EN ECB -PUBLIC  
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK  
of 1 February  2019  
on limitations to cash payments  
(CON/20 19/4) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 28 November 2018  the European Central Bank (ECB) received a r equest from the Banco de España , 
on behalf of the Spanish State Secretary for Finance,  for an opinion on a draft l aw on measures for the 
prevention of and fight against fiscal fraud, transposing Council Directive (EU) 2016/1164 of July 2016 
laying down rules against tax avoidance practices that directly affect the functioning of the internal market 
and Council Directive (EU) 2017/1852 of 10 October 2017 on tax dispute resolution mechanisms in the 
European Union, and on the amendment of specific tax rules  (hereinafter  the ‘draft law’) . 
The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on Articles 127(4) and 282(5) of the Treaty on the 
Functioning of the European Union and the second indent of Article  2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC1, 
as the draft law  relates to means of payment.  In accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the 
Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion.  
 
1. Purpose of the draft law  
1.1 The draft law intends to reinforce the prevention of and fight against fiscal fraud. One of the 
measures it provides for is an amendment to Law 7/20122 further  limiting the amounts that can be 
paid in cash in  transactions where at least one of the parties acts  in a prof essional or business 
capacity.  
1.2 It is proposed that t he existing cash payment limit be lowered from EUR 2 500 to EUR 1 000 in the 
case of  transactions where at least one of the parties acts in a  profess ional or business capacity. 
The existing cash payment  limit is also lowered from EUR 15 000 to EUR 10 000 where the payer is  
a natural person not having their tax residence in Spain and not act ing in a professional or business 
capacity. The existing limit of EUR 2 500 for payments made by natural persons not acting in a 
professional or business capacity and having their tax residence in Spain will not be modified, to 
minimise the draft law’s  collateral effects on households . For t he purpose of calculating the 
applicable  limits, where payment for the delivery of goods or the performance of services which 
comprise one transaction has been divided into more than one transaction or payment, those 
transactions or payments will be added together . Moreover, it will continue to be the case that these 
                                                 
1  Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national authorities  
regarding draft legislative provisions (OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42). 
2  Law 7/2012 of 29 October 2012 amending tax and budget rules and adapting financial rules for the intensification of 
action for the prevention of and fight against fraud. See also Opinion CON/2012/33. All ECB opinions are published on 
the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu. 
ECB -PUBLIC  
2 limitations do not apply to transactions between parties not acting in a professional or business 
capacity, or to payments and deposits made with credit institutions.  The draft law also modifies 
certain pr ocedural aspects of the cash payment limitation regime’s sanctioning procedure.   
These provisions are intended to apply to all payments made following the entry into force of the 
draft law, including payments which  relate to transactions agreed prior to the introduction of the 
proposed limitations.  
 
2. General observations   
2.1 The ECB understands that, under the draft law, a) a limit  of EUR 1 000 applies to cash payments in 
transactions where the pay er acts in a professional or business capacity, regardless of the location 
of the parties’  tax residence; b) a limit  of EUR 2 500 applies to cash payments from  natural persons 
not acting in a professional or business capacity who are tax residents in Spain to par ties acting in a 
professional or business capacity; c) a limit  of EUR 10 000 applies to cash payments from natural 
persons not acting in a professional or business capacity who are not tax residents in Spain to 
parties acting in a professional or bus iness capacity; d) no limit  applies to cash payments in 
transactions where none of the parties are acting in a professional or business capacity; and e) no 
limit applies to cash payments and deposits made with credit institutions.  
2.2 Commission  Recommendation 2010/191/EU3 states that the acceptance of payments in cash should 
be the rule, but acknowledges that cash may be refused for reasons related to the ‘good faith 
principle’, without this constituting a breach of the legal tender status of cash. Neither Union la w nor 
Recommendation 2010/191/EU explicitly addresses whether, nor to what extent, it may be 
permissible to introduce a more general limitation to the obligation to accept euro cash payments. 
Therefore, Union law must be interpreted in order to ascertain t he conditions that a limitation on 
payments in euro notes and coins should fulfil, including the conditions that should be fulfilled to 
comply with the legal tender status of euro banknotes and coins when general limitations to the 
obligation to accept cas h payments are introduced4. 
2.3 Without prejudice to the specific considerations in paragraphs  3.1 to 3.4, the draft law, in its general 
provisions, must comply with Union law ; in particular, any limitation  to cash payments  needs to 
comply with the legal tender status of euro banknotes5. In this context, recital 19 of Council 
Regulation (EC) No 974/9846 states that ‘limitations on payments in notes and coins, established by 
Member States  for public reasons, are not incompati ble with the status of legal tender of euro 
banknotes and coins, provided that other lawful means for the settlement of monetary debts are 
available ’7. Additionally, these limitations should also be effective and proportionate to the objectives 
pursued and  not go beyond what is necessary to achieve such objectives, in order to comply with 
                                                 
3  Commission Recommendation 2010/191/EU of 22 March 2010 on the scope and effects of legal tender of euro 
banknotes and coins (OJ L 83, 30.3.2010, p 70). 
4  See paragraph 2.1 of Opinion CON/2017/18, paragraph 3.1 of Opinion CON/2017/20, paragraph 2.3 of Opinion 
CON/2017/27, and paragraph 2.2 of Opinion CON/2017/40.  
5  See paragraph 2.4 of Opinion CON/2017/18 and paragraph 2.5 of Opinion CON/2017/40.  
6  Council Regulation (EC) No 974/98 of 3 May 1998 on the introduction of the euro (OJ L 139, 11.5.1998, p. 1). 
7  See, for example, Opinions CON/2013/18, CON/2014/4 and CON/2014/37.  
ECB -PUBLIC  
3 the legal tender status of euro banknotes.  
2.4 The ECB acknowledges that the draft law’s objective of preventing and combating tax evasion may, 
in general, constitute a ‘public reason ’ justifying the establishment of limitations on cash payments . 
The ECB also considers that other lawful means for t he settlement of monetary debts  are available 
in Spain8. However , these other means may have different characteristics compared to cash  and are 
not in all cases fully equivalent alternatives to cash payments .  
2.5 Limitations on cash payments should, additionally , fulfil the proportionality requirem ent described in 
paragraph 2.3 above, especially in view of the fact that the measures set out in the draft law affect 
transactions between natural persons and involve payments of relatively small amounts. Any 
negative impact of the proposed limitations should therefore be carefully weighed against the 
anticipated public benefits. When consideri ng whether a limitation is proportionate, the adverse 
impact of the limitation in question should always be considered, as well as whether alternative 
measures could be adopted that would fulfil the relevant objective and have a less adverse impact9. 
2.6 Furth ermore, it should be borne in mind that the ability to pay in cash remains particularly important 
for certain groups in society that, for various legitimate reasons, prefer to use cash rather than other 
payment instruments. Cash is generally also appreciat ed as a payment instrument because it is 
widely accepted, fast and facilitates control over the payer’s spending. Moreover, it is a means of 
payment that allows citizens to instantly settle a transaction and is the only method of settlement  in 
central bank  money and at face value which does not carry the legal possibility of imposing a fee for 
the use of this means of payment. Also, cash payments do not require a functional technical 
infrastructure and related investment , and are always available; this  is of particular relevance in the 
case of outage of electronic payments. Additionally, cash payments facilitate the inclusion of the 
entire population in the economy by  allowing it to settle any kind of financial transaction in this way10.  
 
3. Specific observatio ns 
3.1 The explanatory memorandum to the draft law mentions  that for transactions where the payer is a 
natural person (not acting in a professional or business capacity) with a tax residence in Spain,  no 
change in the threshold of EUR 2 500 is proposed in order to minimise the draft law’s collateral 
effects on households . Apart from  this one exception, the explanatory memorandum does not 
address the social impact of the proposed substantial lowering of the limit s on cash payments .  
3.2 The proposed EUR 1  000 limit on cash payments needs to take into account the advantages of 
having limits on cash payments in place and the potential  inconvenience thereof for regular 
transactions in certain market segments. In this regard, it should be noted that Directive (EU) 
2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council11, while  confirming the vulnerability of large 
                                                 
8  See paragraph 2.1 of Opinion CON/2012/33.  
9  See, for example, paragraph 2.3 of  Opinion CON/2014/4, paragraph 2.3 of Opinion CON/2014/37, paragraphs 2.6 and 
2.7 of Opinion CON/2017/8 and paragraphs  2.5 and 2. 6 of Opinion CON/2017/ 18. 
10  See paragraph 2.6 of Opinion CON/2017/18, paragraph 3.4 of Opinion CON/2017/20, paragraph 2.8 of O pinion 
CON/2017/27 and paragraph 2.7 of Opinion CON/2017/40.  
11  Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 May 2015 on the prevention of the use 
of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, amending Regulation (EU) 
No 648/2012 of the European Parl iament and of the Council, and repealing Directive 2005/60/EC of the European 
 
ECB -PUBLIC  
4 cash payments to money laundering and terrorist financing,  requires that persons trading in goods, 
who are otherwise not obliged entities  under that D irective , be classified as obliged entities and 
apply customer due diligence measures only to the extent that payments are made or received in 
cash in amount s of EUR 10 000 or more.  This implies that the draft law  should establish a 
proportionate threshold for limits o n cash  payments, taking into account the objectives of such 
limits12. Against this background, the ECB considers the lowering of the limit on cash payments in 
transactions where the payer  is acting in a professional or business capacity  to EUR 1 000 to be  
disproportionate, in the light of the potentially adverse impact on the cash payment system. Indeed, 
this limit makes it more difficult to settle legitimate transactions using cash as a means of payment, 
thus endangering the concept of legal tender enshrined in the Treaty13. Moreover, as experience 
within the Union  has shown, certain cashless payment  instruments may be temporarily unavailable 
as they depen d on the underlying technical infrastructure operated by payment service provider s. In 
such contingencies transactions in cash above the cash payment limits may be required.  
3.3 Regarding the limit of EUR 10 000 for cash payments made by natural persons not acting in a 
professional or business capacity who are not tax residents in Spain to parties acting in a 
professional or business capacity , there seems to be no justification as to why a different standard 
should be established for payments  made by non- residents; this seems to discriminate against 
payments made by residents14.  
3.4 The sanctioning regime established by the draft law seems excessive and, in particular, the fine of 
25% of the amount paid15 appears disproportionately high. The ECB reiterates  that limitations on 
cash payments should not go beyond what is necessary to achi eve their objectives , and that any 
negative impact of the proposed limitations should be carefully weighed against the anticipated 
public benefits. When considering whether a limitation is proportionate, the adverse impact of the 
limitation in question should always be considered. A sanction that would apply to any  breach, 
regardless of the underlying situation, does not seem to comply with the proportionality 
requirement16.  
 
This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.  
 
 
Done at Frankfurt am Main, 1 February  2019. 
 
[signed]  
 
The President of the ECB  
Mario DRAGHI  
                                                                                                                                                               
Parliament and of the Council and Commission Directive 2006/70/EC (OJ L 141, 5.6.2015, p. 73).  
12  See paragraph 3.2 of Opinion CON/2017/18 and paragraph 2.10  of Opinion CON/2017/27.  
13  See paragraph 3.1 of Opinion CON/2017/18 and paragraph 2.9 of Opinion CON/2017/27.  
14  See paragraph 3.2 of Opinion CON/2017/18. 
15  See Article 16 of the draft law. 
16  See paragraph 3.6 of Opinion CON/2017/18.