AIBU to refuse to pay cash in hand?

A beautician was recommended to me recently by a friend. After the appointment she asked for cash and I never carry cash. I asked if I could bank transfer it her and her response was “no because it will affect my universal credit”.

I felt very awkward and also impressed at her blatant honesty. She clearly wasn’t worried that I would report her

There is a lot of jargon in most professional fields and the legal field excels. The "clear distinction" is a legal one. It does not exist in plain english. When people are explicitly talking about legal jeopardy (as some are) it might be worth pointing out that legally there are tax avoidance processes that are not illegal but the ones that amount to evasion are a problem. But otherwise it's just language policing.

We all pay the price when people want to dodge paying their fair share of tax.

I think neither you or your friend are being unreasonable. Live and let live.

It's not a crine

No, it’s a clear distinction, and anybody living in the UK and subject to the UK tax system should understand the difference.

Tax avoidance is using legal means to pay minimal tax.

Tax evasion is fraud.

It’s ‘arsey’ to pretend that they’re the same thing.

HTH

That’s not always true for business banking. Some banks charge business accounts transaction fees on deposits.

Its to avoid you paying 20% VAT

Card processing charges for small businesses are excessive, last year I did £700K in card transactions and £100K of that was taken as processing costs. That is a lot of money to lose out of the business and don’t get me started on the onerous T&Cs you have to agree to, they can just decide out of the blue you are a ‘risky’ business and then just hold all card transactions for to three months.
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Because you are assuming they are doing something wrong simply because they ask for cash. Judgement pouring out there

I think you are being too cynical; there are lots of reasons for asking for cash; avoidaing card charges is one.

This.
I have my own business and get charged more to pay cash in than I do card. I take both, but tend to use cash for my personal wage rather than paying it in.

My builders are happy to take cash or card. I get a receipt/invoice either way.

In plain english, evasion is avoidance. It's pretty arsey to "correct" someone for using plain English in a non legal forum just because the legal system has it's own definitions for it's own reasons.

Whether a small business/trader is paying tax or not is between them and HMRC, it is none of my business and it is rude to jump to conclusions.

I used to trade at dog shows (live 'cartoon your dog whilst you wait') and those would all be cash as most shows are in fields somewhere with poor phone/internet coverage. I would also pay for my trade stand in cash on the day. Why would you assume that money doesn't go through the books like any electronic payment does, based just on the fact it is cash?

We could all assume that, because someone has the means to do a bad thing, they are doing that bad thing... but that'd make life pretty shitty I think.

I have started to pay cash to my hairdresser since she told me how much it costs her for each card transaction to her bank account. It’s no skin off my nose as there’s a cash machine almost next door and I have absolutely no reason to believe she’s defrauding anyone.

One of the pubs near us has their bank fees on a black board and asks for cash payments. I think they pay their casual staff in cash too. It’s so open i dont think it’s a tax dodge, it’s a bank fees dodge.

The consumer can be liable, especially if it’s a particularly obvious 20% discount for cash for a VAT registered business.

I paid some builders an obscene amount if money in cash a few years ago. I had to make an actual appointment at the bank to get it and didn’t enjoy travelling home with it.

It didn’t sit right with me at all so not done it since

I find the vast majority tradespeople prefer bank transfers these days. Works for me. I never have any cash anyway.

I don't mind paying cash to small businesses, but I like to have the choice.
I really don't care if the gardener or cleaner doesn't declare every single job. It's way low down the list of concerns

Because cash is nice, I like it, use it and would always pay anyone who did a job for me in cash. Not everything has to go through the books, people already pay enough tax. If a bit of cash helps someone I am glad - but it is not my business what they declare or don't anyway.

As for it being inconvenient to go to an atm, presumably you go to work or shopping, you can go to an atm then and put the money somewhere safe indoors. Also if you have a car you can nip out in the evening. It won't kill you to go to an atm on occasion.

I believe its illegal to be part of it, if you suspect tax is being avoided you can be held liable.

My hairdresser only takes cash or cheque. She's been cutting my hair for nearly 40 years and is the only person who can cut autistic DS hair. No idea if she puts it all through the books or not but I suspect she does. Her mum was the hairdresser before her and tbh a lot of it is quite old fashioned but a great place. Not everyone is on the fiddle.

That's different though, she's on a payroll, so she won't be liable to pay tax on the cash she gets given, all that is taken care of via the PAYE.

In my experience almost all trades that request cash in hand are tax dodging. Most of them say they'll knock off the VAT or give you a discount for cash, so they're pretty blatant about it. I don't want to be a part of that either.

I might pay cash in hand for something like ad hoc babysitting, even though I think the chances they're declaring the money for tax is vanishingly small, but not a proper business.

I’m exactly the same
most Starbucks take cash but one I went into only took card
no signs on the door anywhere

so I ordered my drink and sandwich went to pay cash and they were like oh it’s card only

so I said sorry I’ve only got cash and left
so they lost £12 and they had opened the sandwich that I wanted

Im sure they aren’t crying over £12 but they should have had a sign up saying card only if they only accept cards