Tradesman bragged about cash-in-hand to avoid child maintenance, WWYD?

[ItsSunnyTodayAgain]

Today I had a tradesman doing work in my house who was bragging about how he only works cash in hand as he’s told his ex he’s not working to avoid paying child maintenance. I only know his first name as another tradesman who is managing the whole project organised for him to come. What an a*hole. I felt so sad for his ex and his kid. There’s probably not much I can do about this, but WWYD?!

Of course there's something you can do. Make sure you get a proper receipted invoice from the tradesperson managing the project.

The other thing you can do, since this other workman is presumably self-employed, is to get his name, and report him to HMRC for tax evasion. If he is avoiding child maintenance, he is also avoiding income tax on his earnings. So they can get him for that.

Some say things just to get a reaction.

Nod and smile.

Mind your business...

It's not unusual - I know of a few dads thinking of working cash-in-hand to get out of paying as much CMS.

@SillyBillyGoose , it is our business. He's doing it to pay less tax and cms.
The rest of us pay tax.

Search him on Facebook. Track down his ex and tell her. I would

They are still employed, they were thinking of doing it.
I was thinking 'if you didn't want to have a baby, why didn't you wear a condom'.

If I knew for sure that they were cheating HMRC, I'd report them. They're not AFAIK.

Did you tell him that's loser behaviour?

They didn't 'confide'in me and they're DP's pals not mine.

DP's friends, the men sit around chatting sometimes having a moan. 2 of them have DC with their exes.

I don't police DP's friendships. I overhear things sometimes.

They both seem nice enough but one was kicked out for being aggressive, and the other has 3 children with 2 mums. He only has access to 1.

I think what you think. They are like the 'LTB' cases on the Relationships board.

And yes, it's a big red flag about DP.

It must be the boss who's paying him cash in hand so he's just as bad. Does he want you to pay cash for the work too? The black economy means we all pay more tax, apart from the one guy neglecting his family.

What is your specific issue? Is it that he’s potentially avoiding tax etc or is it that he’s not paying maintenance?

If you don’t want him working for you then fine but certainly the CMS isn’t really anything to do with you, even if you disapprove on a moral basis.

“What was your last name mate? Are you on Instagram or anything, I’d love to keep your details in case we ever need any other work doing.”

Bam. Full name.
An arrogant twat like that wouldn’t even see it coming.

I would be cautious about it tbh if he gets wind of it being you reporting him things could turn unpleasant

Report tax fraud or avoidance to HMRC - GOV.UK

If someone was round giving me a quote and said that then they definitely wouldn’t get the job, even if it took me a bit longer to find someone else. We refused to employ a tiler after he told us openly how he stole stuff from building sites and then he trod on a spider, deliberately, right in front of DH.

The guy managing it might of organised him the work but he could be directly being paid by OP

If his name starts with J better stay the hell away
Don’t need no J’s in your life unless his name is Jesus Christ
If he hits you on the phone tell him leave yo ass alone, if his name starts with J

Does he regularly work for this builder?

If so wait 6/8 weeks then report him to HMRC. He will have forgotten he told you and no doubt has bragged to many people.