The legal cash limits you can carry in Spain while traveling
Were you aware of the legal limit of the amount of cash you can carry with you in Spain?
Due to the pandemic, it is looking increasingly more likely that we are not that far away from a society where the days of physical cash are numbered, and on top of that, or maybe in order to smooth this transition long faster, the Spanish Tax Agency has recently put a cap on cash payments between individuals.
Even so, for the time being, there are still those of us who will want to carry cash on our person, especially if going on a trip maybe, or just for that feeling of knowing you have that available cash in your pocket in case of an emergency.
Most people might be totally oblivious as to exactly how much cash is the acceptable legal limit that they can carry at any one time, and according to The Information, there is no marked limit if you want to travel with notes or coins, but, as the Bank of Spain points out, it will be necessary to declare the cash, “if the amount transported is equal to, or greater than, €10,000 in case of departure or entry into national territory, or €100,000 in the case of movements through national territory”.
These obligations come under the guidelines, according to the entity, as being “within the measures for the prevention of money laundering, and the financing of terrorism”, and in the case carrying in excess of €100,000 when traveling through Spain, a “special declaration” will need to be made before the Tax Agency.
Similarly, if an amount of cash that is over this limit is being carried in order to make a deposit of funds in cash in a bank, form S1 will have to be completed in advance, which the entity will request, otherwise, the fine in the event that the corresponding declaration has not been carried out entails the confiscation of the total of the transported funds, their deposit, and a sanctioning file, as well as a fine of up to €600, and double the amounts transported.
A recent national survey conducted by the Bank of Spain revealed the rapid acceleration of the disappearance of cash, with 72.7 percent of Spaniards saying that they never carry more than five coins on their person, which normally do not even total €5, although many respondents said they believed the existence of cash was important to keep prices lower, as reported by 20minutos.es.
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Published euroweeklynews.com 09 August 2021