AIBU to refuse to pay cash in hand?

I suspect that they haven't thought through how it affects them personally if someone is not paying their fair share of tax and NI contributions. It's not just one or two people - there's a whole black economy out there which reduces Government revenue, which means that we pay more tax.

Some 'cash in hand' workers claim benefits as well. How are we to know that they are not fiddling the system? There are also people avoiding child support payments by being paid in cash - that costs the rest of us in benefit claims too.

I completely agree with you. I am also avoiding particularly those that give a VAT inclusive price and then a non VAT price as long as we pay in cash in hand. I am being hammered with taxes and pay my fair share via PAYE so expect all to do the same.

Yes, and it's also a problem for other people who are self employed. If you don't pay tax you can afford to undercut everyone else (and some people do).

Well yes but those that can are kind of taking it from the rest of us PAYE people by making tax higher for the rest of us ultimately.

So what if they are avoiding tax, jesus we pay enough!! I wish I could get a few quid into my hand

Because all the time politicians can claim expenses for ridiculous things like breakfasts and second homes I will happily turn a blind eye to self employed people trying to keep a few extra pounds.

I work at a electrical wholesaler we have lots of 1 man band contractors who prefer cash they go and pay there supplier bills with the cash the bacs just works easier for them

I agree. I have lots of mates whom are tradesmen & they are very honest that they can charge what ever they like as ‘people pay it’- & they fiddle the books / accept cash ect to pay as little tax & NI as possible. All have more money than the rest of us in good jobs but paying all our full whack of tax (an extra shifts I work as a senior nurse takes me just over the threshold for 40% tax. So any extra clinical shifts I work on the ward I pay a straight 40% tax. But it’s fine for tradesmen to charge mega bucks an hour (most my tradesman mates charge £75-80 an hour minus any materials ect) to avoid any tax leaving me to foot it!

This.
i pay various people cash in hand. Their tax is their issue.😊

I believe you’re missing out the crucial word “sometimes” - “sometimes to avoid tax”. It absolutely does not mean that everyone who gets paid in cash does not declare it. It’s an acceptable and legal form of payment according to HMRC and all other sources.

I've known tradesmen in construction catch a cold with clients. Who've refused to pay at the end of a job. Some now ask the client to pay for the materials. Some ask for interim payments every Friday in cash to pay the lads.

There's a few rogues out there so I can understand insisting on cash.

I remember one woman had seven double glazed windows put in. She laughed at the invoice refusing to pay. They removed every new window.

Another one a hotel had new curtains put in the bedrooms, again refusing to pay. The seamstress brought along her very big rugby playing sons and started to remove the curtains. Much panic by the owners and a wad of cash appeared.

I run my own business. Due to the fact that it’s medical and I have to carry personally identifying information I don’t like to carry card machines, as every one I have ever tried or trialled “stores” the info from the last person when I go to the next clients home. Therefore I have names, addresses, medical info and bank details all in one go. That’s a huge risk to me.
I also can’t afford to pay for the 10-20% charge from the bank every time I am forced to use one - that’s a heck of a lot of money that I won’t see a penny of, and it adds up! £3 per customer per day (at a very low end estimate) adds up to around £20 a day! That’s almost an entire appointment!!
I do take bank transfers but a lot of my elderly patients struggle to do it with their phones, so they pay cash or I will even take a cheque!
I do absolutely put every penny through on my business because I need to show it for my mortgage - when we move I want to have a large enough income to upgrade our new build house.

Why would you automatically assume they’re fiddling, plenty of tradesmen only take cash. You get an invoice from them afterwards.
It wouldn’t bother me, if I had cash.

Maybe that's where you're going wrong
I'm having a few jobs done at the min
Some cash
Some transfers
All receipts though
If they refuse to give you a receipt that's different

If your uncomfortable paying cash & they are insistent just say a little while lie like “sorry I can I work in tax fraud” watch them go silent 🤣

If my cleaner wants her 20 quid in her pocket to make life easier I really don't see a problem it's not my business if she declares it or not. I'm far more concerned about real tax avoidance than something so petty

Bank charges for businesses are high. Often if they need to pay employees or other trades and they like cash. Also for the business they know they have been paid, chasing payments is exhausting. If you have an invoice /receipt.

HMRc cannot increase it without creating a carve out for Northern Ireland due to NI still being deemed part of the EU for VAT purposes and the EU having an upper limit of threshold.

Why not drop the registration threshold to £20k. Then any business would faff to register and you would manage to skip the situation where one painter is VAT registered and forced to charge 20% more than another who isn’t (and remains under the threshold by taking a few months off a year).

Dropping your income by taking an extended holiday when you near the VAT threshold is perfectly legal. Choosing to take cash and not put it through the books to pretend you are still under the threshold is not legal.

People are really funny about the vAT registration threshhold thing too and think its totally ok to keep money off books to avoid it.

It isnt. The vat free limit is to maintain healthy competition by giving new/smaller business a chance to get going and build up. I do think the government should consider increasing the registration threshhold but it us what it is and imho the dishonest tradespeople give the honest ones a bad name.

YANBU. I don't use cash, and I'm not going to my own expense of travelling to a cashpoint (that uses Get Cash) to get cash out to make someone's life easier cos they cba with card payments or are trying to tax dodge.

I don't even use a bank card anymore so it's Apple Pay only, so I can only get cash out of a Natwest or Tesco cashpoint. We have one locally but if it's out of order I'd have to travel to find another.

Don't think I've used cash for the past five years or more.

No problem with people wanting cash, their choice. But they wouldn't be getting my business so I guess it's a case of how many others are willing to go along with it.

Because being paid in cash isn’t illegal. He’s perfectly legally entitled to ask for payment in cash. Though I do understand why you’re wary, but that’s your personal moral stance and nothing to do with law.

I’d just tell him sorry, you don’t have time to get to a cash point and tell him you’ll make a bank transfer because it’s 2026, and then do a tinkly laugh.

I live within easy walking distance of a Lloyd’s a TSB and a 2 post offices and a HSBc & Santander are maybe a 5 min drive away in the opposite direction.
so I’m lucky in that way
I can take out 500 on day on each of my accounts at a ATM

but we always have kept a few thousand in cash in the house just in case there is a zombie purge although I don’t know how good cash would be in that case 😂

And I always have a min of £150 £200 in my purse

today I paid 385 for the car
30 nails
8 in M&S
all in cash
no one said anything

They don’t get those things because they’ve chosen to be self employed, not because the government is being mean to them.

Cash in hand is obviously a way of scamming your way out of paying your fair share.

£200 is quiet a low ATM limit though - I think mine is either £500 or £1,000, and I know if I go and use one of the machines in the branch I can get at least £2,000 because that's what they told me to do when I called in advance, expecting I'd need to pick up over the counter. That's with Barclays :)