AIBU to refuse to pay cash in hand?

The way I look at it is that as long as it is legal to carry and use cash in the UK it's not unreasonable for businesses to take it, and it's up to them if that's the only form of payment they want to accept. Likewise its not unreasonable for a customer to not want to pay in cash. But it is unreasonable to attempt to dictate to a business what means of payment it must take.

Having heard the stories from people who do run their own businesses of how much they can be strung along by people saying that they'll pay and then not I have a degree of sympathy for those that expect payment on completion in cash because its clear and simple.

You have to remember as well that for many one man bands or tradespeople they might have practical skills but not necessarily organisational or admin skills - so again the clarity and simplicity of cash makes sense to them.

In my experience most of those that do take cash do run it through the books, because if nothing else to borrow money, lease cars, phones etc etc some form credit history is necessary, and that means being able to show an ability to pay which means having cash going through banks statements and accounts.

Sure, I expect there are still some who don't, but I think it's been getting increasingly difficult to live 'off grid' from a tax/bank account perspective than it ever has, and if you look at countries where they have tried harder than in the UK to stamp out the use of cash the actual tax take hasn't changed...but administration costs have gone up.

I'd like to know how people who are happy to pay large sums in cash are actually getting their hands on the cash these days.

I have 2 bank accounts, and both of them have a cash point withdrawal limit of £200 pd. If I wanted to pay a builder, say, £2k in cash, I'd have to go to a cash machine every day for 5 days.

And it's no longer an easy matter to go into a branch to get cash. So many have closed, my town now has just 2 left, and one of those is rumoured to be closing. When I first moved here, we had a branch of all the main banks and building societies (two branches of Lloyds and NatWest).

If the last Lloyds closes as rumoured, the only place to get cash other than out of a machine, will be Nationwide.

I think the problem is when a tradesperson asks you to pay in cash eg in return for a discount. If you prefer to pay in cash and they are happy to accept it then obviously that's fine.

I won't pay cash for substantial amounts either. If I'm buying something for £20 off facebook marketplace and I have £20 in cash hand then that's the easiest way to pay. But I wouldn't pay for eg work done on the house in cash as a) it would be very inconvenient and b) the only plausible reason would be to avoid taxes etc which is illegal.

Accepting cash for a job is cash in hand. Working cash in hand doesn’t mean not declaring it, that’s just what people on this thread seem to be assuming/insisting. Of course in your case your DH is working cash in hand and declaring it, as many people do!

if i get asked to pay cash, i tell them i will need a receipt. That usually stops them. I don't care if it is official on a receipt block, but i want them to confirm that i gave them x amount on y day for z service, name and signature.

What they do after that is their business.

That's not a genuine question. Its snide and you know it.

My husband is a window cleaner. He accepts cash, card and apple pay. But there is a massive argument for him that cash is easier because he knows instantly who has paid and he can cross them off his sheet straight away

With card payments, he spends at least an hour every night chasing up payments, traipsing through his bank accounts trying to work out whose payment goes to who because not every bank shows the payment reference. He has issues where he knows the name of one customer, but the payment is made by that person's partner which might be in a different name, or a maiden name - so he then has to spend ages trying to match it all up. Then he has to work out who hasn't paid and spend ages chasing them all up becuase that person 'forgot'

cash is a lot easier. He can add it all together and pop to the post office across the road to pay it all in and the job is done in less than 5 mins.

Hes never done anything cash in hand. Everything is declared because quite frankly, our ability to get a good mortgage deal is pretty fucking important.

Yup i don't work with anyone who insists on cash. I suspect most are a) trying to avoid vat registration threshholds b) probably underdeclaring income for tax purposes c) probably underdeclaring income for benefit & CMS purposes.

Im happy to pay slightly more to cover bank transaction costs.

Yes of course we do.

You see I think tradies should be banned from being paid in cash and any shops used by them should be banned from taking cash. But in compensation they should have a legal right to increase an invoice amount by 10% for every week the invoice remains unpaid.

I think HMRC should be actively promoting a tip off line for businesses that demand cash of offer a discount for cash and any businesses suspected of money laundering and employing illegal immigrants.

I’ve just paid in 385 in cash for some work on my sons car
got a receipt
I don’t see the problem with it
garage will take card or cash

My garage prefer card payments because it makes it easier to do their books and saves money in accountants' fees, and no-one needs to go to the bank to pay in cash (much harder now that branch closures mean that it's a 6 mile trip).

My plumber says the same, his accountant uses a system called Zoom, that somehow links his bank account transactions to his accountants or something.

My sister in law is a teacher
tutors cash in hand and has done for years

while always ranting about benefit cheats and the like taking from the state blah blah

when I pointed out to her that she wasn’t much different as she was not declaring a decent wedge of money each month

she said “well that’s different “ 😂

People like her make me cross because she isn’t any different to anyone else but thinks she is

If I’m asked to pay cash for something I just do. As far as I’m concerned I don’t work for HMRC and tend to assume most people are decent enough to do the right thing and if not well, not my business really is it .

We use a couple of tradies to do work on our house and flats

they all say they will always come straight out to us because we ask for a price agree it there and then and we always pay in cash when the jobs done

Some of them have had huge problems getting final payments from customers in the past

I accept cash and I run this through my books. My accountant updates my balance to HMRC with an average amount taken each week so I don’t dodge my responsibilities as a small business owner. HMRC are looking at money in vs. money out - if you have a surplus of expenses and regularly top up your bank accounts with cash it will show a discrepancy and trigger an investigation which no one wants. I prefer cash as I don’t have to pay card fees. If I accept online bookings I levy the bank charge on the customer and let them decide if they’d prefer the 2.5% surcharge for bookings.

I pay cash for a lot of services I book and I keep cash at home.

Was in Halfords the other day and their tills were down, I paid over £100 in cash whilst customers had to leave their purchases behind. It’s good to be prepared and keep some cash on you.

What if the gardener were chinese ?

🤔

I agree with you OP.
I always think they’re into something. Surely cash is inconvenient for most people these days! I hate have cash lolling about

Tax law is a tool which the government can use to change / encourage / discourage behaviours. Tax evasion is illegal. Tax avoidance may not be illegal yet but isn’t within the spirit of the law & is likely to become illegal once the government change the law.
Tax planning is using tax reliefs in line with the government’s intentions. So no, salary sacrifice is not tax evasion.

I pay my hairdresser by card because the salon owner puts very little cash through the books, is massively on the fiddle and actually boasts about it. (Her SIL is a good friend of mine.) I give her a cash tip though.

Or based on the fact that £26bn of income tax was evaded by small businesses last year and the easiest way for a small business to evade tax is to take payment in cash and not declare it?

People are 100% right to be very wary of being asked to pay in cash.

"your using this assumption as a primary criteria for using a business/tradesperson"

I said 'a' primary criteria which suggests a group of factors. So the irony is it's YOUR reading comprehension that's failed.

Clearly you're using cash payments as a primary factor you've created a thread about avoiding people for this very reason. So it's clearly not an assumption base on nothing but based on your own words/actions.

HMRC are ambivalent about people stuffing money into pensions to pay less income tax in the current tax year because that money in their pensions will be subject to income tax when that person retires and draws down that pension income. Pension stuffing isn’t avoiding the payment of income tax it’s delaying it.

I didn't say that everyone paying less tax was doing it illegally! I was pointing out that people who want cash in hand are often doing so because the payment won't show up in their books and therefore they won't get taxed on it. I pay into a pension and I have ISAs - two ways to legally lower my tax bill. If doing something entirely legal means you're taking the moral high ground, then you're on the same ground as me.

If you don't approve then don't use that service. But I think there should be a choice.