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OPERATION


"Cash dealers" must report transactions to AUSTRAC; such dealers include,


Transactions which must be reported are,

  • Currency of $10,000 or more, or foreign currency of that value.

  • International funds transfer, either into or out of Australia, of any amount.

  • Suspicious transactions of any kind; being transactions the dealer may reasonably suspect of being part of Tax Evasion or Crime , or might assist in a Prosecution .


Members of the public are also obliged to report to AUSTRAC if they carry $10,000 or more (or equivalent in a foreign currency) of cash into or out of Australia, which can be done on forms available from the Australian Customs Service at Airport s and Sea Port s. The Customs service attempts to detect evasion of this requirement. Airline s are not held liable for what their passengers carry.

It's an offence under the Act for anyone to split a transaction into two or more parts with a dominant purpose of avoiding the reporting rules and thresholds.

Certain classes of transactions are exempt, or may be exempted on application. For example established customers transacting amounts typical of their lawful business for Payroll , or Retail or Vending Machine takings, etc. Motor vehicle traders are specifically not in the retailers exemption, their transactions are not eligible for exemption (likewise boat, farm machinery and aircraft traders).

Under the Freedom Of Information Act 1982 , any person can access records held by AUSTRAC, subject to certain exemptions. Freedom of Information Guidelines page at AUSTRAC web site


IDENTIFICATION


Cash dealers must identify their customers. Accounts may only be operated by an identified customer, an unidentified customer is blocked. Generally identification can be transferred from one account to another, so that for instance a person once identified does not need to produce documents again when opening a second account at the same institution.

For banks and similar, identification normally takes the form of the "100 points" rule. Various documents each have a points value and a total of 100 must be presented from among certain sets of choices. For example a Birth Certificate is worth 70 points and a Driver's License 40.

It's an offence to open or operate an account with a cash dealer under a false name, punishable by a fine or up to 2 years imprisonment.


OTHER AGENCIES


AUSTRAC communicates the information it gathers to a large number of other government agencies, including,



ENFORCEMENT


One prominent attempted evasion of the AUSTRAC rules took place ahead of the report, at AustLII


REFERENCES


  • AUSTRAC web site, below.




EXTERNAL LINKS