AIBU to refuse to pay cash

[cashorbanktransfer]

We have just had some decorating done. Used what appeared to be a small but reputable company. All prices/spec agreed by text.

Work is completed (fine) and now we have been asked to pay cash (several thousand pounds). We refused as the prices were not agreed for this and we have continually asked for bank details so we can pay in full.

Have now been told there is high rate interest added if work is not paid cash within one day of completion as per terms and conditions. We were obviously not told this in advance! I never asked to see terms and conditions as expected to pay in full on completion.

Can a business legally require cash without agreement in advance. Surely the only reason for cash is to avoid vat or ni or tax or something - or would there be any other reason?

Thank you

The problem with paying such a huge amount in cash is that there is no proof for if anything goes wrong later (with the work) and you need to get them back. Most of the time they don't offer a receipt and I've had a few scribbled notes on paper that I have had to provide for mine. None of mine have been over a couple of hundred pounds (think misted window units, small replastering job) but I have struggled to get anyone back once paid in cash.

Ask them when they gave you their T&C, ie printed on back of paper quote, posted with the quote, emailed upon acceptance of quote...do not accept another T&C to be posted because you need to see the pre t&c, not the fabricated post t&c.

What guarantee have they given you on the work done?
If you pay a large payment for considerable work in cash what protection do you have in regards to proof that they carried out the work for you if any problems were to arise later on?

@Sweetmotherofallthatisholyabov do people still have cheque books? None of my bank accounts with major banks do.

It's a fucking tax dodge, nearly always.

People will give excuses like having pay their own suppliers in cash (another tax dodge!). Pretty much every trades person I've dealt with in the last 5 years has been happy to take card or bank transfer. The ones who dont are the ones keeping their on the books income low for VAT, NI or child maintenance reasons.

If you pay in cash, what proof will you have that you paid in full? If any of the work is substandard or has to be redone, how will you prove who did it and when it was done? Are there any warranties involved? I would not worry about taxes but I would worry about them standing behind their work.

Surely any attempt to withdraw several thousand pounds at a bank would raise there fraud or money laundering alarms.

The only way I would do this is prebooked with the bank with the contractor attending at the branch to receive it directly.

There’s nothing to stop people asking for or paying cash. It doesn’t mean it’s a tax dodge and quite frankly it’s not your job to police them if it is.

They may need cash to pay their own suppliers or staff; they may not be set up on a bank payroll system for example but still maintaining perfectly good records and paying their tax. Even if not it isn’t your problem.

The terms of one day or interest are however preposterous. But why haven’t you paid them? They’ve told you how they want paid, you have the money to do it I presume, are you not more worried about your own morals in refusing payment for work you have had done than theirs?

Just email them and say you have spoken to your relative who works in HMRC and they’ve advised you to clarify why the cash price differs from the bank transfer price?

Thanks for that contribution, and you were correct about it being nonsense.

This might be useful. There can be perfectly reasonable explanations to do with eg business banking charges as well.

www.homebuilding.co.uk/advice/how-to-pay-your-builder

Almost guaranteed to be a tax dodge. That said I always check payment method in advance.

My dad was a builder and only took cash or cheque because he didn't trust online banking . And yes I still have a cheque book (NatWest current account)

Bank transfers are immediate I get them everyday into my business account so they can go to their own account and withdraw the cash for their suppliers once it’s been transferred.

They have probably priced it less VAT, just tell them you are happy for the 20% tax to be added so that you can pay by bank transfer. People like to pay for jobs like this by cash to avoid the 20% VAT.

If they wanted cash they should have made it clear before work started.

Limited access to banks who seem to be reducing hours almost monthly and closing branches by the hundred would seem a plausible reason to ask for cash. Not once the work has been done, should have been spelt out at the beginning.

Mind you, I think it's to dodge VAT.

Misses the point, but how does decorating add up to several £k?

This.

I'm not enabling someone else dodging paying tax when I pay mine.

Have they done a good job?

Yeah, this. I hope that the “I don’t care” and “what’s the issue?” people aren’t complaining when NI goes up, or their granny has to wait for a new hip.

No, I can completely understand your position. Can't believe you're being told things like 'get off your high horse' as though it's just no big deal to go and get many thousands out in physical cash... When he could already have been paid in transfer. It's 2022 and lots of people have neither the time or inclination to go to bank instead of work and deal with the security risk of withdrawing and carrying a large amount. Any honest business should have NO objection to a direct and immediate bank transfer.

I'd be telling HMRC that they will only accept cash.

Wanting cash does not necessarily mean tax avoidance and dodgy business. It might here, it might not.

I always ask black cab drivers what they prefer, as a matter of courtesy - and they seem grateful to be asked , preferring cash, as it avoid the card payment charge they otherwise invite plus they get the funds immediately. Doesn’t mean they’re tax dodgers

Money laundering regulations may make it difficult for you to get the cash from the bank expect to be questioned in the branch...

It’s not common at all to pay contractors thousands of pounds in cash. And it’s not being snobby to not want to have to withdraw and pay a large amount of cash. I’d never pay more than a hundred or two in cash, as I like the insurance of an indisputable paper trail of them having been paid. Only dodgy contractors refuse to be paid my bank transfer, and there’s plenty of dodgy contractors who will take your cash and then deny having been paid. I’d rather be on my ‘high horse’ than to be so stupid to be handing over thousands in cash to potentially rogue builders

Of course you don't have to pay cash. I'm surprised this is even a question. If you didn't sign anything or see any T&Cs, they may as well not exist.