Privacy World - The WORLD'S SHREWDEST PRIVACY NEWSLETTER
Feds Expand Definition of "Cash" to Include
Stored Value Cards
For the last three days, I've been in bustling downtown
Panama City, Panama, speaking at an offshore conference. Panama is as dynamic
as ever, and I've made considerable progress filing my application for
permanent residence.
My exit from the United States was relatively
hassle-free, other than the mandatory scan of my genitalia by the TSA before I
boarded my flight. However, I've now learned that the Treasury's Financial
Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) plans to add another obstacle to leaving
(or entering) the United States: declaring the value of any "tangible
prepaid access devices." In case you're wondering, TPADs are otherwise
known as stored value cards.
U.S. law has long required you to declare the value of
cash or other monetary instruments you carry across a U.S. border if the value
exceeds $10,000. FinCEN Form 105 is used for this purpose. While there's the
possibility of a five-year prison sentence for failing to comply with the law,
along with forfeiture of the "monetary instruments," enforcement of
these requirements is inconsistent.
Entering the United States, you must complete Customs
Form 6059B, which explicitly asks if you are carrying more than $10,000 in cash
or monetary instruments. Leaving the United States, I've only seen one or two
warnings red-flagging this requirement.
However, one time several years ago, I was boarding a
flight in Baltimore bound for Paris. On the jet way, several men in poorly
fitting suits confronted me. They identified themselves as Treasury agents and
asked me how much cash I was transporting. I told them I wasn't sure but that
it was less than $200. They insisted on rifling through my carry-on, presumably
to search for undeclared cash, and going through my wallet. After a relatively
brief interlude, they allowed me to board my flight.
To enforce the new rules to declare TPADs, the Department
of Homeland Security is developing high-tech card readers to deploy at U.S. ports
of entry. The readers will identify whether the cards in your wallet are credit
cards, debit cards, or TPADs. Only the value stored on a TPAD need be declared,
assuming the total value of monetary instruments carried across the U.S. border
exceeds $10,000.
As is usual in efforts of this type, FinCEN's efforts to
expand the definition of cash will only inconvenience law-abiding travelers. A
real criminal-or anyone seeking financial privacy-will use the
"brainwallet" concept to silently move value across increasingly
irrelevant national frontiers. (A brainwallet requires that you memorize a
unique passphrase to gain access to an online store of value, such as Bitcoin.)
Indeed, The Department of Homeland Security has proposed to FinCEN that:
"[B]order declaration should not apply to codes,
passwords and other intangibles... The structure of the currency and monetary
instruments declaration regime, hinges on the existence of a physical object.
The language requires something that can be passed from one individual to
another in order to be presented to a third party for execution/payment."
Bitcoin and similar digital currencies make FinCEN's
currency reporting rules, and their expansion to encompass TPADs, obsolete
before they're even finalized. But don't think for a minute that technological
innovation will prevent these rules from coming into effect.
After all, Boobus Americanus must believe the government
is doing something-anything-to fight the wars on drugs, terrorism, money
laundering, immigration fraud, etc. Whether the initiative actually
accomplishes anything is much less important than whether it appears to be
accomplishing something. And it's simply inconceivable to ask whether the wars
are worth fighting at all, and if we should simply allow individuals to move
their assets anywhere in the world, as they see fit, without government imposed
restrictions.
The above article by Mark Nestmann
Until our next issue, stay cool and remain low profile!
Privacy World
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