2By John Haughey
The Center Square
October 12, 2021
A proposed Florida bill would require point-of-sale retailers to accept cash for goods and services or face fines up to $10,000.
House Bill 233, filed by Rep. Matt Willhite, D-Wellington, and Senate Bill 408, sponsored by Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-West Park, are designed to ensure Floridians without credit cards, bank accounts and smartphones can participate in a rapidly digitalizing economy.
“A cashless economy is not an inclusive economy. Getting a credit or debit card often requires money to deposit or financial history,” Willhite tweeted after pre-filing HB 233 for the 60-day 2022 legislative session that begins Jan. 11.
“Excluding people from paying with cash essentially blocks low-income people, homeless people, and so many others from participating in the economy,” he continued. “Cash is freedom and freedom is the ability to choose how you pay for goods and services.”
HB 233/SB 408 would require “any business operating at a fixed, permanent physical premises, from a vehicle or other mobile space, or from a temporary physical premises,” to accept cash.
The proposed measure prohibits fees or conditions for cash transactions and bestows rule-making responsibility on the Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (DACS).
HB 233/SB 408 only applies to in-person sales and identifies numerous businesses that can require cashless payments, such as commercial parking lots and professional services, from architects and attorneys to healthcare practitioners.
Under the bill, a business that violates the law could incur fines up to $2,500 for a first offense, $5,000 for a second, $10,000 for third and subsequent offenses.
Willhite told Florida Politics that the number of businesses refusing to accept cash increased significantly during the pandemic and that trend is likely to continue.
“I think it’s been heightened and elevated because of COVID. A lot of people use it as a reason for why they really won’t take” cash, he said.
A March report by San Francisco-based Square Inc., which produces mobile apps that process transactions used by more than 2 million businesses worldwide, confirms COVID-19’s impact on global commerce and payments behavior.
Between March 2020 and March 2021, Square said, “We’ve seen the share of cashless businesses more than double in the U.S., Australia, Canada and the UK, and nearly double in Japan. In February 2020 in the U.S. alone, just 6.3% of Square sellers were cashless businesses, which jumped to 14% by February 2021. During that same period, the share of cash transactions decreased from 37.4% in February 2020 to 30.5% in February 2021.”
According to Statista, 38% of point-of-sale payments in the U.S. in 2020 were made by credit card, 25% by debit card, followed by cash, 14%.
By 2023, Statista projects “digital or other contactless technologies” will generate more than $220 billion in sales with U.S. smartphone users’ “mobile payment services” use more than doubling from the 25.3% who did so in 2018.
According to a 2019 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) study, nearly 4% of Florida households were “unbanked” without access to a debit/credit card. According to the National Center for Education Assistance, up to 1 million of Florida’s 7.4 million households did not own smartphones or have home digital service in 2019.
HB 233/SB 408 is similar to an Ohio proposal filed by Sen. Louis Blessing III, R-Colerain Township. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Jersey are among states that require retailers to accept cash. Washington D.C.’s Cashless Retailers Prohibition Act of 2019 went into effect on March 16.
Willhite said he expects pushback from the Florida Chamber of Commerce and other groups that oppose restricting businesses’ transactional choices, but said the bill is a “rough draft,” adding, “I am always open for amending and changing.”
Now about tax reporting large cash transactions…
“Large” started out at $600 but after severe backlash seems to have moved to $10,000. Of course, cash transactions above $10,000 or multiple transactions made in a day that reach that level are already reported. Additionally, transactions under $10,000 that appear to be suspicious in nature are reported on the aptly named Suspicious Activity Report (SAR).
It is already against the State and Federal law not to accept legal tender (cash) for any transaction. I think a good reading of our laws, especially the state and federal Constitutions would be a great idea.
What a waste of time. It’s called “legal tender” for a reason. It’s already illegal (federal law) to refuse cash payments.
Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled “Legal tender,” states: “United States coins and currency [including Federal Reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve Banks and national banks] are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.” This statute means that all U.S. money as identified above is a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor.
Not correct with regards to “legal tender” as Stephen Coe notes. If a business posts a sign or verbally tells a customer that they don’t accept cash BEFORE the sale is rung up, then no “debt” has been created. There are several states that mandate a business (with some exceptions) accept cash and there have been bills introduced in both houses of Congress for such a mandate.
Mark Tomes, the Post Office never operated truly as a bank in the modern day sense. They did offer savings accounts up until 1967 after reaching a peak right after World War II. I wrote about this chapter of their history several months ago https://www.atlantafed.org/blogs/take-on-payments/2021/01/19/can-usps-improve-financial-inclusion.
From the US Treasury website:There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise.
To paraphrase Buffalo Springfield, “Hypocrisy runs deep.” When are people going to stop making up laws that don’t exist and refusing to accept the ones that do exist.
It is too bad that legislation must be passed for a common sense issue. But some folks just don’t get it. I have tried to pay cash many times only to be told that we don’t take cash. As least now there is some teeth in the law. Fine them and they can pay with cash or credit card.
I would like to see Post Offices get back to being mini-banks, like many were decades ago. They would provide low-cost, basic, and readily available banking services for those who have difficulty getting standard bank accounts.
The USPS never provided true banking services, as they only provided savings accounts up until the late 60’s. Also, the current USPS system is totally bogged down, so for them to try and provide more services at this time, would be a very bad idea.
what is current status of retailers refusing to accept cash without imposing any restrictions or requirments. in FLORIDA