AIBU to want to scream idiot at the next person

[helloclitty]

who uses the term "hard working person" in regard to tradesmen in the cash in hand tax avoidance debate.
I have heard many people saying leave the hard working people (tradesmen) alone they're just trying to make ends meet and target the rich.
Is the general consensus that people who earn high salaries are less hard working than people who earn less?

I dunno but i fired my window cleaner today as it was my only day off in ages and i had planned on a long lie, of course dog went mental and woke up the house. Window cleaner never has set time or days just seems to turn up and today was not a good day!

I guess a lot of trades put in a lot of physical and mental effort to earn their money.

I must admit I grew up in a family of tradesmen and married one and used to wonder how someone who comes home clean in a suit can claim to have done a hard days work. Maybe is see work and graft as two different things!

But I don't see what earnings have to do with it. You get hard workers and lazy etc ers in all jobs.

No, I think it's becuase some people are so much on their arses they will gladly accept £20 - £50 a day cash in hand for doing a back breaking job so that they can feed their family that week.

I'm with you. Apparantly it's ok to avoid tax if you are a tradesperson but not if you are a millionaire [sceptical]

I'm hard working but neither self employed nor rich - is it ok if I avoid paying tax too?

it s just that the people who earn higher salaries, seem to get away with it more. Also people who earn higher salaries have less need to 'fiddle' tax in order to survive

its exactly the opposite englishgirl what percentage of the MPs that fraudulantly claimed expenses paid them back? or served a prison sentance?

Fruity
I have never had a tradesperson charge £20-£50 a day more like an hour.

I think it's the sheer ridiculousness (is that a word?) that it's ok for a tradesperson to avoid tax illegally because they work hard?

I sympathise about needing to survive but am not sure I buy it as an excuse not to pay tax.

Just because you don't have a manual job it doesn't mean you don't work hard! I wear a suit but I'm on my feet for 10 hours a day taking all sorts of abuse from the lovely public. I'm sure all the minimum wage call centre workers who spend their days getting shouted at and sworn at would say that they have a hard time too.

I don't get the attitude that it's ok for some to break the law but not others

who says they are exempt from tax, because they are hard working?

Hold on....

Why does it have to be compared to ANYTHING. It's illegal to avoid tax and tradesmen who do it should not be supported by this society, especially on the basis that they work hard.

So would it be ok for someone on minimum wage to steal a few bits from the company they work for because they work hard and are hard up?

I don't think tax avoidance is big or clever but it sickens me that the Tories happily demonise the cleaner getting twenty quid a week yet happily fail to tackle whe national offenders.

Divide and conquer, pitting workers against workers.

are you talking about David Gauk saying it is 'immoral' to pay tradespeople cash in hand? has there been a back lash?

bejeezus - just because some people don't get what they deserve it doesn't mean others should be able to do the same. Of course MP's etc. should be prosecuted, I haven't said they shouldn't - but the fact that they haven't been doesn't make it ok for others not to bother.

Lets not pretend that tradesmen doing cash in hand jobs is a reaction to the recession and MP's expenses - it's been going on for years.

exactly paradise

and haha....at cash payment being immoral...we dont all have platinum credit cards!

englishgirl you might find it is OP comparing things....because someone () said tradespeople people are hard working, she has equated that to rich people being not-hardworking

but my question still stands....who exactly has said it is ok for tradespeople to avoid tax [because they work hard]?

Englishgirl I know people can work hard in all jobs. As a child I equated a hard days work with men coming home dirty. In the same vein men with soft hands freak me out. I now of course know you don't need to get dirty to have worked hard but if you are dirty you've spent more physical energy!

" Hard working families " is only another meaningless trite political cathphrase like " we are all in this together " which was rightly and swiftly dropped a while ago after repeated exposure on satirical shows.

What, I wonder, will be the next Cameron-ism (or Clegg-ism)>

Paradise chick.......how can the Tories be demonising a cleaner getting £20 a week. A person earning £20 a week would not even be eligible to pay tax. And a cleaner most certainly wouldn't need to be VAT registered.

And people need to differentiate between cash in hand and just paying in cash.

as this thread stands helloclitty you sound like a DM raver...you are having a strawman argument...you are going to have to elaborate or provide a link or summat....

What paradise said. They should either leave tax avoiders alone or attack/demonise them ALL. Mr Topshop as well as a cash-in-hand cleaner.

Or just tighten the loopholes, of course, rather than allowing them to continue so people can make use of them, then denouncing one user eg Jimmy Carr while turning a blind eye to another eg Conservative-supporting Gary Barlow.

It is just hypocrisy, snobbishness and political expediency. Makes me sick.

You don't need to be VAT registered to need to pay income tax on your earnings.

It's an emotive topic and phrase that is designed to seperate the public once again into 'them' and 'us'.

The MP in question who made the comments would do well to perhaps ensure his affairs are in order before he starts questioning others morals.

Not paying tax = bad, of course, but
"Is the general consensus that people who earn high salaries are less hard working than people who earn less?" - YES, per £ earned, they surely put in less effort, therefore work less hard (relatively to salary).