The 500 euro banknotes have been almost like an urban legend for citizens: they are known to exist, or so it is said, but few have held them in their hands. A circumstance that has increased even more during the last three years.
At the beginning of 2019, the Bank of Spain stopped issuing these banknotes. The decision came years after the recommendations of the European Central Bank to prohibit the production of 500-euro bills due to their links to activities such as money laundering.
From that moment on, only a few establishments could recirculate these bills, that is, deliver them to their customers after the pertinent tasks of supervision and verification of the integrity of that money.
These establishments are those related to professional sectors such as banks, cash transfer companies, currency exchange offices or the like, which will be able to give out 500 bills to customers.
With these bills, the citizen will be able to buy and save, since they have not ceased to be valid as a payment method or store of value, nor have they lost their value at any time. And, if at any time, the people who have these banknotes in their possession wish to exchange them for others of lesser value at the Bank of Spain, they will be able to do so without any problems.
The Government monitors the 500-euro bills very closely, as it obliges all banks to report any operation involving a 500-euro bill (or more). The Tax Agency, therefore, is religiously informed of any entry or withdrawal of this type of banknote.
The background of this measure, which enables the Treasury to carry out the pertinent investigations in case it sees suspicious signs, is the linking of cash with activities related to fraud and the underground economy, with the corresponding tax evasion.
Based on this, the Government has recently approved the , which has gone from 2,500 to 1,000 euros for professionals, in which there is a greater use of cash: hospitality, construction, commerce, the reform sector…
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