Spain steps up crackdown on cash use

So Spain's tightening the rules on cash withdrawals over €3,000, and fines can hit €150,000. Not really shocking, especially with how things are going in the EU and considering the socialist and communist leadership in Spain. This just means they’re digging the hole deeper for the fiat money scheme. Remember back 30 years ago when cash was more common? There was always a chance that a bunch of people could rush to the bank to take out their cash, and since banks are part of this whole ponzi, they could easily go under if they couldn't hand over what people thought they had in their accounts. We saw a taste of this back in 2013 with the Cyprus banking crisis. But instead of solving the problem, these politicians have come up with a slicker plan: push people to use cash less while rolling out CBDCs, pretty much forcing everyone into it so the ponzi keeps chugging along. And let’s not even get started on the attack on privacy and crypto, which is being talked about in other threads. It's crazy that people now have to inform officials just to get their own money out, or risk a hefty fine if they don’t. If you're interested in the original article that sparked this discussion, it’s here.

Another way for banks to make more money. It's not only about withdrawal exceed more than €3,000, but they also not want to see people who trying to play with their rules by withdrawing small amount multiple times that could exceed €3,000. In short, they don't want people to withdraw their money, that's it.

I don't usually need large amounts of cash on hand, but if I ever do, I’d withdraw smaller sums around €1,000 every two or three days rather than anything over €3,000. That way, I don’t think it’ll raise any flags with any TAX-agency like Agencia Tributaria. Far and by, it is perfectly monstrous that such regulation has to be faced by ordinary people. I wouldn’t be surprised if something like this eventually gets implemented in my EU country as well.

Who would have believed that someone can be fined as high as €150k for the 'offense' of withdrawing their own money, lol, that is crazy. They say this is about combating money laundering, tax fraud and terrorism financing, but as is common with the authorities, there is always a hidden motive to what they do. The EU is so anti-privacy right now, and this policy by Spain is also an anti-privacy one, you have to notify the government and seek their permission to withdraw the money you worked hard for.

I'm afraid that more countries may follow by taking similar measures against cash. Some people argue that you can't use Bitcoin whenever you want, which isn't true, and this situation proves that you'll no longer be able to access your own money, whenever you want, and on top of that, you'll have to declare your withdrawal request 24 hours beforehand (for >€3,000). Although the average person will rarely withdraw such amounts of money, this shows that government and banks are working together to limit cash usage and promote traceable payments.

Spain’s cash withdrawal restrictions are a clear move toward surveillance finance, reinforcing the push for CBDCs and digital-only control.

Well, think that Greece has a maximum cash payment limit of €500, in Spain and France it is €1,000, something that was already established previously as part of the war on cash. How much will you be able to buy with €500 or €1,000 in 10 years with inflation? With this kind of measures they make the use of cash impractical.

It has, but I think it depends on the payment. As far as I know, this only applies to paying merchants. But if you want to pay public services, like for electricity, water etc, which are public organizations in Greece, they accept higher payments with cash. Because they are obliged to deposit this cash to the banks after the payment. So, in a way, this is a way to gather the cash back from the cizitizens.

What's next? Will they randomly stop people on the street and ask them to show their wallets and then compare the serial numbers on the banknotes and look for evidence of where these notes came from? It seems to me that if this continues in the EU, we will soon have a Western version of China, while at the same time the Brussels bureaucrats will brag about their achievements when it comes to human rights. Instead of doing it slowly and bothering people that they can't dispose of their money freely, why don't they just come to an agreement and say that cash will be phased out and that in x years we will all switch to the digital euro?

This could provoke a major protest reaction. I think they are just slowly boiling the frog.

I don't think it will happen. There is a very easy strategy that they can follow and that is to stop printing physical money (or limit it down). The rest of the cash that's still available will sooner or later get back to the banks. It may take many years, but it will happen. And of course, this strategy won't provoke protests.

That's true, it's up to €500 cash, or €500 + VAT if we're talking about retail, but the point is that as an individual, you can only spend up to €500 to buy something. However, there are ways to come around such measures. For instance, where I worked, we would sometimes split the transactions into two separate ones, so it would be €300 plus €300. I don't know where this is going, but governments are doing their best to limit cash transactions, while in the near future, they might as well be trying to crack down on cryptocurrency transactions.

I wouldn't bet on it, because most people don't want to protest even against much more serious things that concern their human rights, of course I'm talking about people in the EU, although there are again differences between eastern and western Europe. A few years ago, I read that 98% of payments in Sweden take place without cash, and in general in most of the EU there are more and more people who use only cards (contactless payment). In the end, if they leave you with no choice, you'll use what you have to use to survive - but I agree that everything they're doing definitely looks like they want to slow boil the frog - it's a good old proven method that works.

I am certain that behind the scenes, they are already working on that. I am not specifically talking about Greece, but I am sure Governments will try to limit cryptocurrencies to be used either through: (a) the major CEXs (b) the ETFs (c) other regulated financial institutions who will act as custodians. In short, I believe I will always be able to pay with Bitcoin (Lightning) for my double espresso, but they will try to find ways to limit me to do this transaction through (a) or (c).

That's a well known illegal practice called smurfing.

Although I understand that smurfing is the process of breaking money into several smaller transactions, the article you mentioned mostly refers it to money laundering. We aren't talking about money laundering in what I'm referring, we're talking about selling goods, with the appropriate invoice, but split into two in order to be able to accept cash. From my perspective, it sounds a little overexaggerated. I read an article a while ago that in Greece, they're preparing new measures (taxation ones) regarding cryptocurrencies within the year 2025. One thing is certain, governments are going to try and impose as many limitations as they can.

Are you sure?  My country also has a 'smurfing' law and while it does fall part of a larger Anti Money Laundering law, it does not necessarily relate to Money Laundering itself.  Basically, splitting a larger transaction that exceeds the maximum cash limit into multiple payments to overcome the limit is an Anti Money Laundering regulation.  You can sell cookies or even mow the lawn of your neighbor.  If the total payment exceeds the limit and you split it in multiple parts so the other party can pay in cash, even if the cash came directly from an ATM salary withdrawal with all proof it still falls under the same article of the law.  Anti Money Laundering measures. While I do not condone what the governments do at all, it is worth knowing the truth here.  I doubt the Greek government did not have a few measures implemented particularly to block attempts at bypassing the law.  The owner of the business you worked at may have asked you to do something illegal for your customers.

The concept of smurfing was created when there were no limits to cash payments, it was inconceivable at that time. Nowadays smurfing is also applied to split payments in order not to have to pay with electronic means when exceeding the cash payment limit.

I'm not sure. I also checked online to see if there was anything written regarding dividing an invoice into two but couldn't find anything noteworthy. From the way you describe it, it falls under the category of smurfing. However, I didn't find anything specific regarding anti-money laundering measures either, but I understand how and why it falls under that category, because you're allowing them to pay cash for something that shouldn't, while the other party may have acquired the money from "undocumented" work, if that's the right way to say it. Still, it's not something that can easily be proved; I do find it overexaggerated. Buying four products that cost €600 and splitting them into two invoices of €300 and €300 doesn't seem too big of a deal when the government is milking you through taxes while the quality of public services and infrastructure sucks.

It depends, if you go to a store and instead of buying 4 items of one you go first, buy 2 for 300 and then return to buy another 2 I do not think they can do anything against you but there are many other cases where this is not the case, such as if you buy a piece of furniture that is worth 600 euros. Splitting the payment in two would be smurfing.