and Reporting Cash Payments of Over $10;000. GENERALLY; IF YOU'RE IN A TRADE OR BUSINESS AND RECEIVE MORE THAN $10;000 IN CASH IN A SINGLE TRANSACTION OR IN RELATED TRANSACTIONS; YOU MUST FILE FORM 8300; which provides information to the IRS and to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). WHO MUST FILE: a PERSON includes an individual; company; corporation; partnership; association; trust or estate; the form is filed ELECTRONICALLY WITH FINCEN or in paper form with the IRS if any part of the transaction occurs within any of the 50 states; the District of Columbia or a U.S. possession or territory. WHEN TO FILE: YOU MUST FILE FORM 8300 WITHIN 15 DAYS AFTER THE DATE THE CASH TRANSACTION OCCURRED. Besides filing; you must ALSO PROVIDE A WRITTEN STATEMENT TO EACH PARTY whose name you included on the Form 8300 BY JANUARY 31 OF THE YEAR FOLLOWING the reportable transaction; the statement must include the name; address; contact person and telephone number of your business and THE AGGREGATE AMOUNT OF REPORTABLE CASH; and must indicate that you furnished the information to the IRS. PERSONS WHO FILE THE REQUIRED FORM AND DO NOT PROVIDE THE WRITTEN STATEMENT ARE SUBJECT TO PENALTIES; penalty amounts are ADJUSTED ANNUALLY FOR INFLATION. VOLUNTARY SUSPICIOUS FILING: forms filed under the $10;000 threshold with BOX 1B checked are not required; filing under the threshold is voluntary; the IRS highly encourages filing suspicious activity regardless of amount; forms marked suspicious are treated confidentially AND THE STATEMENT IS NOT TO BE PROVIDED to the individuals identified on such a form. HOW TO FILE: EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1 2024 you must E-FILE Forms 8300 IF YOU ARE REQUIRED TO FILE AT LEAST 10 INFORMATION RETURNS of one or more types other than Form 8300 during a calendar year; Forms 8300 themselves are not counted toward that ten-return threshold; a hardship waiver may be requested on Form 8508 and if granted applies to all Forms 8300 for that calendar year; paper filers mail to Internal Revenue Service; P.O. Box 32621; Detroit MI 48232 — retrieved 2026-09-23
- IRS - Instructions for Form 8300 (Rev. December 2023); Report of Cash Payments Over $10;000 Received in a Trade or Business. The revision date on the published PDF is DECEMBER 2023 and was confirmed at re-check on 2026-09-23. This PDF is the filer-facing instruction set for the reporting duty summarised at F1 and defined in regulation at F10; it covers completion of each item on the form; the definition of cash; aggregation of related transactions; the requirement to obtain the payer's taxpayer identification number; and the penalty provisions. NOTE ON THIS RETRIEVAL: the text layer of the published PDF did not extract cleanly by automated means at re-check; rather than paraphrase from an unreliable extraction; the operative definitions relied on by this site are cited to the REGULATION at F10 (31 CFR 1010.330); which is the authoritative source for what counts as currency; what a designated reporting transaction is; and how related transactions aggregate — retrieved 2026-09-23