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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Reporting housemate's tax evasion

62 replies

stripper4cash · 02/03/2012 07:54

Namechanger because this post coupled with others would definitely give me away.

My housemate is a stripper. This has been her job for the last five years. I really don't care what she does for a living, but it does bother me that in all that time, she's never paid tax. She's paid cash in hand after every shift.

We have lived in the same houseshare for about a year but it was only recently that she confessed to me that she's never paid tax and doesn't intend to. Ever. I'm generally a live and let live kind of person but it really rankles that her large income remains untaxed while I (and the rest of us - unless you're Barclay's Bank or Sir Philip Green) shell out PAYE each month.

This is complicated by the fact she's not from this country (from another large English-speaking country) and has always been vague on the details of her residency.

Should I:

a) report her
b) do nothing
c) take up stripping myself.

OP posts:
RevoltingPeasant · 02/03/2012 08:02

C, clearly!!

tbh, I would not. Her 'large income' is unlikely to be much more than a dr's, and certainly nothing like a City trader's. It is time limited, and she only has a few years to earn what she can.

I think it is unethical but also her business. If she were in a more secure career and was really going to be doing this for yonks and yonks, maybe, but she isn't.

EirikurNoromaour · 02/03/2012 08:09

Not if you want to carry on living with her or being her friend. I think I'd advise her how risky it is and offer to help set her up as self employed.

Callisto · 02/03/2012 08:11

I can totally understand why you want to report her. Is she claiming anything or is she totally under the radar?

Greythorne · 02/03/2012 08:12

I would do nothing.

RitaMorgan · 02/03/2012 08:17

Yeah report the bitch and get her deported! That'll teach her!!

Original poster
stripper4cash · 02/03/2012 08:18

Thanks for the responses.

Revoltingpeasant, you make a good point. Not about me taking up stripping, the other one about her job not being forever. I will just take comfort in my crappy pension scheme and the knowledge she is actually propping up the economy with her expenditure on booze and cocaine.

Eirikur - there is no way she will set herself up as self employed.

Callisto - no, she is not claiming anything. She is off the radar as far as I know.

OP posts:
Threeprinces · 02/03/2012 08:18

Instead of reporting her could you report her place of work? That would have half the effect and may scare her but is not so direct.

I agree with you, tax evasion really does my head in as it's about us all paying a fair share for the running costs of our country (whether we like the way it is run is a different matter).

Is she claiming benefits too?

Threeprinces · 02/03/2012 08:19

Cross posted but would still be tempted to report her employer.

missmartha · 02/03/2012 08:20

I agree that it's both illegal and annoying, but although I'd tell her how I feel, I leave it up to her and do nothing.

Original poster
stripper4cash · 02/03/2012 08:24

She knows how I feel, missmartha. And she sympathises with me but as she sees it, she's outside the system and therefore exempt, and I'm inside and stuck!

Threeprinces - that is a point, but her workplace is pretty reputable and I would think they'd have this covered?

OP posts:
Strawbezza · 02/03/2012 08:30

I bet her workplace are in on the fiddle too - they won't be paying employer NI for her. Report them as paying cash wages with no payslips.

Callisto · 02/03/2012 08:30

The workplace will get round this by only having 'self-employed' strippers I would think. Can you not point out to her that she will not be able to access any health care etc because she doesn't exist. Also, what visa does she have - must be a visitors visa which may be why she is working for cash.

catgirl1976 · 02/03/2012 08:36

maybe mind your own business?

just a thought

Rezolution · 02/03/2012 08:43

stripper4cash Yes, I sympathise with you and I know it must make you feel angry.I think all PAYE payers feel like this about people dodging the system.
But don't report her if you value the friendship. She will find out it was you and then the friendship will go sour. There could be repercussions. She could turn nasty. You are sharing a house so she has access to all your stuff maybe.
i would look at the positive side - you have a job and a future and a pension maybe and paid sick leave and holidays. She has none of this and not a very bright future unless she drops lucky and marries a rich punter, which is unlikely tbh.
Maybe it's a sign you need to move on and mix with a fresh set of housemates?
Look for less dodgy ones? Find people who will lift you up, not drag you down to their level? Just a thought, not meant to be judgypants! Wink

dandelionss · 02/03/2012 08:47

Does she always strip for the same company? If so she's employed and niot self employed and her employer is at fault for not deducting tax.

Methe · 02/03/2012 08:48

I wouldn't do a thing.

A stripper friend of mine is busy travelling the world at the moment with the money she's made.. most of it tax free. I hope she has a wonderful time!

Original poster
stripper4cash · 02/03/2012 09:00

catgirl - Don't really buy the 'it's not your business' thing, sorry. If we all heeded that we'd turn a blind eye to all kinds of injustice. Tax evasion being the least of it.

Rezolution: The other housemates are very respectable - a CEO and an aeronautical engineer! But appreciate your thoughts :). Stripper housemate and I aren't really friends as such because we never see each other. She works nights, I work days. But we do catch up over the odd cup of tea at the weekend and she is a nice enough person.

OK, so will go with the consensus and do nothing. Thanks all for your replies :)

OP posts:
HexagonalQueenOfTheSummer · 02/03/2012 09:02

Well you're a good friend to her aren't you, OP Hmm?

Original poster
stripper4cash · 02/03/2012 09:05

Hexagonal - I wouldn't say we are friends (see post above) but she is an ok person and we get along ok. She knows how I feel about tax evasion and we have had discussions about it.

OP posts:
IUseTooMuchKitchenRoll · 02/03/2012 09:07

I'd report her,I can't believe people are saying you shouldn't. Of course you should. There are so many people struggling at the moment and taxpayers that can't get decent healthcare, no one has the right to 'stay out of the system' in this country.

Wrong wrong wrong.

KeepTheChange · 02/03/2012 09:07

I wonder if all the people saying "live and let live" are the same ones on Benefit Scrounger threads baying for blood.

Report her. It's very easy, you can even do it online. Clicky

randommoment · 02/03/2012 09:09

I'm sure she's a very nice person. But she's leaving the rest of us to pay for the road she travels on to the strip club and lighting it at night, the police service that keeps the streets safe for her, the doctors and nurses that will fix her when she hurts herself...

LydiaWickham · 02/03/2012 09:09

Report her place of work. They might be covered, but they might be scared enough by being reported to have a word with the staff that they should make sure they are covered.

I'd also look for another houseshare. You don't want to be linked to her if it all goes tits up.

Methe · 02/03/2012 09:22

I don't give a toss about 'benefit scroungers' either keepthechange

Life is to short to work yourself up in to a frenzy about what other people do.

RuleBritannia · 02/03/2012 09:40

stripper4cash

Hasn't it occurred to you that someone else might report the situation and your housemate could say that you knew what she is doing? If you do nothing, you could find yourself in trouble. Aiding and abetting? Supporting evasion by doing nothing??