Yeah it applies to businesses, but I don't think it's limited to payments between business and not consumer>merchant.
At least that's how is in the EU.
That's what I meant, there's no restriction on two individuals exchanging that amount.
I can't go and buy something worth 15 000 euros for example from a shop with cash. It's either plastic or bank transfer.
Of course I doubt that's also the case for Australia but in parts of Eastern Europe there are a lot of "intermediaries" that buy lots of stuff (especially in agricultural products) and they deal only with cash, same with used cars and many more.
Second-hand car dealers were about the only thing I could think of that would fall into this. I'm thinking of the UK, I'm not so familiar as to what happens in Eastern Europe.
Probably the real estate will be hit by this as with this limit there is no way and no excuse for them to deal with any cash whatsoever, and that's one business where tax evasion is rampant.
Real estate is heavily used for laundered money but you can't buy a house with cash. That's all a bit more sophisticated than that. The money is laundered first and then invested in property to park it in the name of an offshore (tax haven) registered company.
It's going to be interesting if they lower this, Italy is at 2999 Euros.
So that's about half what Australia has announced.