If you have $75,000 in cash, can you stuff it into a suitcase and board a plane with it?
One passenger actually did this. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at Richmond International Airport discovered $75,000 in cash in a passenger's luggage during a security check. The question remains: is it legal to travel with that much cash?
Traveling with Cash
Although it may seem sketchy, it is perfectly legal to travel with any amount of cash -- even very large amounts. You could cram a million dollars into your purse if you wanted. There is no law against that as far as domestic flights are concerned.
If you're flying internationally with more than $10,000, you'll have to declare the amount to customs. Other than that, assuming customs approves your luggage, you can carry as much cash as you want.
Can the Government Take My Money?
While carrying large amounts of cash isn't necessarily illegal, you may run into trouble if the authorities believe the cash may be tied to illegal activity.
Since the TSA routinely finds evidence of criminal activity such as illegal drug trafficking or money laundering, don't be surprised when the TSA pays a little extra attention to your cash stash. TSA officers may question you about where you got the money, where you're taking it to, and why. You are not required to answer these questions, but not answering can result in delays.
If the TSA suspects that the cash may be linked to illegal activity, it will call in a law enforcement agency to investigate further.
In the case mentioned above, a law enforcement agency was called in to investigate the $75,000 found. The cash was seized, as allowed by laws governing civil asset forfeiture, and the traveler was allowed to continue on his flight.
Tips for Traveling
If you do decide to stash stacks of Benjamins in your luggage, here are some tips:
- Ask TSA officials to screen you in a private location. You don't want everyone in line to know you're carrying a lot of cash.
- Always keep cash and other valuables with you in a carry-on bag. Never leave such items in checked baggage.
- Don't forget to declare the cash to customs if you're traveling internationally.
Related Resources:
- Why the TSA posted a photo of a passenger’s cash-filled luggage on Twitter (The Washington Post)
- National Opt Out Day? Face $11K TSA Fine (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)
- Can You Bring Alcohol on a Plane? (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)
- Top 5 TSA, Airline Complaints Revealed (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)
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A:
If you’re on a domestic flight within the U.S., there's no limit to the amount of cash (or monetary instruments) you can carry. Unlike flying internationally, when you must declare $10,000 or more, you don't have to declare any cash you're carrying, no matter how much, on domestic flights. You don't go through Customs, so there's no one to declare it to anyway.
You do, however, go through a Transportation Services Administration security screening and that's where travelers can run into serious problems when carrying a lot of cash.
First, in order to safeguard your cash from theft, TSA "recommends" you ask to be screened in private in order to prevent drawing attention to anything that can be stolen.
That, however, is an admission that you're carrying a lot of cash, which can attract its own kind of official attention. Though the TSA has no law-enforcement powers, if screening agents "suspect" that the money is related to some kind of criminal activity, they can and do turn you over to a law-enforcement agency, most often the DEA, since cash triggers alarms about drug trafficking and/or money laundering.
The following quote is taken from the TSA website: "When presented with a passenger carrying a large sum of money through the screening checkpoint, the TSA officer will frequently engage in dialog with the passenger to determine whether a referral to law-enforcement authorities is warranted."
Meanwhile, law enforcement has a strong motivation for invoking civil-asset forfeiture (in other words, seizing the cash): They get to keep part or all of the money. You don't need to be even charged with, much less convicted of, any crime.
In fact, you have to go through all sorts of contortions to prove that the money is yours. There are many stories of gamblers having large sums of cash confiscated by law enforcement at airports. To read a detailed description of one such incident, pick up a copy of our book The Law for Gamblers.
Most travel experts suggest that if you need or want to carry a large amount of currency through an airport, make sure you have a good (legitimate) reason with strong documentation for where it came from, then leave yourself some extra time at the airport in case you're compelled to explain why you're carrying it.
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