AIBU to be so sick of tradespeople/ cleaners asking for cash in hand?

what do these anti-tax people think the money for public services come from? NHS, education, social care etc - are they just so selfish that they're happy for the rest of us to pay for all that while they count their piles of money?

Yes its very selfish for people like me who are child free to be paying for your subs and handouts and facilities for your kids - facilities which we do not want and cannot use. 22% of my council tax goes on children's services and I begrudge every penny of it.

I'm self employed. I don't take cash.

I agree with you. I won't use businesses that do this.

The government have advised us to stock up on water, tinned food, torches, candles, CASH etc because of whatever they're anticipating this winter. Cash maybe very useful in the near future.

Taxation is theft

We need to do what other eu countries do and drop the VAT threshold to about £10k. This would exclude those who have a little hobby while including every business whatever the size. Then there’s no worry about you being VAT registered and a rival but.

Didn’t expect such a unanimous agreement- although the poll shows a few ‘cashiers’ have voted!

I had one guy say ‘do you mind paying it in cash as I’m on the VAT threshold and don’t want to have to register’ which means he had an income of £90k per year for a man and van business.

Nope, I hate it and use it as a barometer for whether I hire someone or not. I don't want to be contributing to the problem.

This just shows the rift in morals between people. Each and every person needs to report tax dodgers every time. It’s are moral duty to do so. Do you know why the Greeks had an IMF bail out? It had far too many people dodging tax and people turning a blind eye to it. Taxes pay public services for everyone. You’d do well to remember that. ‘Grass’! Are you twelve???

This is such a snobby thread that I cannot relate to at all. The people gleefully saying that they report people who’ve they’ve asked for a quote to HMRC are repulsive and alien to me. What a load of grasses.

This is such a snobby thread that I cannot relate to at all. The people gleefully saying that they report people who’ve they’ve asked for a quote to HMRC are repulsive and alien to me. What a load of grasses.

I think that’s shows a complete lack of understanding what life is like for some people. Before I moved from the UK I did a chunk of volunteering for an organisation that provided support to some of the poorest in society who’d got into the most terrible financial messes, in many cases as a result a combination of circumstances behind their control. These were people who ended up owing credit companies, utility companies, banks what would be seen as small amounts of money to many of us, but insurmountably large when your current account is almost always in an unauthorised overdraft, who have debt collectors knocking at the door, attachment of earnings or benefits orders and so on. Any money sent to their bank account gets swallowed by the usurious bank charges that rack up when you’re almost always in an unauthorised overdraft. For them, being paid in cash is what let them buy food for their children, put some credit on their prepaid electricity meter, buy a bus ticket. They are people who can’t just tap and pay, because their card won’t be authorised. And there are a y many of them on the fringes of society. It’s easy to take for granted that a quick trip to M&S and a quick tap of your phone will result in some food. Not so easy when your races are frozen/maxed out. So I don’t judge those cleaners, odd job people or whatever who prefer cash because life is tough at the bottom. Of course, paying for a new roof in cash is at the other end of the spectrum, and is clearly the black economy.

Having said that, I don’t think HMRC are overly bothered about small fry like that, even the roofers. When I called my bank to get £5k in cash as a slush fund in case I had problems opening an account overseas, Barclays just told me to go the ATM inside the bank, where I could take out £2k at a time without bothering them!

Nail on the head. I’ve loads of clients working fewer hours or opening fewer days to avoid breaching the £90k threshold. It’s definitely holding back small business growth and employment.

It's MN and the over privileged. It's fairly common here to see people putting money into pensions to avoid penalties when their salaries top £100k and other dodges, it's good financial planning apparently. But they are so keen to stiff the people who are cleaning their toilets. It disgusts me.
We need cash for many reasons. Banks already have too much control, they've withdrawn services from so many towns across the country. My elderly parents struggle badly with this and now use cash as much as possible. My sister's small business was crippled when her bank froze her account, she had done nothing wrong, she takes as much cash as possible now and yes, she pays her taxes.

So how did you pay them

Do you really want to live in a society without cash? What becomes of the millions of people who do not have (and cannot open) bank accounts? Or those who do, but are debanked (not as rare as you’d think). How would the homeless manage? Do you want a society where you are forced to entrust all of your money to third parties (are banks always safe? - imagine not having a bit of cash for emergencies). What if you were in a financially controlling relationship and cash was the only way to protect your money? What happens when the banking system goes down - it happens and people don’t fully realise how vulnerable that system is. This is before we even get on to the question of freedoms and the state’s right to track absolutely everything you do. Honestly, there are so many reasons that cash is important and it’s crazy that some people would so willingly give it up.

Registering for vat is a whole world of complication for the business owner, so I can see why people try to avoid that. Having said that, we had workmen do our extension and wanted us to pay cash. £45k in cash?!?! First of all, no. I work for the nhs and that’s just wrong in so many ways. Second, how the hell am I going to take £45k out of the bank without triggering some sort of investigation. Dodgy AF. We still went with them though as they gave the best price and even the building inspector admired their work when he checked it all off.

I’m very sorry to hear that. Lawyering at HMRC is the absolute arse end of even the in-house spectrum. Just desperate.

It's their money. Why should anyone have to ask to withdraw their own money?

I think you misunderstand me. I’m not saying that they should be avoiding VAT, I’m just setting out one of the (many) reasons why it happens, and the key difference between turnover (which is the trigger for VAT) and income, which is what’s taxed. These business are of course still paying, or are required to pay, tax even if they’re not VAT registered, either as a limited company and via payroll/dividend tax, or as a self employed sole trader. Your employer is perfectly at liberty to pay for your professional fees, training and equipment. If they don’t then I don’t see why it should be a race to the bottom by not letting anyone deduct perfectly reasonable expenses from their taxable income. If you need a vehicle for your job they can also provide that. And of course you, as the tradesman is required to do, will pay tax on the benefit in kind :)

The simple fact is that the UK tax system, which is one of the longest and most complex in the world, actively discourages business, especially small business and especially growth. It creates disincentives for the employed to not earn between £100k and £150kish, for a small business to grow beyond the VAT threshold, for anyone to hire employees, for anyone to invest because of constantly changing rules. And then complains there’s no growth in the economy and the consequent doom spiral of stagnant wages, rising taxes and increased borrowing, leaving ever worsening public public services and a dissatisfied electorate :)

I think most of the people on this thread are commenting from a place of privilege where they just have absolutely zero understanding of the situation faced by people in poverty.