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?!

I completely believe it, HMRC are truly incompetent. I got a bailiffs letter this week saying I had to pay the nearly £5000 I supposedly owed them or they’d seize assets.

I knew I didn’t, my account is £482 in credit and THEY owe ME £1200.

and now I have to find somebody competent to sort it out, and wait an hour on the phone to get through to them first.

So yeah, please report op, but I hope you get someone more competent than the self assessment team!

Of course it’s his boss paying him cash in hand!!! I wouldn’t bother ‘telling his boss’.

Id tell CMS and HMRC that this company is avoiding tax and child maintenance deliberately paying cash in hand…

His boss is definitely in on it and allowing it to happen. The customers aren’t paying cash. His boss is giving him cash!

I have many tradesmen friends & they all tell me how they work the system to pay as little tax as possible. They also say they charge what they like according to area / rd (if they perceive the re to be more affluent they’ll charge 20% more) - also when they have holidays coming up they up the prices to pay for it. (Re my mate is taking his family to Florida so charging a higher price currently to pay for better hotels ect) all tell me I’m a mug for working as PAYE. They’re also all in the pub by 3pm!

Not a lot you can do? Apart from not employ him for cheap rates cash in hand. You could do that.

If the chef isn’t the child’s father, I hope that woman doesn’t, at least not from him.

A random tradesman walks in and tells you all this?

Righto. 🙄

I wouldn't be surprised if this is my ex. If his name is Robert, from Oldham report him to HMRC and CMS for me please. I mean do it regardless anyway, doesn't matter who he is. What he's doing is illegal.

Report him to the csa haha that’ll teach him

Exactly. I don’t pay cash at all for this reason.

If you really want to, I would ask him to text you the amount "so you don't forget" then reply with "just checking you want cash in hand to avoid declaring", if he replies with a yes then you can report to HMRC as its tax fraud as well as avoiding child maintenance. He'll likely just get a slap on the wrist as it'll only be evidence from one client and maybe he'll then work above board.
You'd need it in some written form as evidence though.

I didn’t… it’s through a local company fitting a kitchen and he is a subcontractor that I knew nothing about!

He

He wasn’t telling me, he was bragging to another tradesman he was working alongside in my house

Absolutely it’s not me paying him cash - I’m paying the company that have subcontracted to him

If you feel that strongly about it sack off the lead contractor.

oh I agree, no one should have to pay for a child that is not theirs thru deception of the mother. HOWEVER, if he was not the father, a simple DNA could have cleared that up. He was just trying to get out of paying by saying he had no job , while working for cash.

So would I.

Ah ok so he didn’t tell you directly: that’s quite useful actually, I’d get him to give you details (phone number and full name) and say you have an elderly friend who needs some work doing (he will see ££££ signs), is it ok if you pass on his details? And then report the little shit to HMRC and the CMS. They will probably do nothing but every little helps ;) and the CMS can definitely investigate cases where declared income isn’t commensurate with lifestyle.

🤣🤣🤣

My friend is in HR. New member of staff asked for an unusual way of being paid to reduce the amount of tax being paid.
Friend pointed out that they were being paid by the NHS and, if people didn't pay tax, there would be no money for the NHS to pay their salary. Which was being paid the same way as everyone else's.

@SpanThatWorld that is absolutely shamless. I sincerely hope the person wasn’t in a role requiring scruples, morals, medicine, care-giving or logical thought.