AIBU to refuse to pay cash in hand?

[Dontasksillyquestions]

This recently came up in conversation with a friend and she disagreed with me.

I generally avoid hiring anyone who asks to be paid cash in hand. I don’t see how cash is more convenient these days unless it’s to avoid tax, benefits rules, etc., and I don’t want to be involved. I also rarely carry cash and getting to a cash machine is inconvenient.

Last year I stopped using a regular gardener when he suddenly asked for cash only, despite there being no payment issues (I always transferred the money on the day he’d done the work). My friend thinks I’m being ridiculous and that it’s none of my concern how people run their business. AIBU?

It could be tax dodging. Or it could be due to fear of losing cash because it isn't used enough. There are some theories, which some would call conspiracies, that once cash has gone we can be completely under the control of the state. There are also people who want to hold on to cash for the nostalgia of it, remembering how nice it was to get a £10 note in a birthday card, save change in a piggy bank etc. Cash can be a great way to teach maths skills. Some people budget better with cash.
I'm not a tax dodger, even if I wanted to I couldn't as I'm employed by the local authority so it all goes through payroll. I do try and use cash sometimes though as I don't want us to lose it.

Could you not ask for payment in advance or monthly standing order?

It's the accounting, not the banking - for me it's amounts of £75 or £100 and I just spend it. But I like being able to match up my invoices to my bank statement and not stress about it. Also, weirdly, some people do not like it if they pay you cash and you send them an invoice with 'paid' on it - I think they like to imagine paying cash is some kind of friendly conspiracy they've got going on with you.

Exactly this ☝️

If you want to look at/judge real tax avoidance look at Amazon, Boots and most millionaires!

Our handyman used to accept payment in cash only. He said he'd had too many customers whose cheques bounced, or who forgot to do a bank transfer, so he made it a rule only to accept cash.

He was a very upstanding kind of person, and I'd be amazed if he was doing anything dodgy with tax evasion etc.

Having said that, we eventually stopped using him, and the cash payments were one of the reasons for that. It was just a massive pain to get all the cash out. I did suggest bank transfers on the spot, so that he could see the money going in on his banking app, but he was an older gentleman and I don't think he necessarily had a banking app on his phone.

Anyway. People are not unreasonable to ask for cash payments only. But you are also not unreasonable to say no and employ someone else.

And to the rest of us.

Cash is not cheaper if you pay it into a business account in many of the banks. We found that bank transfers in had no charges, card payments incurred a charge (around 1.5%) but cash was horrendously expensive - the banks don't want it so make it expensive to use.

A fuck you to the govt? NO, it's a fuck you to tax payers. And that's why I object to cash in hand. Inevitably no tax, VAT, NI or insurance is paid. Which impacts CMS and benefits. And often a shit job without accountability.

And a “fuck you” to everyone legitimately paying their taxes too! 🙄

Exactly. A tradie I gave a lot of work to started asking me to pay in cash because he was near the threshold for VAT registration.

A lot of people think working cash in hand makes paying tax and NI optional. It's not.

I don’t usually carry a large amount of cash either but lots of small businesses prefer it. There is a cafe on the beach near me which doesn’t accept card payments so I always make sure I have a few pounds in my pocket when walking the dog there. I’ve seen one of the beauty salons in my town turn people away or charge them a higher price to pay by card, I assume to cover their costs and my corner shop also has a £5.00 minimum payment for card so I use cash there to save myself spending needlessly. To be fair to them, I think there’s a bit of a use it or lose it attitude to cash at the moment.

Hairdresser, cleaner, window cleaner I pay cash on the day. My cleaners had a lot of trouble chasing clients who do BACS transfer. She sacks them off now. My neighbour is a tutor he's had issues getting paid, so he gets cash.

We have a retired decorator who does the odd job when the spirit moves him. His work is excellent we've paid him cash.

The local Chinese is cash only.

Since the government change there's a lot more cash being used again apparently. It's a way of budgeting

How are credit control and cash flow improved through cash receipts?

It's up to you how you'd like to pay. You need to find someone who accepts your preferred payment method. However you pay, you need to do so in good faith, assuming that all cash will be declared. I declare ALL cash that my business earns.

How would a change in government be responsible for people budgeting? It’s not like there wasn’t a cost of living crisis under the last government.

I generally try to pay cash wherever possible and rarely have a problem with doing so
having been in huge debt years ago I find cash much easier to account for I know exactly what I’m spending

tomorrow I’m taking my sons car to the garage for a gearbox service. 350

asked if I could pay cash. - yep no problem
i paid for some work to be done on it last year
It was 1300

both places gave me a receipt and were happy to take cash

i generally book my Botox on line with a 20 deposit but pay the balance in cash

when I had new carpets put in I paid cash to the shop and to the fitters

I pay my nail salon in cash and my hairdresser as well but they also accept cards

if I’m going out for a meal I generally pay in cash and tip the waiters in cash

if I go to a restaurant or a shop and they won’t take cash then I won’t spend my money with them

business ate perfectly entitled not to want to take cash
and people are perfectly entitled to say I won’t use you if you don’t

2 big well known chain restaurants went cashless only for around 2 years
but I notice that in the in the past year they now accept cash.
but they only accept the correct amount and won’t give you change which is fine with me

Exactly this- A number of times over the years I have seen complaints from estranged spouses of self employed individuals that their spouses dodge child support by under-declaring their income and doing a lot of work cash in hand. However, this same tax dodging activity was seemingly acceptable when the spouse and children were benefitting and the tax-man was not.

As taxes pay disability benefits, nurses wages etc this type of double-standard is hypocritical and I think it’s reasonable to make a stand against tax evasion in all its forms including cash in hand payments.

@FuzzyWolf and if I pay by bank transfer,which I usually do, what does it cost the business, which I usually do, is that a cost for the business too? If so, thanks for the information, I wasn't aware of this.

YANBU and don't even get me started on VAT... Youre a roofer, don't tell me you don't earn enough to register for VAT when your Facebook is full of all the new roofs you've laid...

The most common reason on this thread is bank charges. The bank doesn’t charge for a bank transfer and that how we have always paid. Anyone insisting on cash and not accepting a transfer is defrauding the taxpayer/CMS/benefit system.

When you set up a bank account as a small business you usually have a choice to pay higher fees for cash deposits (normally free for a fixed period but will eventually be charged) or electronic deposits. Most forward thinking businesses would choose lower fees on electronic payments as the majority of payments are done that way. Most card readers charge much smaller amounts per transaction than cash deposits, and are far safer. You don't have to cash up or send someone to the bank with the cash which takes extra time. There is a cafe near us that claims they get charged 'extortionate' fees and trys to promote cash but I'm certain this is all just not put through the books properly to avoid the VAT threshold. Ultimately we all pay for that as tax payers. I can see their card reader, it's not an expensive one.

Some people, esp when I was growing up, would think paying cash in hand meant you paid less because the worker was passing on banking savings etc to you or charged less because presumed was off the books. Either way, am sure that cash in hand attitude to a bargain lives on.

Choosing to pay cash when you get a receipt and it goes through the books is one thing, but cash with a discount is only because it's not being declared. Tax evasion is theft. Theft from everyone.
I pay my gardener, window cleaner and hairdresser by bank transfer and it costs them nothing. I won't go into a cafe that says cash only because I won't help them evade tax.

Most takeaways in my street are cash only and I always wonder how they get away with it, to be honest.