|
?:reviewBody
|
-
In July 2020, Mississippi state Sen. Chad McMahan posted a warning to businesses in his state that were declining to handle cash during the COVID-19 pandemic (due to fears of virus transmission via surface contact) that they were breaking the law by refusing to accept payment in legal tender: McMahan was wrong in a legal sense, however: No federal law requires all businesses in the U.S. to accept currency or coins as payment for goods and services. The designation of coins and/or currency as legal tender does not mean that all merchants must accept that form of payment for all transactions. In short, when a debt has been incurred by one party to another, and the parties have agreed that cash is to be the medium of exchange, then legal tender must be accepted if it is proffered in satisfaction of that debt. However, otherwise the selling party may set the medium of exchange to be anything they choose: dollars, bananas, precious gems, feathers, whiskey, etc. They may also choose to accept cash payment only via alternative forms (e.g., credit/debit card, check, money order) rather than currency itself. The U.S. Treasury answers this question of legal tender acceptability on their website thusly: As noted above, however, although no federal regulation requires businesses to accept currency and coins as payment, local regulations may do so. Massachusetts has had such a law in place since 1978, and New Jersey enacted similar legislation in 2019. A few cities (e.g., San Francisco, Philadelphia) have prohibited stores from going cashless as well. But Mississippi has no such requirement on its books, something McMahan seemingly acknowledged when he later said that, To meet the needs and demands of Mississippians -- the average person that’s out here working and going to the grocery store and living their lives -- I would like to see every business in Mississippi have a pathway to take cash legal tender.
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}