EU Caps Cash Payments to Businesses at €10,000 From July 2027

The European Union has set a bloc-wide ceiling on cash payments made to businesses, capping them at €10,000 starting 10 July 2027. The rule is contained in Article 80 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, known as the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR).

The AMLR is one part of a wider EU anti-money-laundering package that also created a new EU supervisory body, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA).

What the €10,000 limit covers

Under Article 80 of the AMLR, people or companies trading in goods or providing services may accept or make cash payments only up to €10,000, whether the payment is made in one transaction or through several linked payments that together exceed that amount. If a purchase costs more than €10,000, the buyer must use a traceable method such as a bank transfer, debit card or credit card.

The limit does not apply to payments between private individuals who are not acting in a professional capacity, nor to cash deposits or payments made directly at the premises of banks, electronic money issuers or payment service providers, according to the regulation's text as summarised by legal and compliance publications that reviewed it.

A separate, lower threshold also takes effect under the same package: businesses classified as "obliged entities" will have to identify and verify the identity of a customer for any cash payment of €3,000 or more.

How it differs from national rules already in place

EU member states currently apply very different cash limits. According to a comparison compiled by compliance platform Didit, France and Spain already cap cash payments to professionals at €1,000, Greece at €500, Belgium and the Netherlands at €3,000, Portugal at €3,000 and Italy at €5,000. Germany, Austria, Ireland and Luxembourg currently have no statutory cash limit.

The AMLR sets €10,000 as the EU-wide ceiling but explicitly allows member states to keep stricter, lower national limits. That means countries such as France, Spain, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Italy will continue to apply their existing lower caps after July 2027, while countries without a current limit will be bound by the new €10,000 threshold for the first time.

Why the EU says the change is needed

The European Commission and Council describe the measure as part of a broader effort to close gaps that let large, hard-to-trace cash payments be used for money laundering or tax evasion, according to Euronews' review of the rules. The same legislative package also established the EU's new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), which is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and is set to take on full supervisory powers at the same time the cash limit takes effect, in July 2027, according to Euronews and Didit.

What is not changing

Compliance firm Sumsub, reviewing the rule after misleading claims about it spread online, said the €10,000 cap applies only to payments made to businesses in professional transactions and does not affect cash exchanged directly between private individuals.

People can still hold and withdraw unlimited amounts of cash and use it for everyday purchases, according to the same review and to the Didit compliance summary of the regulation.

Banks, traders and other obliged entities have a roughly three-year window from the regulation's adoption to adapt their systems before the cash limit and the related identity-verification threshold become enforceable on 10 July 2027.