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Can you pay taxes in cash? I don't think it's possible in my country.

> Can you pay taxes in cash? I don't think it's possible in my country.

In most countries a tax payment that is due counts as a debt so is covered by legal tender laws, which do require that people accept payment in cash. It may not be an option presented to you, but it is usually legally available to you, if someone is trying to enforce a debt such as payable tax.

Note that legal tender laws don't apply to a service or product that has not yet been provided - only debts - and also note that a business that has to enforce a debt and that you pay in cash may decline to do business with you in future.

Finally, note that not all currency is legal tender - for example Scottish bank notes are not legal tender, so you can't insist on paying your debts with them.

> Scottish bank notes are not legal tender

In fact, in Scotland, neither are English bank notes. (Technically there is legal tender in Scotland, but only Royal Mint coins, and Bank of England one pound notes, which are no longer circulated).

http://www.rampantscotland.com/know/blknow10.htm

Thank you and everyone else for the answers, it's quite interesting.

FYI I'm in France and here cash can only be used for taxes under 300€ [1]

Maybe if you don't pay and they start suing then some other laws allows you to reimburse the debt with cash for any amount.

With that said, I know we have some laws to allow everyone (most people?) to have a free bank accounts ("right to an account" [2]), and some other laws that prevent even the state to seize what you have on a bank account for debt reimbursement if it's lower than a certain amount (565.34€ - it's called the "unseizable amount" [3]).

I don't know if it's possible to freeze bank account as they did in Canada. I'd guess they would have to have approval from a Judge.

[1] https://www.impots.gouv.fr/particulier/les-autres-moyens-de-...

[2] https://particuliers.banque-france.fr/page-sommaire/droit-au...

[3] https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F1437

In the US, public agencies are typically required to accept cash in any denomination. This occasionally makes the national media when a disgruntled citizen decides to pay their substantial tax or fee in bucketloads of pennies ($0.01). Private organizations, however, are not required to do so.[0]

[0]https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Currency/Pages...

I’ve been in a DMV that didn’t accept cash.

Paying taxes in cash is almost the most important core thing. It's utter violation of basic concepts of fiat currency for that not to be possible. The whole point of cash is that it is legal tender, and it has to be acceptable for taxes. Any country that violates this is really denying the basic concept of cash.

Exactly, as we see from the history of fiat currency, where acceptance for taxes was initially a monopoly given only to the fiat currency.

rather, denying the basic concept of fiat currency

Cash is just the physical representation of a fiat currency. Fiat currencies exist independently of cash.

As long as you can pay your taxes somehow with cash, I fail to see the problem? The tax office doesn't need to accept cash directly. I don't really see the problem if they delegate handling cash to banks or other institutions as long as no one can be denied access to those.

The next step will be somebody who is in "digital jail" and can't pay taxes so ends up guilty of tax evasion too.

Inability to pay taxes is not tax evasion, of either of the recognized types in the US (evasion of assessment, i.e., concealment of facts that would indicate tax is due, or evasion of payment, i.e., concealment of or movement out of reach of taxing authorities of funds with which taxes that are due could be paid.)

Presumably, the US government still accepts payment of taxes in cash, so that cash-based businesses that can't get a bank account can still pay. Perhaps the situation could arise in other countries though.

> Presumably, the US government still accepts payment of taxes in cash,

Not directly, though it works with partner companies that accept cash for an extra fee, with limits on per-payment and per-day payments. [0]

> so that cash-based businesses that can't get a bank account can still pay.

It would seem to be impractical for a non-trivial business to work with the cash payments limits.

[0] https://www.irs.gov/payments/pay-with-cash-at-a-retail-partn...

Your link only pertains to one way the IRS takes cash payments. They also take cash payments at Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs). You don't have to pay cash at a private corporation, you can go into an IRS office and pay cash.

https://www.irs.gov/payments/pay-your-taxes-with-cash

https://www.irs.gov/payments/what-to-expect-when-you-pay-cas...

In theory, sure.

In practice that's bullshit and you know it. The .gov, be it state local or fed, has show time and time again that it's not above prosecuting someone for a "failure to X" crime of which the failure was caused by the .gov's own action.

The IRS will accept cash.[1] For small payments, they have an outsourced setup with Dollar General, Family Dollar, CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, Pilot Travel Centers, 7-Eleven, Speedway, Kum & Go, Royal Farms, Go Mart, and Kwik Trip to accept payments up to US$500. There's a US$1.50 fee. So people who have no bank account and not to pay can pay easily. For bigger payments, cash payments are accepted at an IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center, after making an appointment 30 to 60 days in advance.

[1] https://www.irs.gov/payments/pay-your-taxes-with-cash

> Can you pay taxes in cash?

Sure, if you're willing to schlep all the way to the nearest IRS office to you that has a human in it that will take your cash. Which might be hundreds of miles away.

There are good reasons why most people prefer not to pay most things in cash.

Also as noted in the article, things like electricity, internet and other utility cannot be paid in cash either here.

US Postal Service money orders can be purchased with cash and used the same way as a certified check. This works for utility payments. Mobile phone companies take cash as payments, in both their dedicated retail stores and a large network of affiliated airtime merchants. In some countries, there's a mini-economy for the trade of airtime minutes within cellphone networks, based on physical stores that can convert cash->minutes. M-Pesa was one of the earlier success stories, unifying payments and digital identity, but it was anchored in real-world ingress points for cash.

Cash & digital can be complementary.

On the topic of convenience: utility companies love prepayments.

One post office trip per quarter: one money order per vendor, one batch of envelopes mailed.

Monthly online bills will have a negative balance to indicate the credit.

Zero data leaked to payment middlemen.

Also as noted in the article, things like electricity, internet and other utility cannot be paid in cash either here.

In the United States you can.

Almost all bills, utility and otherwise, can be paid for in cash at most supermarkets or other money-handling businesses. ("Currency exchanges" in Chicago, or whatever your local equivalent is.)

Also, every utility company I've had serving my last five apartments has had a public lobby where people can make cash payments. I suspect even cell phone bills can be paid with cash at a cell phone company's retail store.

> Almost all bills, utility and otherwise, can be paid for in cash at most supermarkets or other money-handling businesses.

So long as you are on a post-paid account you don't even need this. If you are on a post-paid plan of any sort, it's a debt. You have the legal right (via the Coinage Act) to pay that debt via cash regardless of any systems they might not have setup to do so.

It's a fun game to play sometimes to remind institutions of this fact, and usually rouses some bored corporate counsel from their slumber to first argue with you, then apologize.

Probably doesn't really help build a great business relationship, however.

Sending a check in the mail is not the same as having a digital currency. You can add cash to the bank account and write the check.

You still need to have a bank account to do that, and bank accounts are one of the first things law enforcement freezes when they want to take away people's assets. Objecting that the deposits you made into the bank account were cash won't help much at that point.

You don't need a bank account to send a money order. You just need to visit a post office with cash.

The post I responded to said "check", not "money order".

My cash says, "Legal Tender For All Debts Public and Private."

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