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.

Exactly. Completely pointless waste of a journey and my time

People always come on these threads and say of course it's all fine and above board, but it's not.

It doesn't cost a small account holder anything to receive a bank transfer and it's not more convenient to receive cash unless you want to pay it on in cash to avoid VAT, as well as income tax.

It's up to you OP. You might need to find a new dog walker, but personally I'd much rather there's a trail for what I've paid to whom, just in case there are queries later. I don't suppose he's issuing invoices or receipts for these cash payments?

If you don’t want to pay cash get someone else?

Sometimes ATMs are broken or empty. Not every supermarket is big enough to have a free machine operated by a large bank. People in rural areas often have no choice but use the privately operated ATMs that come with fees of around £2.50 for every withdrawal. Not everyone has a car, or the time or inclination to drive out of their way to visit supermarkets to withdraw cash they don't otherwise need, simply to indulge the whims of a small business they use. Since when was the customer supposed to tolerate inconvenience to suit small businesses?

Your use of the word 'nonsense' is interesting. It implies that you think people are lying or exaggerating about the inconvenience of being asked to pay in cash. It has a whiff of contempt about it, as if the customer is always in the wrong and their opinions are neither here nor there.

Yet still people will go to the ends of the earth to insist their motivations for only wanting cash are not any of the above, guv, honest.

In spite of being completely unable to articulate convincingly what the actual benefits are to a small business of being cash only, without admitting the glaringly obvious.

Is evasion not avoidance. Evasion is illegal. Avoidance is just putting cash in your ISA.

My problem with cash is that it massively facilitates evasion. Get rid of cash and you’ll get rid of evasion (and money laundering, prostitution drugs etc).

Any legit small business will always provide you with a receipt if asked for regardless of cash or not

Since when was the customer supposed to tolerate inconvenience to suit small businesses?

I would like to know this too! I presume that businesses who wanted me to give them MY money would do all they could to make that easier for me to do. With online banking and apps I can pay people whilst seated at my desk at work. I dont have to go anywhere or do anything apart from a few taps on my phone which takes about 2 minutes.

The very idea that I'd have to use my precious lunch break or go before or after work to drive to an ATM which may or may not be in service (I wont know until Ive got there will I?), find somewhere to park, wait in a queue, pay an extra £2.50 to draw my own cash out, drive back to work and then keep that cash in my bag until I physically see the person to hand it over is laughable. In 2026?- what a joke.

Yes, I was once told "it's nice to be able to pay the labourer in cash". OK lovely, I'm sure you'll both be paying all the tax that's due, but it's just as easy for you to go to the bank as it is for me.

Hope you dropped her

I’d have no problem paying in cash, but hopefully you have verified that he has valid insurance

Yes you are unreasonable. If that’s his preferred method why is it a issue to you

I'm not keen on paying cash in hand as I don't want to be indirect contributing to tax evasion, benefits fraud and underpaying child maintenance

…but not every cash payment is about avoiding tax or doing something wrong. Many small tradespeople and sole traders still accept cash simply because it’s convenient and helps with day to day cash flow, not necessarily to evade obligations, it’s hard if people don’t pay when they say so collecting it at the time really helps

What does she need to protect herself from ?

I like to pay e.g. my window cleaner by bank transfer so I can prove I've paid, should I need to.

In the US typically you find that as a tax dodge. I can also see OP wanting to have that record of what they’ve paid and when so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want the receipt so to speak. But if this dog walker is in demand as the higher rate would suggest, then you may lose their services.

Just because they are asking for cash doesn’t mean it’s for ‘cash in hand’ purposes and they are avoiding paying taxes. My friend is a cleaner and she started asking for cash payments from all customers instead of bank transfer that’s because she was forever chasing payments of those paying bank transfer. She puts everything through the books. It’s a method of payment, she finds that only accepting cash payments she gets paid after each clean instead of sometimes being owed money, makes it much easier for her to manage her own money when she’s bills herself to pay and a family to feed instead of chasing payments waiting for people to get round to transferring payments owed.

She does give receipts for proof of payment along with invoices for customers references along for her taxes.

I'd go along with it, so long as he gives you an invoice and a receipt.

i know plenty of businesses who accept cash only and it’s none of my business why. Not expecting them to have offshore bank accounts, just saving abit extra here and there. I ask no questions

Bank transfers do not cost 😂 depositing cash is actually charged by some banks. Unless he is doing you a favour I’d say no as he is probably trying to tax evade.

If there is a problem later on down the line with the goods or services you have paid for then having proper receipts and invoices protect you. Surely this is common knowledge? people can deny you gave them cash and without a paper trail how on earth can you prove it

Knowing how many bank branches have closed, post offices too, getting cash does require pre-planning and can be inconvenient.

My suspicion is bad payers have led to the dog walkers's decision. Late payers are far too commonplace.

I hope you don’t buy from Amazon or Starbucks’s, carlsberg or a million other tax evading companies?

He's walking her dog not wiring her house

Tax avoidance, not evasion. The former is legal and involves the careful application of legal rules and the structuring of your business to reduce tax liability, eg by moving the accounting function from one country to another etc. It is not illegal and entirely with the government’s purview to update and amend the law should they wish to prevent companies from maximising profit whilst complying with the law.

Tax evasion - not declaring your income and taking payments in cash without documenting the transactions/issuing receipts - is totally illegal. Even when done by small businesses or the self-employed, such as dog walkers asking for cash in hand so, that they can lie to inland revenue, or CMS cannot trace income and take their payments, or so that benefits can’t be stopped/reduced... ie it doesn’t matter why. It’s illegal. Just like shoplifting, burglary and any other form of theft.