Maximum amount of cash that can be kept at home: this is what the law says

We live in the era of digital money: we can pay for all types of products and services with telematic methods (even something as traditional as paying taxes like Income can be done this way) which have advantages such as speed and better traceability of money. But, despite everything, cash continues to be highly valued among a large part of the population.

In fact, a more common practice than we might think at first is that many people choose to keep cash at home. This is what has been traditionally called keeping cash ‘under the mattress’ and it is done with the objective of being able to access an emergency mattress in urgent cases.

Having money ‘under the mattress’ kept at home is a completely legal practice, although the truth is that the authorities closely monitor the use of that money, given that it is repeatedly linked to the underground economy. That is why questions sometimes arise, such as: how much cash can you keep at home?

The answer is simple: There are no limitations to keeping cash at home.. You just have to comply with what the law says, which is neither more nor less than declare its origin correctly.

How to declare cash ‘under the mattress’

The appropriate way to declare the origin of the money that a person has ‘under the mattress’ at home is through the income tax returnwhose 2023-2024 Campaign will start in just a few days.

The dynamics are simple: when you access the draft (There are three different ways to achieve it) the taxpayer must ensure that those amounts that he now has at home appear correctly reflected in his income. And, in parallel, indicate the origin of that money: if it comes from income from work, movable capital, real estate capital, capital gains…

Treasury monitors cash

The truth is that the Tax Agency has different mechanisms to monitor cash. One of the processes is through the banks, which are obliged to inform the agency of movements that affect 500 euro banknotes or that involve cash withdrawals or deposits of 3,000 euros or more.

The mandate of the banks appears included in the General Tax Law, which in its article 93 (You can check it out at this link) makes it clear that banking entities are obliged to provide “all types of data, reports, background information and supporting documents with tax significance related to the fulfillment of their own tax obligations or deduced from their economic, professional or financial relationships with other people.”