To not want to pay cleaner in cash?

[brokenteddychair]

We have had a cleaner for about the last six months. She generally does a solid job and is reliable. I like her very much, she works hard and is trustworthy. She is currently the sole earner in her household as her husband doesn’t work (manual job). This is allegedly due to an injury but he is currently in his home country helping a family member with a renovation project so I’m a bit skeptical.

She has asked if we can start paying in cash “because the costs are burdening me and I need to ask clients to start paying in cash.”. This indicates to me that she is planning to under declare her income and therefore either not pay tax, claim benefits she isn’t actually entitled to, or both.

This is really conflicting me. I feel strongly that everyone should be paying their fair share of tax. I also don’t want the inconvenience of having to remember to get cash out every week. I have enough to do, that’s why I need to outsource help!

Would you suck it up or let her go?
YABU = cleaners are worth their weight in gold, just pay tax
YANBU = don’t be complicit in her fraud, find someone who will take bank transfer

Me make things up? Did you read what you wrote? She stated that she wants to increase her ability to afford the bills by being paid in cash.

But she's going to declare it?

Yes, I still believe in the tooth fairy as well.

Not "my post". Someone else said they have to pay to withdraw cash. I was explaining.

Also I (obviously) didn't say I "never visit a supermarket or petrol station or high street with a bank" (by "bank" I presume you meant to say "cash machine"?).

I pointed out that lots of areas of the country have no free ATMs. This is particularly so in poorer areas. It's something I have personally experienced and also it's well known & reported on and has been for ages

BBC News - Deprived areas 'becoming cash deserts', Bristol study shows - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-48284018?app-referrer=deep-link

https://www.bigissue.com/news/pay-to-use-cash-machines-rocket-in-poor-areas-as-campaigners-call-for-action/

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/which-calls-for-urgent-government-action-to-protect-access-to-cash-aZSKS0y3jyw6

Yes. Unless you’ve seen this woman’s bank accounts and taxes you have absolutely no idea whether she’s fiddling anything.

Or do you always just assume the worst?

Todays winner.

There is zero mention of using a personal account in what you quoted.

You aren't reading the words the woman used. You have just made up other scenarios for yourself than the overwhelmingly most likely one.

I think most people tend to assume that the most likely thing is most likely?

Because the cleaner is saying she needs cash because she needs to make more money?

If she's planning on paying tax... she won't be making more money.

Pay her in cash or find a new cleaner. It's pretty simple.

No, I am reading them. She says she wants to be paid in cash so she has less costs burdening her. Nowhere does it say she’s fiddling her taxes 🙄

Of course she could be but nobody on here can say that for certain.

Or it could be one of the many other reasons people have mentioned? Overdraft fees, loans, bank charges, debts…

Yep - it's clear she's intending to fiddle taxes, benefits or both. No, I couldn't be complicit in this.

If overdraft fees then even more reason to het money going through the account to reduce the overdraft for longer periods of time.

What? This is batshit sorry no one does this

it's not just tax evasion. They are very likely to claim UC. Her poor husband has health issues whilst working on renovation project abroad.

The same people who support it here will demand protecting benefits and increasing taxes to fund welfare bill

How do you think being paid in cash gives her more money to spend then?

Please don't make things up about clearing an overdraft or paying back a loan because both of those could be dealt with by a new account with another bank. Besides being far less likely than tax evasion!

I don’t know what you’re talking about re personal account. I don’t know what bearing that has on anything.

How is that making things up? I’m using them as examples 🙄

They're unlikely examples, other people as well as me have pointed that out. And you believe in tooth fairies.

I think it’s important to try and understand what the OP is trying to say to say in a positive way.
She’s comparing the fact that he’s officially unable to work in this country whilst at the same time helping a relative renovate a property elsewhere.
This makes complete sense to me. I can perfectly well see the contradiction.
For the life of mine, I can’t see any type of slur against the working classes or against foreigners.
There’s an obvious inconsistency here.
The OP is not making classist/ rscist assumptions. She’s inviting other opinions to help her decide what to do.

YANBU. I stopped using a cleaner when she suddenly started asking for cash. It was a faff for me to find a cash machine every time she came and I don’t like to keep too much cash in the house. Having a cleaner should make my life easier, not give me extra work.

I also had the same suspicions you have and I can’t say I’m overjoyed at the thought of going out of my way to pay someone cash so they can dodge tax, ultimately resulting in me paying even more tax.

Do you all live in the middle of nowhere miles from an ATM? The amount of people on this thread that find nipping to a cash machine a huge hassle is very surprising to me.

Side, i agree that the machines that charge you to lift out your own cash are a piss take

Wouldn’t bother me, she’s working which is more than can be said for some people and it’s not difficult to get cash out once a month after payday to cover all the people that need paying in cash - it doesn’t have to be an overhead.

Who on earth expects to be paid in cash nowadays? I don’t see a banknote from one week to the next and that would be an enormously inconvenient thing to expect clients to do.

I pay a whole cast of characters for services rendered every week- cleaner, gardener, beautician, tutors, driving instructor, dog walker, physiotherapist, PT, music teacher. And not one of them expects to be paid in cash.

I’d be pretty unimpressed if any one of them expected me to be inconvenienced for the sake of their (pretty obvious) tax dodge

OP said the reason for asking for cash can’t be to avoid fees on a business account because the cash is paid into her personal account….. hence the talk about a personal account