AIBU to refuse to pay cash in hand?

I can sort of see why someone might ask for cash for a one-off job (ie., they do not trust you). But if someone's a regular, then I think it's fair to say no, you'd rather not.

FWIW I'm a gardener; I find it mildly irritating when people pay me cash in hand. A lot of people seem to think it's preferable, but it's not.

My local garage is happy with cash or card but charges less if we pay cash so that's fine by me!

I don't mind paying small amounts in cash because if you pay by card the trader loses up to 2.5 percent. I pay cash for a coffee and a bacon roll from a van, eggs at the market, and the ice cream man too.

You know “the government” is the rest of us, right? Why should the self employed get to pick & choose which laws they obey?

Ultimately tax evasion hurts us all.

YABU and also judgemental to assume someone is a tax fraud criminal for asking for cash (which they don’t have to pay charges for when banking).

Plenty of money that is paid by card is laundered and plenty that is paid cash in hand is correctly declared and taxed according.

I never pay cash in hand. I've had quotes for work done on my home where they've given me two prices. One for cash and one not.

I'm not a fool, I know cash in hand means they are avoiding tax, or similar.

I don't approve of tax avoidance, let alone tax fraud.

If I want to live in a civilised society ( and I do) where we have NHS, free education ( albeit only up to age 18 these days) a functioning police force ect. Then we have to pay for it. The way we pay is through taxation.

And of course, there is always the reprobate who wants cash in hand so he doesn't have to declare it to CMS. So another child goes without thanks to the colusion of the people who paid the father cash in hand.

Some may think I'm a gullible fool. I don't care what they think of me. I care what I think of me. And cheating is in effect a lie.

I don't approve, or want to be associated with liars.

Well no, because taking cash and not declaring it as income is tax evasion and not tax avoidance.

Which only benefits the person not declaring taxable income.

I think as long as you get an invoice and a receipt, then cash is fine.

I'm self employed, when I started a few years back many customers paid cash which meant I had the money in hand. Now, most pay by bank transfer. Some of them are excellent at remembering to do so in a timely fashion every week, some of them not so much, so I have to keep checking, chasing, reminding which is annoying.

From my side I wouldn't pay for anything big in cash, but I think a lot of self employed people work really bloody hard and tend to do a few little jobs at the weekend for cash, personally I think this is fine as they are paying tax on all the bigger jobs through the books they do on weekdays 🤷
Years ago I used to have a second job waitressing events when I was younger, on top of a full time office job. I only did cash work for the waitressing, as I already paid tax on my main job and I don't think hard working eg working on top of full time should be taxed/it wasn't worth the hassle if I got taxed on that. This is actually a change I would make if I was PM... Have people's hours linked to their payslips and anything over 37.5hrs a week should be tax free.

Or my old cleaner wanted cash, she was a single parent and pretty hard up, she wasn't charging much and it doesn't bother me either way.

But everyone's morals around these kind of things are different, so I think you just need to be happy with your own decisions!

It didn't have to be mentioned. I was talking about MY concerns about those things.

To stop chancers doing things like chargebacks with the bank I’d imagine. Cash means the person paying can’t get their money back unless the tradesperson pays it back - there’s no third party involved. Accepting card payments often means you have to pay for a service to be able to do that, all of which eats into profit.

Quite honestly, I’m not sure why it matters if you pay in cash or not, if you’re given an invoice and a receipt. It’s up to the person working to declare the earnings and pay their tax etc, so it’s no hardship on the person paying.

My nearest cash machine now is a half hour walk since all the local banks shut. I would not pay cash to anyone regular. Going way out of my way to go to the atm for a one off is fine but not every week.

I get an invoice from the window cleaner.

I can pay by cash or BT.

I pay anyone cash who wants it. Hairdresser, builders, plumbers, dog kennels, nail salon, beautician, cleaner, dog walker Happy for anyone to avoid paying as much tax as possible.

Great deal for both sides.

A lot of SE/small businesses prefer cash as it means they get to keep 100% of the profits. Using card machines or doing bank transfers means that they have to pay charges on any transaction made thus reducing their margins.
Asking for cash payment also ensures you are paid at the time of service and not when the client remembers to pay you. Most SE people cannot afford to bank roll all their late payers! Just because you always pay on time, its their business, their terms. It also avoids unnecessary admin by constantly having to check to see if people have paid. This eats into a massive amount of time and someone will need to be paid for that time spent too.
Just because someone is asking for cash, doesn't mean they are automatically fiddling the books; its just their preferred method of payment. If you're worried about a transaction history, then just ask for a receipt!

I pay my hairdresser and my window cleaner cash. My hairdresser used to work out of a shop with one other hairdresser and then they took cash and card. The hairdresser they shared the premises with decided to retire and my hairdresser couldn’t afford the rent for the premises on their own. They worked out that if they could keep 3/4 of their clients they could work out of their home and make money. I get a good cut for £25 and my hairdresser has been cutting my hair for 35 years. They are past pension age now and I don’t object if they are making a little money on the side. I suspect my window cleaner only declares around half his earnings but good window cleaners are difficult to get here and I live in a first floor flat.

So they expect me to make a trip to the cash point AND pay more in taxes to cover their benefit fraud. Appealing.

YABU
It’s simply none of your judgemental business.

I was chatting to an owner of an independent off licence/drinks ship- bank charges for him cost 2,500 when people paid by card - cash was free to pay in.

Crazy rates?? What a silly statement.

cash is great, card payments you have to pay for the privilege, bank transfer is great with no fees.

when I take cash it is still invoiced, pay my suppliers with it. Way the world works like it has for years!

I’m happy to pay cash to any tradesman that asks for it. We just had an opening widened and I gave the builder £1900 in cash.

I dont think its always as clear cut as you might think.

Person A - single parent, works part time as no support with DC. Lives somewhere with no breakfast/after school clubs. Huge credit card bill for legal fees trying to divorce abusive ex. Works a few hours a week "on the side" cash in hand, to survive. Second hand clothes, freezing house, ex pays little to nothing. Does no "childcare" Would i begrudge her few hours a week cash in hand? Absolutely not.

Person B - self employed, numerous cash jobs as a tax fiddle and to avoid child maintainence. Prolonging the divorce from person A, simply by refusing to engage. 5 vehicles (2 motorbikes) expensive hobby. Do i begrudge him? Yes.

This is actually a real life example