Can't believe my cleaner just asked me this?!

[marplessparkles]

Cleaner texted me to ask if I could pay her cash this week (£60). I said sure, is it just for this week or is this something you want to do every week?

She replied if I could do it every week because she found out she and her partner can get housing benefit if she can prove she has a lower income, so obviously not declaring or paying tax on her cash jobs.

I'm a bit On a moral and ethical level I can't see how she is so blatantly happy in doing this; ripping of hard working taxpayers and councils who will have to fund her benefits.

AIBU to let her go?

I pay my cleaner in cash, I don't ask for a receipt. She is self-employed and cleans for loads of other people as well as doing a different type of self-employed work after school is out. I have no reason to believe she is a tax dodger so won't be paying her into her bank account.

However, the OP's cleaner is asking her to collude with defrauding both HMRC and the Benefits people. If she's happy to steal from them, I'd be wondering who else she'd be happy to steal from and wouldn't be having her back.

Hi OP/DM journo.

Headline: 'Mums say they would help [probably IMMIGRANT] cleaner commit BENEFIT FRAUD'

I have seriously never heard of a cleaner not being paid in cash.

Me either.

As if...

Eh? where does the OP state the cleaner is an immigrant?

Scary I couldn't either.

Honesty is something I'd put pretty high my list of things I looked for in a cleaner, who access to my home.

Cleaner was very honest. With OP. She told her exactly why she wanted to be paid cash.

First of all I wouldnt be comfortable with this and would give her notice. However surely youre not her employer, surely she is self employed? So all the onus is on her to declare her income?

@demelza - people don't stop paying tax on retirement.

State pension is at least £8500.
Wouldn't take that much cleaning over the year to get over £11k.
So - your cleaner could be 'evading' tax as such.

hoarybat

I have seriously never heard of a cleaner not being paid in cash. None of them appear to be raking it in , at £10 an hour max round here. And every workman I have had charges more to be paid not in cash. I'm impressed at how virtuous others seem to be.

Please say you're joking.

It's not the fact she wants paying in CASH that's the issue here, it's the fact she intends on fleecing benefits

And that's OK with you is it?

As a tax paying hard working citizen who has paid taxes my whole life, it is NOT OK with me!

@demelza - I see you are the only client - so probably fine ;)

I would tell her if she wants cash in hand then she needs to reduce her rate.

I would let tell her no or let her go. You work? You pay tax, why shouldn't she?

Not sure how relevant this is, but I've heard that the income cap is such that sometimes people feel forced to leave any employment they have to gain enough benefits for their families. The system's pretty flawed in having caps on hours and (a pretty low) threshold for maximum income before benefits are stopped.

If you're not comfortable with the situation, then let her go. But don't report her - you don't know what her circumstances are, and chances are she's not necessarily being greedy or actively trying to cheat the system but might just be in a catch 22 situation with her finances.

It's a shame she disclosed her plan to you really - evidently she needs to work on her sneekiness levels

What trouble would anyone get in if they did pay their cleaner cash, knowing that s/he was doing it to avoid tax?

Well, if the cleaner earns the same £ per hour as the hard working citizen who pays her, of course she should pay taxes!

However, I find it hard to get angry at people who commit benefit fraud when that just gets them the same income per month that others have without benefit fraud and the same weekly worktime.

Eh? where does the OP state the cleaner is an immigrant

Sorry, that was a joke. As this is the OP's first post, I suggested she was a DM journalist and they like to pretend that all benefit cheats are immigrants...

What trouble would anyone get in if they did pay their cleaner cash, knowing that s/he was doing it to avoid tax?

Considering that it seems to be pretty widespread, I don't think much trouble at all.

After all, the people with political power are, more likely than not, doing it, too.

As long as it is not written down, OP could always deny having ever been told, and there are many, many people who pay their cleaner cash without any intention of helping with tax evasion. How could they possibly know that the lack of invoice has anything to do with evading taxes?

That's how I imagine things are working. Cleaner, if caught, will be made an example of, her employers will be believed that they had no idea, end of the story.

If she's skint she should be asking you to recommend her to new customers so that she can make more money, legitimately. You can't be expected to collide in fraud. Very strange of her to put you in that position.

She'd be an immigrant by the time the DM wrote the story.

She's probably living on the breadline. But fire away.

You have to let her go as she told you why so if you do continue to employ her and pay her in cash then you could be in the shit. Rights or wrongs of what she's doing aside, if she's dumb enough to admit it then she's bound to get caught sooner or later.

I can understand someone being in a really bad financial situation and temporarily working cash in hand so they don't end up homeless etc. but sometimes people work cash in hand even when they don't need to because they just don't want to pay the taxes - I know someone who would do this but would charge lower rates so clients would be happy to pay cash so he actually ended up earning about the same or slightly less, than he would if he worked on the books.

I operate a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy with my cleaners. One is a stay at home mum with three kids and one on the way. If she's not paying her taxes, I don't give a shit. I'm pretty pissed off that we're all so concerned about what our neighbours are potentially doing or claiming that we're all distracted enough grassing one another up, leaving the government and big business to do what ever the fuck they like.

I've paid all but one cleaner in cash. I do my tax return and they do theirs. I don't expect them to snoop and judge my paper work, theirs is none of my business.

You are not their employer, you are their client. As a service provider, they are of course free to say how they'd like to be paid.

There is no problem with someone paying cash. I pay my window cleaner cash and suspect most do. It is only a problem paying cash if you know someone is doing it to avoid tax.