Tradespeople who insist on cash

[Oestrogelsmuggler]

I am trying to get a wood burner installed. I have been given a price by a local company, but was told it'd have to be in cash, or else I'd need to pay an extra 20%, even for a bank transfer.

This annoys me. It looks to me like an obvious tax dodge, for starters. Yet this seems standard among tradespeople these days. I find it offensive when the rest of us dutifully pay our tax.

It's also inconvenient. I resent having to get thousands of pounds out in cash. I can't get it easily in one visit to a cashpoint.

It's made me want to not give him the business - but unfortunately he's the only one who bothered to visit my house and give me a reasonable quote.

Am I being unreasonable?

Yet this seems standard among tradespeople these days.

Not my experience. Had a number of jobs done around the house and garden in the last few years, most recently in last few months a new boiler, a new garden fence and a tree taken down. Not one of them has asked for cash they all do bank transfer.

The only people I know who take cash only are my hairdresser and that really isn't a tax fiddle, they do it to avoid bank charges. I remember them saying after first lockown that they had been OK because they always put everything through the books so they got a reasonable compensation.

I would just pay the cash.

Not keen when anyone asks for cash and won't accept cards/online payments. So inconvenient. I can think of the car wash, window cleaner, gardener, local chippy for starters who will only accept cash, so I avoid businesses like this. Stinks of a tax avoidance to me.

what gets on my nerves is people that expect low prices or ask if there is a cash price, and then get all judgy as if self employed people are tax dodgers...

pay via transfer and they will be able to afford to pay tax on it.

also many businesses turnover less than 80K but are still VAT reged.

"This annoys me. It looks to me like an obvious tax dodge, for starters. Yet this seems standard among tradespeople these days. I find it offensive when the rest of us dutifully pay our tax."

what a load of judgmental crap. i know many Self employed and am one myself - get really pissed off at the assumption we don't pay our fair share of tax.

YANBU, I stopped using my window cleaner because he insisted on cash. Partly because it was a pain having to go to cash point, buy something in a shop to get the right change and leave the money in a tub in the garden that he could collect while I was at work.

But mostly because it doesn’t feel fair that these people blatantly dodge tax while the rest of us have to pay.

@WeAreBob

What on earth are you talking about?

The guy hasn't just asked to be paid in cash. He has said that if she doesn't pay by cash then the price will increase by 20%.

Do you think that this is normal, legal behaviour?

Especially when we are talking about thousands of pounds?

What motive apart from tax evasion do you think he could have?

I suppose you or your family also evade tax and think it is ok?

@ohmygoshteens

I assume you don't ask tell your customers that the price is higher if they pay by bank transfer?

So I don't think anyone would think you don't pay your taxes.

Income tax 20% plus NIC 10.25% = 30.25% for a basic rate taxpayer.
Income tax 40% plus NIC 2.25% = 42.25% for a higher rate taxpayer.

As for the black economy, it's all written in black and white on the HMRC/Gov.uk webpages and reports published annually about the official tax gap. You can easily google to read it!

Yet this seems standard among tradespeople these days.

Certainly amongst "certain" trades. I never get offered cheaper cash deals from properly qualified/regulated electricians, plumbers, etc.

But, every time, when I've needed roofing repairs, scaffolding, tree surgeons or fencing, they offer 20% off for cash. Not so bad when it's something relatively cheap, but when the scaffolder quotes £2000 for cash or £2400 for cheque/BACS, or when the roofer quotes £10k for cash or £12k for BACS, you start to realise the scale of tax evasion.

I love when trades asking me to do it in cash. I just politely decline & advise them I work for HMRC. Watching the colour drain from their faces is hilarious 😂😂

He not insisting on cash, he’s offering to pass on VAT savings to you, if you agree to pay in cash. Yes, it’s dishonest. But morally no more so than the rich using loopholes to avoid as much tax as possible.
You say that you resent the rest of us paying our fair share, and yet what’s he actually offering to do is pass on the savings to you, so if you take his cash price you would be just as “guilty” as him. I suppose it depends on whether your principles are worth that much to you.

Huge difference between legal tax avoidance (do you use ISA's for instance? Or, like the Guardian, Seychelles registered shell companies?) and tax evasion which is the case here.

As for Amazon, even if they didn't utilise that wonderful EU nation Luxembourg because of their lower tax rate, if I'm reading correctly, they've got so much in the way of carried forward losses they wouldn't be paying much regardless of where they registered? They also pay income tax, NIC, business rates and the like.

Massive difference. They pay what is legally due. The wood stove person is trying to evade.

Why would you want to be VAT registered if you don't have to be?

Any more information and I’d be professionally obligated to report that!

it’s money laundering. which is an offence that can carry a prison sentence. For those doing it and those that know about it.

100% of my work is B2B, and all of my clients are VAT registered. It makes sense for me to be VAT registered even though my turnover is below the threshold. Even if I don't benefit hugely from recovering input VAT (there aren't many inputs), it adds a layer of credibility to my business.

The downside of being voluntarily VAT registered is having to get to grips with MTD.

I had a garage for 12 years, we were happy to pay tax. The biggest issue we had was customers not wanting an invoice and wanting to pay cash (nudge nudge wink wink). We said ok, so you can pay cash, you don't have to have the invoice. We still priced it up accordingly, added the vat, and kept a copy of the invoice in case they needed to use the warranty on faulty parts or they needed the invoice for their service history when all of a sudden they needed it when selling their car. We did have quite a few people end up in this boat and were grateful that we had covered our arse and done things correctly.
We did have a high cash turnover, however, everything was declared. I can see how many tradespeople could/do abuse the system, that's their choice but deep down it used to really piss me off when people judged us by their actions but hey ho.