Start by determining whether the restaurants are sole proprietorships or entities, because that is the most basic fact affecting whether you need to aggregate the transactions. If they are sole proprietorships, they are not legally distinguishable from the individual who owns them, and he or she is the only person on whose behalf the transactions are completed. Aggregate based on the individual's ownership of the deposit accounts, and don't forget to include any cash transactions in that individual's personal accounts.
If, on the other hand, the restaurants are operated by entities owned by the same individual (LLCs or corporations, for example), aggregate transactions based on the entity owning the restaurant. If all three are owned by the same entity, aggregate on that basis (disregarding who owns the entity). If each restaurant is owned by a separate entity (LLC1, LLC2 and LLC3, for example), you do not combine cash transactions of one entity with those of another entity). Of course, if your bank is aware that the same individual makes the deposits for all of the restaurants, you have to aggregate all the deposits made by that individual into a single CTR, with multiple Section A entries (one for each separate entity)
. FinCEN has published a ruling (Ruling 2001-2) that addresses your question in a different way. It would have you aggregate across multiple entities if those entities are not operated separately and independently from one another. Review the ruling to see if it applies in the case you've described.
First published on BankersOnline.com 7/19/10
Filing CTRs Based on Business Owner
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Question:
We have three restaurants that are owned by the same individual, and each of the businesses has a cash deposit just about every day. Our operations manager wants our tellers to combine the cash deposits of the three companies for CTR filing, because the same individual benefits from deposits to all three accounts. Is that correct?
Answer: