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?

Doesn’t bother me. I’ve had painters in and a shed roof man and shower man

they asked for cash. I got a receipt /invoice

I rarely get paid cash in my job but had the odd one. They still get an invoice from me

they don’t get it cheaper as I still need to put the money in the bank to cover my bills

Inflation has risen in food costs. Energy costs rose. Council tax went up another 10% for the third year running. The winter fuel allowance gone for many.
Rents have increased, mortgage rates.

I see people outside Asda and Tesco now queuing at the ATMs. Tap and go it's easier to lose track of how much you're spending. How much you've got left for the week, month. More people are using shopping lists rather than just filling baskets and hoping they haven't duplicated.

Although there are probably some traders who declare all cash received anyone who offers a significant discount for cash is effectively declaring themselves a tax evader, which is a criminal offence. And if we go along with it we're also committing a criminal offence. But people prefer to avoid thinking about it because they're saving money and believe they will never be caught - and they're probably right.

But another negative result of this sort of activity is that good and honest traders who do actually declare their income are driven out of business by tax dodgers. If income isn't being declared then a trader can afford to charge £30 an hour as it's going in his back pocket, whereas the honest trader has to charge £40+ an hour to leave him with enough to live on after paying tax / NI and so on. The net result is that nobody hires him, as his charges are uncompetitive, so he's driven out of business.

Paying cash is also often directly contributing to serious crime. Many cash business, such as Turkish barbers, nail bars, vape shops etc that only take cash are owned by organised crime, and the cash is used to finance the drug trade, people trafficking, illegal immigration, modern slavery etc.

People are very good at finding justification for criminal behaviour when it means they can save some money, so maybe it would be a good idea if there were a few well-publicised prosecutions in order to drive the message home.

As a customer, I'd be an idiot to pay cash for big purchases/services- suppliers can refuse to give the promised guarantee, etc.
And I pay via paye, nic, etc... why should I subsidize someone who thinks tax doesn't apply to them?
Business banking us not free. Handling and depositing cash isn't free. Cash is a relatively expensive way to do business- if you keep your books straight. Easy to "not declare"some.

If it’s such a crazy rate why don’t you just don’t it yourself? Oh wait, you can’t so you have to pay someone else to do it, like they’ve trained and are skilled at their job or something.

This happened to me, for absolutely no reason the card processor froze my account and said they were closing it down in 14 days - and all the appeals were AI bots and didn’t actually read the appeals just stated I had broken their terms and conditions (I hadn’t)

I spent a frantic week emailing everyone I could in the company including the CEO and finally a real person responded and they let me have my money and didn’t close down my account but it was terrifying

unfortunately my work is global so I do have to take card payments but I do love getting cash when I have a local client - I don’t know it just feels great to have a wad of cash and not just numbers on a screen 🤣

btw people could also be avoiding tax with bank transfers 👀

Oh, and money laundering isn't victimless jolly japes. Real impact on real people . Your neighbour. Your friend. Your cousin.

All of this. £40bn of tax was evaded last year, £26bn was small businesses, £5bn the wealthy. It’s not the wealthy dodging taxes that are the issue.

As a Chartered Tax Advisor I’d not do business to anyone who wanted cash. More often than not it would be facilitating tax evasion, and would be totally ethically and morally wrong.

Have I touched a nerve? Are you one of the cash in hand tax evading types?

Yup. They should have dropped it to £20k so no one running a taxable business could feasibly say they’re under the registration threshold.

Tax evasion is dishonesty and deception and is illegal and can incur criminal penalties. It’s hiding income to avoid paying tax. Pocketing cash or giving discounts to avoid paying VAT for instance. That’s quite clear cut.

Tax avoidance is more subtle, as it involves using the tax system in ways it allows but wasn’t designed for. And is often challenged by HMRC.

I rarely pay cash - but I pay by check. I can understand someone not wanting online payment.
When I pay by check, I say that I need it as a record.

Wow I haven't used a cheque book for years.

No, I don't deal with cash either

You might be surprised at how handy it can be.

Plus which, cash and checks are a good way to curb excess spending.

I don't like it because I never have cash.

However, if they ask for it in advance, I made arrangements, as long as they DON'T give a discount for cash.

Cash is king and it needs to be kept in circulation.

I get invoices from my window cleaner and pay him online. Also from the cleaning company, but come to think of it they offered me a lower rate ex-VAT if I paid cash. I didn't approve of that or agree to it, but I didn't report them either. Why not? Just don't want to snitch on people who in other ways I like and respect.

Some big companies don't pay the right tax so I don't mind paying window cleaner, hair dresser in cash.
Also there is a charge for transactions so it doesn't bother me at all

That all happened under the last government too. Covid, Brexit, war in Ukraine. 11% peak inflation in 2022.

It’s absolutely essential for county lines and drug trade, human trafficking and tax fraud

You really aren’t understanding the distinction between legal definitions and plain English, are you?

So those who wish to use cash are penalised by criminal behaviour. It’s the majority penalised by the minority with this view.

The police should be doing more to tackle that rather than relying on people using cards instead of cash.

My husband is a tradesperson and he will accept payment in whatever form the customer wants to make it. He does however do everything by the book, issues invoices and cash gets deposited into the bank. Our bank (in Canada) actually charges a fee for depositing cash, so he doesn't love that.

He gets very offended by dodgy customers who try to get him to accept cash because they think he is dodgy and happy not to declare it (for either income tax or sales tax) and so they think they can save sales tax. In his experience, tradespeople who work ONLY for cash are dodgy, and very likely to have no insurance and to disappear off the face of the earth if there's any problem with their work.
So I don't think it's unreasonable to refuse to pay cash in hand. By all means pay cash if they present a proper invoice and give a receipt.

I agree with this. I pay my cleaner cash in hand but I know she only does a little bit of work on the side. She's older and most of her time is taken up doing unpaid childcare for her daughters who are single mums and work full time. She probably wouldn't earn enough to pay tax even if it was put through the system.