EU Will Bar Businesses From Taking Cash Payments Above €10,000 Starting July 10, 2027

The European Union is about nine months from a bloc-wide ceiling on cash payments. From July 10, 2027, anyone trading in goods or providing services in the EU may accept or make cash payments only up to €10,000.

The rule sits in Article 80 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, the EU's anti-money laundering regulation. It was formally adopted in May 2024 and published in the Official Journal in June 2024.

What the rule says

The text of Article 80(1) is short. Persons trading in goods or providing services "may accept or make a payment in cash only up to an amount of EUR 10 000 or the equivalent in national or foreign currency, whether the transaction is carried out in a single operation or in several operations which appear to be linked."

That last clause matters. Splitting a €15,000 purchase into two €7,500 cash payments does not get around it.

The limit binds both sides of the counter. A business can neither take nor make a cash payment above the cap, in any currency.

This is not a cash ban. Cash remains legal tender and usable below the threshold.

The €3,000 identity trigger

A second layer applies lower down. Businesses handling cash transactions over €3,000 will have to carry out customer due diligence, meaning identity verification.

For car dealers, jewelers, art dealers and renovation contractors, that means two systems: one to refuse cash above €10,000, and one to verify identity above €3,000. Sellers will also have to watch for customers chopping a big purchase into smaller pieces.

Who is exempt

Article 80(4) carves out payments between private individuals not acting in a professional capacity. Selling a used car to a neighbor for €12,000 in cash falls outside the cap. Buying the same car from a dealer falls inside it.

Payments and deposits at the premises of banks, electronic money issuers and payment service providers are also exempt. Cash deposits at a bank are not capped, but those above the limit must be reported to the national financial intelligence unit, according to the regulation's text as quoted by the compliance firm Didit.

National limits stay

The €10,000 figure is a ceiling on what member states may tolerate, not a floor on what they must allow. Countries can impose tighter limits, and many already do.

Spain's €1,000 cap for transactions involving a professional stays in place, so Spanish shoppers gain nothing from the EU number. A summary published by Discus Holdings lists France at €1,000 for residents, Belgium, Portugal and the Netherlands at €3,000, Italy at €5,000 and Greece at €500. That firm's figures are a secondary compilation and vary by transaction type.

Before the regulation applies, national law governs. The EU limit is not in effect today, Oct. 19, 2026.

The stated purpose is to close gaps in a patchwork where cash rules depend on which border a buyer happens to be standing behind. The regulation is part of the bloc's wider push against money laundering and terrorist financing, and a uniform cap is meant to stop large cash sums from sliding through the least restrictive jurisdiction.

Pushback from the relocation industry

Discus Holdings, a firm that advises clients on moving tax residency, frames the cap as one of several EU limits on residents' financial freedom. It points to restrictions on foreign bank accounts and visa exemptions for citizenship-by-investment countries. It tells readers it is "time to examine the chance of moving your tax residency in a country with lesser rules."

The firm sells that service, and its description of an EU ban on foreign bank accounts for residents is its own characterization, not language from Article 80. The regulation's text covers traders and cash, and it leaves private person-to-person deals alone.

What comes next

The July 2027 date has held. Recent discussion has reaffirmed it, with no indication of delay or change.

The open questions are national. Member states keep the power to go lower than €10,000, and each decides how its own tighter limits sit alongside the new EU-wide rule. Cash-heavy dealers in high-value goods have until July 10, 2027 to build refusal and identity-check procedures.