I am travelling from Zurich airport and been told i can only take with me 10'000 CHF! Otherwise i need to declare (takes around half an hour )

What if i took 13'000 CHF without declaring it?
I am on a B Permit and pay already my monthly Quellensteuer!

What is the worst case scenario if they caught me!?

I'd love to read your inputs!
Cheers
nh

Does declaring it mean you have to pay taxes? Or just say where you got that money from?

Where are you going to put it?

They just told me i have to declare it, to be honest! I dont know!

Take 10 000 sFr. and then just withdraw the rest from an ATM at your destination.I assume you have a Maestro Card.
You can withdraw 1000 sFr. at a time.Not sure what the retriction is per day.
Obviously you would receive it in the local currency equivalent.

declare it to whom? where are you going?

The way US Customs operates is, if you fail to declare $10,000 or more in cash or negotiable instruments (going out of or the US or into the US) they seize some or all of it.

You can take as much as you want. You just have to declare it.

Just declare it. They just want to see it, it's not taxed or anything and it takes 2 minutes, not 30!

I have done it. You just go to the "something to declare" red exist and say, "hey, I need to declare my cash". They say "oh, I see, where is it from?" "My bank account, I'm in Zurich to do some jewellery shopping". "I see, complete this small form".

That's it.

they told me it might take up to half an hour depending on the line....

Where is the red exit in zurich airport at the departure? Please let me know!

Over 10,000 in cash? Ouch! That's a lot of money to risk losing. Why not either send the money ahead of you to a bank account ( if you have an account in your name, not anyone elses) or do as suggested - withdraw from an ATM at your destination.

You might have the wrong end of the stick there, m'boy! I think he's leaving Switzerland with the lolly, in which case he will need to declare it at the destination, I would have thought...


Why does he need to do it? Anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorist-financing regulations, for starters.

There is a customs point when leaving airports by plane, you just have to look for the sign "ZOLL". People need to have their Carnet stamped when temporarily exporting samples, test equipment, etc etc. Even getting the tax back they had to pay a week ago on their way to an exhibition in Zurich.

There is an international control on money flow, as Weejim says it's because of terrorism and drug smuggling and money laundering. You risk having it confiscated.

Take your bank statement to prove the cash belongs to you. Better still, ask your bank to sell you travellers' cheques, keep the receipt, they cost 1% and are insured against loss. You can then declare these without any big problem.

After you get your luggage there is a big hole in the wall with red all around it

Another one trying to impress airport staff by walking backwards.

The way I see it, you don't need any cash to buy electronics in England. You get interest free credit on anything you can carry out through the smashed front door, maybe have your mom knit you a balaclava (without your initials).

Your question reminded me of this story...

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/25608670/detail.html

I say fill out the paperwork, no matter how long it takes.

OK, so I reread and Uncle Weejeem has set me straight. I really hate to call you names and whatnot....but what are you doing with the money? If you deposit it and take it out at the other end, you won't wave any red flags with 13k, AML for Switzerland gives a guideline amount of 100k for AML processes to kick in (although it can be lower or higher or just be unusual). Are you sure it's just 13k or did you pick a figure marginally higher than 10k? If you ask what you want to acheive as an endgame we'll help answer.

Also, what's your destination?

US is USD 10k (CHF 7k or so), Italy is like EUR 1k!

Tom

They will keep the rest 3000...

Pretty sure they take it all, although I've never done it (and probably never will). There's no reason not to do it other than not being patient.

Depending on the circumstances of the traveler, they may only seize most of it and give them enough back to get a hotel and buy some food, etc.

he still hasn't told us where he's going and so really we can't give good advice since he's not cooperating.