Why does Home Depot refund Cash for Debit Card purchases?

Just venting...

If you purchase something at home Depot on a debit card and then return it, they will only give you a cash refund.

Even when you don't have the receipt, their system is able to find your purchase if you give them the debit card, so they are obviously linked up in the bowels of their computers.

Every other store I know puts the refund back on the debit card, most times without even having to show them the card.

I'm now walking around with close to $200 in cash because of some returns I processed yesterday.

I wonder what their rules are if I buy $10K worth of lumber and then returned it. Would they give me $10K in cash which I would then have to report to the IRS?

Reply to
DerbyDad03
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My guess is if they credited your debit account they would have to pay the interchange charge.

Reply to
gfretwell

It's not reportable to the IRS because it's not income.

Unless you stole the debit card and took the cash as profit, then technically it'd be reportable income.

Reply to
Shaun Eli

Likely because there are bank fees involved if they do a transaction back to the debit card. Since I didn't believe "too big to fail" and don't care much for banks I say good for them.

If you received over $10k and have a business you need to report it on form 8300:

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Of course there would be no liability on your part since you would have the backup to show it was a refund.

Reply to
George

DerbyDad03 wrote the following:

Every once in a while (maybe twice a month since I have direct deposit on two separate retirement incomes), I visit my bank to grab $100 from the ATM machine. The $200 refund would save me two trips, or I can go to the bank and deposit the $200 back into the checking account.

Reply to
willshak

Are you mentally deficient?

Why would you have to report YOUR OWN money, that you ALREADY PAID TAXES on, to the IRS?

Reply to
mkirsch1

I think he's mostly paranoid over the fact that he has a significant amount of cash in his pocket.

Of course the only way the bad guy would know you had that much cash on you is if you walked along fanning yourself with a stack of $20 bills... If you don't advertise it, nobody knows you have it, and the likelihood of getting held up is no more than any other person on any given day.

Reply to
mkirsch1

willshak wrote in news:BuWdncJIoMLlWLjTnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@supernews.com:

perhaps HD doesn't want to pay a SECOND fee to credit your debit card? Use of the card incurs a user fee to HD,then when "refunding",it might incur a second fee to HD. Every electronic monetary transaction incurs a fee to someone.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

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Filing Requirements: 1.. Who must file Form 8300? Any persons who receive more than $10,000 while conducting their trade or business must file a Form 8300. The $10,000 may occur in a single transaction, or a series of related transactions. 2.. What payments must be reported? A business must file Form 8300 to report cash paid to it if the cash payment is: a.. Over $10,000, b.. Received as: 1.. One lump sum of over $10,000, 2.. Two or more related payments that total in excess of $10,000, or 3.. Payments received as part of a single transaction (or two or more related transactions) that cause the total cash received within a 12-month period to total more than $10,000. c.. Received in the course of trade or business, d.. Received from the same buyer (or agent), and e.. Received in a single transaction or in two or more related transactions

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

If he has a business he does because $10k cash is the government mandated reporting threshold :

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Of course in his case it wouldn't matter because there would be a trail.

Reply to
George

He is not receiving $10,000 as payment in a business transaction, he is being given a refund of $10,000 in a business transaction.. Are you implying that he would have to pay taxes on the $10,000 twice?

Reply to
willshak

Not Robert, The reporting requirement has nothing to do with his tax liability.

Reply to
George

Exactly. It has nothing to do with taxes being owed on the amount in question just because you received it. It's about the Feds trying to catch people avoiding taxes by doing crash transactions. Think drug money and money laundering. Hence they require it to be reported so there is a trail.

Reply to
trader4

Not anything to do with taxes, rather the fees the bank (and network) charges to ding, or un-ding, a card. They paid once and they don't want to lose twice on the same transaction.

Reply to
krw

ALSO, banks charge a fee to deposit cash, and the armored car charges to pick it up, so they want to get rid of the cash back to the customer. In this area Costco does the same thing.

Reply to
EXT

I believe that I should be asking the "mentally deficient" question of you.

Look up IRS Form 8300.

It has nothing to do with taxes or income.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Lots of the responses have mentioned the "fee" for the refund transaction.

If that is indeed the case, then why is HD one of the very, very few (and the only one that I know of) that makes it's their standard practice to avoid the fee?

Obviously, all of the other thousands of businesses know about the fee, so why aren't they refunding cash?

Reply to
DerbyDad03

It sounds to me as if both the purchase and the refund needed to be recorded. I don't see Home Depot ever giving anyone a $10,000+ refund.

However, to answer your question, double taxation occurs all the time. The money that I paid taxes on is taxed again whenever I pay it to a doctor or groundskeeper and it becomes part of their income stream. I don't think that's fair, but I didn't write the tax code. If the groundskeeper pays his assistant, that money is taxed once again.

The Feds go so far as to demand a form be filled out even when cash is exchanged for other cash (in excess of $10,000).

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

Yep! The same reason they allow you to get cash back from the transaction. Grocery stores used to allow one to write checks for an amount above the purchase, too. Some had quite a high limit ($50 or even $100). People bitch about credit card fees (or the lack of a discount for cash) but handling cash isn't free either.

Reply to
krw

Not sure if the IRS is the right agency or if HD is subject to the pertinent law or regulation but financial institutions are required to report all transactions over $10,000 to the federal government (again, not sure If it's the IRS or some other agency)

Reply to
Larry W

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