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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To expect people to pay their share of tax

60 replies

ChrissieS79 · 05/08/2016 07:01

Was at a BBQ at the weekend in my street and one of the neighbours who's a self employed window cleaner/gardener/odd jobs kinda guy after a few too many white wine spritzers proudly announced to anyone who'd listen that he pays almost no tax coz his work is cash in hand.

Went on to boast about upcoming holidays and a new car when the new reg plate comes out in Sept.

I know it shouldn't bother me and that it doesn't affect me directly but it's got my blood boiling, and wondering how much of this goes on

OP posts:
lilydaisyrose · 05/08/2016 07:03

I have no issue with tradespeople etc doing 'homers' for cash I hand in conjunction with their usual business, but he sounds like a knob. Report him to HMRC, you can do it anonymously.

ProfessorPreciseaBug · 05/08/2016 07:03

If he is not paying enough tax, the revenue will catch up in a while when someone shops him for having an expensive life without the income to afford it.

ChaChaChaCh4nges · 05/08/2016 07:04

What's a "homer"? Is that like mates-rates?

Original poster
ChrissieS79 · 05/08/2016 07:05

Yeah odds and ends in the evening for cash is fine. Crafting an entire job and life out of it isn't....

OP posts:
OneEpisode · 05/08/2016 07:09

I'm not ok even with "odds and ends" in cash.

Binkybix · 05/08/2016 07:11

Were there lots of people at the BBQ? If so I'd report. Can't stand tossers like this.

DownWithThisSortaThing · 05/08/2016 07:15

I'd report him OP
If he goes around bragging about not paying tax, he can hardly be surprised that eventually HMRC hear about it. Idiot.

ChaChaChaCh4nges · 05/08/2016 07:18

Working for cash or at mates-rates is fine - so long as it's declared to HMRC and to CMD (being self-employed and not declaring all you earn is a very efficient way of evading paying child maintenance, not just tax).

According to HMRC's Tax Gap analysis, the UK loses £5bn a year through small businesses not declaring all their income. It's illegal. That compares to £1bn a year lost through large companies involved in (legal albeit distasteful) tax schemes.

ChaChaChaCh4nges · 05/08/2016 07:18

CMS, not CMD.

notjusttheirmum · 05/08/2016 07:43

not U at all! he should be paying like the rest of us.
but I can see why people don't want to pay tax

callherwillow · 05/08/2016 07:45

I know I should be appalled but I have to admit if it was me I'd probably do the same. Annoyingly my money is snatched from me without my consent!

Roussette · 05/08/2016 07:48

Of course it's not right! If we all went round with that attitude the whole of society would crumble! Who does he think does pay the tax that allows him to drive on the roads maintained by the taxpayer? He sounds a total arse.

OK to the odd job for cash for friends but beyond that, it is very wrong.

StillStayingClassySanDiego · 05/08/2016 07:50

'Homers?'Confused extra work outside of a tradesman' day job is known as a 'foreigner' and has been for donkey's years.

Is this the new politically correct way to address it now?

TheNaze73 · 05/08/2016 07:51

YANBU

Oblomov16 · 05/08/2016 07:51

I think you may be naieve. Lots of people do it. Big business hire the top accountants to try and pay as little tax as possible. Huge business like Google and Costa pay as little as possible.
All varying degrees of tax avoidance, verging on tax evasion.
Your little man is like so many other small sole traders.
Sad but true.
Leaving PAYE employees like me and you to take the brunt.

lilydaisyrose · 05/08/2016 07:54

Is this the new politically correct way to address it now?

No idea about political correctness, it's just what it's known as here. Perhaps we don't all have same words for things? Confused

callherwillow · 05/08/2016 07:56

Lily, you used a word another Mumsnetter didn't know. You're wrong. Don't attempt to argue!

StillStayingClassySanDiego · 05/08/2016 07:58

callherwillow any particular reason for your arsey post?

GlindatheFairy · 05/08/2016 08:01

Willow's post was funny. Yours was the arsey one.

ExitPursuedByABear · 05/08/2016 08:01

Homer sounds very American.

It's a foreigner to me.

But that has all sorts of implications doesn't it.

Roussette · 05/08/2016 08:02

Even if lots of people do it, it doesn't make it right.

And this bloke sounds like an extreme. I know small traders and they pay tax. They might do a couple of jobs for cash in hand, but on the whole they pay tax. This man doesn't pay any by the sounds of it! Awful. And I'd be shopping him as he's taking the piss

Trills · 05/08/2016 08:03

'Homers? ['confused] extra work outside of a tradesman' day job is known as a 'foreigner' and has been for donkey's years.

Your phrasing there sounds as if you are telling people that they are using the WRONG word. You sound quite rude and as if you think you are superior.

You probably did not mean to come across that way.

Complaining that things you are unfamiliar with must be due to "political correctness" never makes someone look clever, and often makes them look intolerant.

It was called a homer in the 90s where I grew up. I've never heard it called a foreigner.

Perhaps it is, like many slang words, something that comes in regional variations.

StillStayingClassySanDiego · 05/08/2016 08:04

Grin, not an arsey intention at all from me, I suppose it's how you choose to interpret the tone.

Each to your own and all that.

SciFiFan2015 · 05/08/2016 08:04

Use homer in Scotland.

My understanding is mates rates is that everything is still official you just get a discount for being a mate. Hence mates rates.

Roussette · 05/08/2016 08:04

It's always been called a "foreigner" AFAIC but we all get the gist of what homer or foreigner means don't we?