Dog walker wants cash in hand

[funtimetoni]

Started using a new dog walker in January, as old one moved away. Today he messaged and asked if I can start paying cash. Ive been paying by bank transfer and always on time. AIBU to think no, you can be paid through the correct channels like everyone else. For the record he charges towards the higher rate for the area, so it's not like I'm getting a bargain.

You have no idea whether the OP's dog walker is fiddling the system, you are just assuming. It doesn't matter what you think it's just your opinion and doesn't make it true!

For the business bank I picked, it was 55p per transaction. (I chose this one as it came with free accounting software to help me out!) So if I had numerous transactions going in, it does add up. Especially as most cakes i sold started at the price of £95, customers would pay in installments. So yes, it really does add up if the transaction was small.

If they paid the £95 in one hit, I didn't care.

One lady, paid me £10 per month for her daughter's cake every year, if that was via my bank, I'd almost lost out on £10 of profit! That's quite a hit tbh, especially when cake profit margins are so small.

So, yes it's understandable people want cash.

I have stated multiple times - provided they are invoicing/receipting the payments then there is no issue. Not once has OP come back to confirm whether this is the case or that she has been offered receipts as proof of payment. That is not ‘opinion’ it is a fact - if he is not recording and evidencing his jobs and receipts, then it is for Op to assess and decide whether she wants to pay in cash. But, yes, in the absence of this confirmation, I am inferring that he is not logging the payments.

It is your ‘opinion’ that he is not evading tax or benefit declarations, based on no information either way.

ETA - my own dogwalkers use an app. You book the walking/sitting appointments in their diary and pay at the point of booking. They then upload their data into an intuit type of account and calculate their tax payable after expenses have been deducted. They are just a couple running a dog sitting/walking service too. All above board. Total clarity in the fact that their transactions are logged. They are also fully qualified and insured. It’s not rocket science.

Well the answer to that is to change your bank, not to take cash only. Especially if you are taking instalments from people over months or a whole year, you need a proper paper trail for that, not a little notebook in your pocket. It's not 1956.

Someone not on the fiddle will have no issue with giving proper receipts, even for cash transactions and in fact they should insist on it. I honestly despair when it's considered unreasonable for a customer to require a receipt when they've been amenable enough to comply with the request for cash in the first place, even if it inconveniences them. Obviously if someone has done you a deal for cash then you know you won't get one. But if you are dealing with them on the basis that they are not on the fiddle, fully licensed and insured and what have you, then of course you are entitled to a receipt. It's the only proof you have that you paid for their services at all. What happens if their work or their product turns out to be faulty or non-compliant with safety regs?

Have you considered the cost to your customers of paying to withdraw cash? ATMs where I am charge for it.

Its equally understandable why people don’t want to pay in cash!

Which bank was this? I had a HSBC business bank account. Monthly charge for running but nothing for bank transfers.

You presume hes only evading tax. He could be evading CMS. Would you feel the same then?

Interesting if the dog walker is charged for a bank transfer. I hsve only heard of this if it is payment via a csrd machine. I always add tip to a mini cab for example to cover this.. My DDs used to attend an activity where you had to stand in the queue snd had over a couple hundred pounds every few weeks. We did get a receipt but it was super annoying not to be able to do a bank transfer. And inexplicable tbh given the amounts. Then there was the remote Irish B&B only taking cash, miles from a cash point...with no warning. Super relaxing on the morning we were checking out...not....

Not anymore - since I gave up due to inflation. It was never a you MUST pay in cash. For smaller transactions it was preferred. I also live somewhere very small, where I know the bank machines don't charge. So was never an issue. Literally talking about 2 ATMs.

This was Barclays, it was a few years ago now. It was all free for 24 months and then the charges came into play, it felt easy as it was my regular bank. In hindsight, I probably should've moved but, what's done is done. My customers didn't mind paying cash, most of the them prefer cash.

It's all in the past for me, so it's been and done but I was just trying to simply say for some the small charges add up, so it's not always a bad thing!

I always pay my cleaner via bank transfer, generally while she is in my home. She gets a notification straight away and seems happy with the arrangement. It really shouldn’t be a problem these days.

I have paid cleaners by cash in the past and it was genuinely a nusiance, as there are very few cash points around my area. No banks now and I don’t regularly visit either a supermarket or a petrol station. I found myself constantly chasing my tail to have it ready each week - it was an odd number so also required change and shops didn’t seem to have any of that either! In the end they were all willing to change to bank transfer.

However one prospective cleaner was pretty clear about why she wanted cash (for tax evasion purposes) and became aggrieved, almost hostile, when I explained why I was only willing to pay by transfer. In the end I said that I wasn’t paid by cash myself and that someone cleaning a school or hospital on low pay wouldn’t be paid by cash, so I didn’t quite see why she should be the exception to the rule. Obviously we didn’t take things any further!

So I just don’t do it and am always open about that from the outset.

I was a tutor, everyone paid cash. Then one woman said it was inconvenient for her and insisted on paying by bank transfer.
Did she pay me on time? No!

@BehindTheMirrorAgain
every supermarket has a free cash machine so can we stop with the nonsense that cash withdrawals are so difficult.

No, you’re making assumptions, but you don’t actually know!

Come on people, you all know he wants to evade taxes! Shops have cash registers to record cash and leave a trail.

Why are you all so sure those bank transfers are being declared, anyway? I’ve worked as a sole trader for nearly 15 years and no one has ever asked to see my bank statements.

Credit card fees are a cost of being in business, surely

Well that’s great for you but not so great for those of us who do have to pay!

Im not doing it! Business owners in this thread are moaning about bank charges but that affects customers too so why should we absorb the cost?

No they don’t - bloody hell have visited every single one? 🙄 half the time they are out of order too

Even if it was free (which it isn’t) I don’t want to carry cash around with me, it’s unsafe and not advised

Because you are the ones who want the dog walking or cake baked etc.

It's not that hard to either go to a bank and withdraw some cash or find someone else! I've NEVER withdrawn cash and had to pay, so maybe you need to find a new ATM!

What on earth is the problem with cash. I use cash for all smaller payments in shops ect, paying window cleaner, leaving tips in restaurants etc. It is just saving the dog walker having to go and take the cash out of the bank.

Tax avoidance was the first thing I thought of - cash has no record if it's not banked which is why so many small businesses will ask for cash.

I try not to pay in cash, to avoid enabling under-reporting of income and also because I hardly ever have cash on me.

By the time I have got in the car driven 5miles, in gridlocked traffic and with today’s fuel prices, to the supermarket to get the cash I may as well have walked the dogs myself or gone inside and bought the cake, though?

I’ve booked the services because I am time poor - once I have waste 30-45mins to drive somewhere to find an ATM that is actually working so it may mean going to a second location 3miles away (and yes, many do charge a fee on top) - what is the point? On that basis, I would cancel and they lose custom.

Er no I dont- I walk my own dog and I dont eat cake 😂

I dont use businesses that only take cash or pressure me to take cash- why on earth would I when there are plenty of businesses that make it far easier to pay???

Cash only businesses need to seriously wise up because they will be out of business soon the way things are going