Elderly relative hiding $$ in the freezer

[Anonymous]

I have a relative in her 80s who has been retired for many, many years. She keeps busy with garage sales and plant sales. She grows plants indoors (her place looks like she is growing weed but she definitely is not. Lots of succulents). She lives a few miles from a wealthy enclave and has become known as the garage sale lady, so when wealthier women are cleaning out their houses, whether it's clothes, lamps, kitchenware, etc, they drop it on my relatives front porch, and she sells it. For 100% profit, obviously. And stashes the $$ in her freezer.

Her mortgage interest rate has just gone from 2% to 7% so she has decided to take the $$ out of the freezer to pay off the mortgage. She has managed to amass $100k over the past 20 years!
She doesn't want to deposit the $$ in the bank and write a check, and asked me if I can help her pay off her mortgage. How should I/she do this? Take the cash to the bank and get a cashiers check made out to the mortgage company? Any other thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a relative in her 80s who has been retired for many, many years. She keeps busy with garage sales and plant sales. She grows plants indoors (her place looks like she is growing weed but she definitely is not. Lots of succulents). She lives a few miles from a wealthy enclave and has become known as the garage sale lady, so when wealthier women are cleaning out their houses, whether it's clothes, lamps, kitchenware, etc, they drop it on my relatives front porch, and she sells it. For 100% profit, obviously. And stashes the $$ in her freezer.

Her mortgage interest rate has just gone from 2% to 7% so she has decided to take the $$ out of the freezer to pay off the mortgage. She has managed to amass $100k over the past 20 years!
She doesn't want to deposit the $$ in the bank and write a check, and asked me if I can help her pay off her mortgage. How should I/she do this? Take the cash to the bank and get a cashiers check made out to the mortgage company? Any other thoughts?

Doing prepayments to the mortgage. First prepay a small amount, like 1K using a personal check or cashiers check. If it all goes smoothly, increase to 5K for the next one, and so forth.

[Anonymous]

How much is the mortgage balance ?

Get a cashier's check for $8,000 to $9,000. Send to mortgage company & get new statement. Trial run to see if everything is going as desired & planned.

[Anonymous]

Why doesn’t she want to deposit it in the bank first? That amount of cash is going to trigger reporting requirements no matter how you handle it, so probably better to be upfront than to give the appearance that you’re trying to skirt financial reporting regulations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much is the mortgage balance ?

Get a cashier's check for $8,000 to $9,000. Send to mortgage company & get new statement. Trial run to see if everything is going as desired & planned.

I recommended the above. Depending upon remaining balance, then make double or triple payments until the balance is exhausted.

Keep all transactions under $10,000 to avoid hassle of filling out government forms.

Making double or triple payments to quickly reduce the mortgage balance should save a lot with respect to income taxes on the $100,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much is the mortgage balance ?

Get a cashier's check for $8,000 to $9,000. Send to mortgage company & get new statement. Trial run to see if everything is going as desired & planned.

I recommended the above. Depending upon remaining balance, then make double or triple payments until the balance is exhausted.

Keep all transactions under $10,000 to avoid hassle of filling out government forms.

Making double or triple payments to quickly reduce the mortgage balance should save a lot with respect to income taxes on the $100,000.

And then hope you don’t get tagged for a money laundering investigation.

[Anonymous]

The way I would approach:

If the elderly relative has multiple bank accounts or you or spouse have multiple bank accounts: Spread the deposits slowly into each separate bank account. Make sure no more than 5K cash deposit per account per month. Don't deposit 5K in one day. Spread it out slowly. Try to put the most into the elderly's account because she has nothing to lose. Her explanation is she saved money in cash over many years, she is old lady. You have more to lose if bank starts asking why putting 30,000 in cash deposits suddenly. Drug dealing?

[Anonymous]

OP here: Yes, good tip about making a small deposit first, thanks. I think the mortgage is around $100k, which is why she wants to pay it off. She gets discounts on medications, utilities and other misc stuff that she thinks it will be jeopardized if she put this money in the bank. I have no idea if that's accurate or not, she lives in another state and I'm not going to do the research. Or change her mind.

[Anonymous]

What she's at risk for is being charged with income tax evasion. I'm assuming she neglected to report $100K in sales over the years.

You need to tread carefully here.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, why would she want to pay off the mortgage early? As my banker BIL puts it, "better to die in debt"
She can just enjoy her cash by paying her expenses with it while grocery shopping, etc, so she avoids having to declare it and paying taxes on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a relative in her 80s who has been retired for many, many years. She keeps busy with garage sales and plant sales. She grows plants indoors (her place looks like she is growing weed but she definitely is not. Lots of succulents). She lives a few miles from a wealthy enclave and has become known as the garage sale lady, so when wealthier women are cleaning out their houses, whether it's clothes, lamps, kitchenware, etc, they drop it on my relatives front porch, and she sells it. For 100% profit, obviously. And stashes the $$ in her freezer.

Her mortgage interest rate has just gone from 2% to 7% so she has decided to take the $$ out of the freezer to pay off the mortgage. She has managed to amass $100k over the past 20 years!
She doesn't want to deposit the $$ in the bank and write a check, and asked me if I can help her pay off her mortgage. How should I/she do this? Take the cash to the bank and get a cashiers check made out to the mortgage company? Any other thoughts?

I'll sit with her and give her some counsel. What's her address?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, why would she want to pay off the mortgage early? As my banker BIL puts it, "better to die in debt"
She can just enjoy her cash by paying her expenses with it while grocery shopping, etc, so she avoids having to declare it and paying taxes on it.

Yeah I think I agree here. Use the cash to pay as much expenses as possible. It is also possible to pay off most credit cards, utilities with cash. Let's say the OP regularly spends 2K a month on credit cards, she can provide cash for him to pay it off. He can in turn send 2,000 check to the mortgage. If OP or the elderly lady has a large Property tax bill that they pay directly, a lot of cash can be funneled into paying the bill. Example: Use cash and buy $500 visa gift cards at the grocery store. Use the gift cards to pay the property tax bill online.

Of course, can certainly put in small cash deposits into the bank every month, just keep it small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'll sit with her and give her some counsel. What's her address?

[Anonymous]

OP - get cashier's checks, USPS or Seven11 doesn't ask for an ID or SSN so there is no chance it will fall under IRS scrutiny. And any operations under $10mm wont, your relative is too small of a bird for them. I have a relative who gets assistance and that's how she acquired a car. Once the asset is acquired the person is not subject to scrutiny and sources are not investigated: people on assistance are allowed to have one house and one car

So go ahead and call the mortgage CO asking if they accept money orders/cashiers checks.

Another way of doing it is to provide cash to a title/escrow company. They will deposit it on their account for a day, then transfer the payment to mortgage and organize the title release. Just make sure they don't use your SSN anywhere on file. I know several in DC area that would do it.

Good luck, and as to IRS my exH stole $4mm from his employer IRS did nothing when I reported it. They said it was too hard to prove and I would have to hire a tax lawyer myself who would guide them in this investigation. F..K no!

[Anonymous]

You need to document some of this for your protection and hers. This sounds weird but I would also make a video or audio recording of you discussing this with her. How much money does she have in the freezer, why is it in the freezer, what does she want to do with it, things like that. It buttresses your "story" if you are ever called out on it by the government or other relatives. I would also try to take some photos or video of the actual money in the freezer.