Want to save $200 billion a year in America?
Ban cash.
That’s the conclusion of a recent MarketWatch article. It featured the many ways the “global attachment to cash” hurts countries’ economies:
- Consumers pay to get cash from “non-native” ATMs (ATMs not affiliated with a person’s bank). Or they pay by driving all over to find ATMs without a fee. Or they pay by misplacing the cash they just pulled out.
- Businesses lose by having to pay for safes and armored cars to move large amounts of cash.
- Banks have to pay to restock ATM machines and transport and store cash in vaults.
But then, tucked deep in the article, comes the real reason behind the “hatchet job”…
- Governments lose by missing out on taxes from unreported or underreported transactions.
A Tufts University report suggests cash transactions cost the U.S. government over $400 billion per year in missed tax revenues. The underreporting of cash transactions accounts for 84% of the losses.
So forget picking something up for cheap at a neighbor’s garage sale… or getting a small cash tip as a waiter… or buying a drink at a child’s lemonade stand…
Every last transaction will be taxed.
Longtime Daily readers know this is just the latest escalation in the War on Cash. Even though 80% of worldwide transactions are still conducted in cash… governments and central banks want it gone. Now.
The good news is the rise of decentralized cryptocurrencies—like bitcoin—offer an alternative solution in a cashless future. All Palm Beach Letter (PBL) subscribers can now review editor Teeka Tiwari’s top cryptocurrency recommendations right here. (If you’re not yet a Palm Beach Letter subscriber, learn more here.)
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