The trigger
A Threshold Transaction Report is required when your agency receives cash or cash-equivalent — in a single transaction or related series — of $10,000 AUD or more (or the foreign-currency equivalent). The lodgement window is short and prescriptive: AUSTRAC requires lodgement within 10 business days of the transaction.
What 'cash' and 'cash-equivalent' mean
- Physical Australian or foreign currency.
- Bearer-negotiable instruments (traveller's cheques, bearer cheques).
- Bullion or gemstones presented at a value above the threshold.
Cleared bank-to-bank funds — the typical settlement path through a solicitor or conveyancer's trust account — are not cash-equivalent. Most residential property deposits and settlements will not trigger a TTR for the agency, because the funds move through regulated banking rails.
The cases that do trigger
- An agency takes a $10,000+ deposit in physical cash at the office or via a sales agent.
- A buyer presents bullion or bearer-negotiable instruments above threshold as part of a deposit.
- Structured payments — multiple sub-$10,000 amounts that look related — are aggregated; AUSTRAC treats these as a single transaction for TTR purposes.
Lodgement workflow
Reports are lodged via AUSTRAC Online. The form captures the transaction amount, customer details, the receiving entity (your agency), and the manner of receipt. AustracCheck generates an AUSTRAC-format draft from the customer record; your agency reviews and lodges through AUSTRAC's own system. Lodgement evidence (reference number, timestamp) is stored against the customer record.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Treating settlement via solicitor's trust account as a TTR trigger — it usually is not, because the cash leg sits with the regulated bank, not the agency.
- Missing aggregation — three $4,000 cash deposits inside a week from the same buyer is one TTR, not zero.
- Lodging late — the 10-business-day window starts from the transaction, not from when the agency notices.
- Failing to capture supporting identity verification — AUSTRAC expects the TTR to point to the same customer record that holds the verification artefacts.
Suspicious vs threshold reports
If a transaction is below $10,000 but the circumstances suggest money laundering, that is a Suspicious Matter Report (SMR), not a TTR. SMRs have stricter tipping-off rules — AustracCheck flags the customer record so internal handovers stay inside the boundary.