AIBU to want to anonymously report someone who has a cash only job and not pay tax?

[KikiLondon1]

I have a friend (not close) who has a cash in hand job and doesn't declare the income. It really irks me because I work hard and hate seeing my payslip and all the tax etc that gets deducted.
They get benefits on top of this also (which if she declared her income she wouldn't be entitled to).
I guess I've always been live and let live so would be very out of character for me to report her but on the other hand - I think it's just so unfair.
My oh thinks she'll get caught eventually and just leave it.
It's stealing though. Thoughts?

These threads always have the same replies....lots of mind your own business and lots of report it’s 🤷🏻‍♀️

Personally I would always report it. It’s easy to do and if she is doing everything correctly and legally it won’t be a problem.

Yes report.

They're breaking the law.

She's probably as full of shit as you are OP. Sorry.

You know fuck all about if she declares or does a tax return or what her actual take home is. Have you seen her bank balance or wads of cash labelled with each week on for a year? She could only be working a few hours and telling you lot a load of crap to save face.

Anyone legitimately scamming like that doesn't tell a soul.

if she is doing everything correctly and legally it won’t be a problem.

Except her benefits will be frozen while she's being investigated

Christ, are people really so lacking in empathy and simple kindness towards each other these days?
It's all greed and 'but what about meee, that person gets stuff I don't get!'

Really boils my piss

I don't get some of these responses. I really don't.

Imagine you're in a shop. You, the shop keeper and another customer. Shop keeper turns their back, other customer opens till and steals a wad of cash.
You'd say something wouldn't you?

Add to that, the shop keeper gives a % if their takings to charity. Eg hospitals.

How, possibly, can the customer reporting the crime, be labelled as 'spite', 'jealous' or any of the other bizarre insults listed above?

Are you sure she isn’t declaring her income minus expenses. £80 a day isn’t a massive amount when you’re self employed, when you take out expenses (which can soon add up), take away days you don’t work, holidays, sick days etc. She could still be entitled to claim benefits.

Would you be open and honest to her and your group of friends about reporting her. If not, ask yourself why not.

You call her your “friend” but yet you want to get her into trouble?

Yes I know it’s stealing, but if I were you I wouldn’t get involved, I would leave it to the authorities.

Well I'm sure you get pension holiday sick pay etc that she doesn't. Also benefits aren't the life of luxury some people believe. Butt out.

arethereanyleftatall Goes to show you don't know much about weed if you think it only hurts those who partake. We don't even have to go deep to understand the knock on affect. But as an extreme example, when a weed smoker has a bad experience and requires hospitalisation, won't that affect hospital budgets? All because I didn't report the weedsmoker

The part of my post you don't understand is in reply to your statement that those who are saying to the OP to mhob are probably doing it too. Simply put, if I know people who commit crimes and say nothing doesn't mean I'm committing them too.

Nope I wouldn't bother reporting it. I'm divorced and earn a low wage with kids l have debts and have sleepless nights worrying about how we will cope. If I could do a cash in hand job along with my normal job I would.

what kind of work is it and what benefits? If you don't actually know then how can you be so sure she is in the wrong.

OP what is the main reason why you’re considering to report her? Is it because she has an higher income than you?

YABU

Fuck me I forget how much I loathe some of the posters on MN and then they remind me.

Itching to report someone for something all the fucking time.

YANBU. Do it. Tax evasion and benefit fraud are crimes, which mean there is less money available to pay for the NHS, education, social care and every other tax-funded service in desperate need of funds.

@jnfrrss
Everytime I hear someone try to defend a wrong with another wrong I assume they are dodgy as fuck and commiting fraud and just telling themselves it's fine Amazon do it!

Too f*cking right too. Why should it be one rule for the little people? Btw never assume. You only make an ass of yourself, when proven to be the exact opposite.

Are people defending the ops friend saying that - if you're on a low wage/benefits then stealing is acceptable?

When corporations are not only dodging their taxes but relying on taxpayers to top up the miserable wages they pay many of their staff, when MPs routinely fiddle their expenses, when millions are wasted on ministers' vanity projects and bungs to their mates, anyone managing to make a little extra by working for it is perfectly right and reasonable to do so.
Also, if she's on benefits and only getting about £80 a week, she's not earning enough to pay tax on in the first place.

Mind your own fucking business.

If she's claiming JSA she'll have a job coach and will be sanctioned if she can't turn up for appointments with her coach because she's working, she would have had to sign a claimant commitment as well.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions-leaflet/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions-how-to-keep-your-benefit-payment

I always wonder whether these are real posts or just a sneaky governmental survey to encourage us all to spy upon each other. It beggars belief that OP could possibly KNOW (rather than merely suspect) the confidential matters of the suspected miscreant and therefore could have sufficient reasonable grounds for suspecting something. If close enough then the correct thing would actually be for OP to take up the issue with the person concerned and explain how strongly she [OP] feels about it and her [OP] to take it further if it doesn't cease. Reporting it to a third party (on potentially flimsy grounds) is simply passing the buck and likely mischievous.

Also, you smug ignorant cunts, it's not illegal to be self employed and claim benefits. So OP's friend might not even be doing anything wrong, yet if OP snitches, then the friend might well be left utterly penniless for weeks or months, evicted and having to use food banks.

Does that make it even more tempting a prospect?

Earning cash in hand at 80/day is equivalent of over 100/day untaxed, extra 100 a week, 400/month. Plus benefits. Plus the employer coining it in. Grass them all up.

Companies like Amazon and Starbucks are avoiding tax rather than evading it. Difference is avoiding it is legal and evading it is illegal. These companies have accountants to minimise their corporation tax bill by taking advantage of legal loopholes in the tax system. All companies do it. Its efficient management of their finances. However, whether this is moral is another story. Ideally the Government should close the loopholes that are exploited by companies.

Your friend is evading tax but at the same time is committing benefit fraud. Report her.

So all the posters who think the OP shouldn’t report this (in my opinion theft). Would it be acceptable for me to declare myself (earnings so low I don’t pay tax) separated from DH (a higher rate taxpayer) so that I can claim benefits?

It's amazing the sorts of things that are moralised on MN (anything cosmetic or 'attention seeking') while fraud and theft are apparently ok.