Video Summary
Can a seller avoid paying closing costs by having the buyer pay them cash on the side outside of closing? It’s sort of like avoiding paying – evading taxes by not reporting income to the Internal Revenue Service and that could be considered a crime to do that. Likewise, you are defrauding the Department of Revenue in that you are obligated to pay the documentary stamps on the sales price. And you are not to avoid those, because you are really evading those if you have a transaction on the side wherein the buyer pays the sellers the cash and is not reporting with the closing agent.
There’s also any number of other problems with that, such as the currency transaction if you are actually dealing in cash, and that anything $10,000.00 or more you have to fill out various currency forms with the bank if it has to be deposited.
So the answer to your question is you are committing a crime or a fraud against the state of Florida by doing that, and you need not contact my office to handle such a transaction because I am not going to be part and parcel of it. I would also caution you to do that because if there is ever a problem later on about the transaction, trying to show that cash or the actual sales price, you are not going to be very successful whenever you have been involved in this transaction, particularly whenever the buyer then turns around, and he sells it and wants to take credit for the cash that he paid. Do you really think that he’s going to be looking out for the seller? So it’s just a very bad idea, and I can’t say enough bad things about it and would encourage you don’t engage in that activity.
So if you would like to close a transaction and pay documentary stamps on the full purchase price, give me a call at 727-847-2288, and I’ll be pleased to handle it for you.