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

I don’t expect cash but a LOT of my clients prefer it - I’m a dog walker and easily take £300 a week in cash payments.

"all the people that need paying in cash". Genuine question, who needs paying in cash in your life?
I have a pound coin and a 20p coin in my purse which I use repeatedly for trolley and the swimming pool locker respectively. Literally never use cash otherwise unless I'm abroad (and even then only very rarely)

OK. It’s good we know that.
So let’s discuss constructively whether OP should go to the inconvenience of obtaining cash.

My life experience tells me that people asking to be paid in cash often make it clear they’re doing so to avoid tax.
Where I live, they tend to be white British. I’m the foreigner.
My personal opinion is that OP is absolutely right to think about what to do for the best.
I’ve often heard it said that a problem for law and order in our country is that people don’t feel a personal responsibility to uphold the law.
I think it’s every citizen’s responsibility, regardless of racial origin or class, to uphold the law of the land.
That’s part of what binds us together as a nation.

I haven’t read all of the replies on this, but based on the original post - it has absolutely nothing to do with you whether she declares it or not.

This shitty Government and the one before squeeze every last penny out of us, and I certainly wouldn’t begrudge anyone getting a bit of cash in hand.

They’re crippling small businesses with their ridiculous rules and regs and they don’t give a shit about the common people.

Cash is King, use it or lose it.

I say this as someone who pays shit loads of tax, by the way. It’s non of my business if my cleaner does or doesn’t. And yes, I pay her in cash.

The nearest cash machine is a 10 minute drive to the big Tesco. I rarely go there as I order my groceries online. There’s one near my office, but using it means cramming lunch into 10 minutes or staying late, hitting rush hour, and picking up my kids late. Either way, it’s a hassle and not worth it.

I think the government taxes us to keep the country going, not to screw us?
Just asked Chat GPT and it says taxation in the UK is on the whole lower than other G7 countries.
Is the country meant to fund on air?
As a pp said, the huge black economy pushes up taxes for everyone.

Why are you so aggressive?

I'm not at all aggressive 😀I'm charming.
I'm just incredibly confused at your misplaced anger and the fact you seem to make up stuff and then get angry about the stuff you've made up. It's not good for your blood pressure.

Agree, I don’t think I’ve use cash for months and I’m the one who deals with all the payments in our house.

Tax avoidance is everyone’s business.

Who do you think you are? 😆🤣 could we at least choose where our vouchers are for? 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭🤣🤣🤣🤣 obviously we’d ask permission on what we spent them on aswell 🫢🤣

There are cashpoints at most supermarkets, it isn't that hard to get cash. Easier than getting a new cleaner anyway. What has her husband got to do with anything?

I don’t understand why this isn’t obvious. When people dodge tax, everyone else pays more and public services get worse.

Are you making pension contributions?

And the vast majority of people pay tax, to keep us going.

I’m far more interested in huge corporations not paying their fair share, and the billionaires and their tax loopholes than I am in a cleaner getting cash in hand, or a plumber not declaring every single pence of his hard earned cash, or a small business promoting cash where they can to avoid ridiculous card fees, and then spending that said cash doing a food shop for their kids, as opposed to giving it to the tax man.

MP’s and their expenses? Their second homes? We are taken the absolute piss out of, in my humble opinion…

And don’t start me on VAT 🙈

Honestly just pay her in cash. Who gives a fuck really?
She’s hardly going to be committing large scale fraud on a few cash cleaning jobs. Let her live.

Wow ! The landed gentry used to pay their workers in tokens so they had to spend them in shops owned by said landed gentry . Your reply has shocked me .

🤣

I’m genuinely shocked at the amount of people who don’t carry any cash, or have some at home.

Last week at a coffee shop in a retail park that I was at, it was cash only, as all of their servers had gone down - same for a branch of Next nearby to it. I was able to get what I needed from both as I always carry cash, but the amount of people who had to leave empty handed was obscene.

We are literally sleepwalking into a cashless society, and it’s terrifying.

Unless she is open about no declaring it and you are paying her 20% less then five someone else . I don’t like fraud either . She is probably claiming benefits and not declaring the money

I have been a cleaner and have employed a cleaner and always always cash... There were times when it absolutely saved me financially and I am not in a position to judge what anyone else does either... Just draw it out monthly and keep it and give it to her... You sounds like you've fallen on your feet with someone who is competent and that you trust and you're undermining it by casting aspersions about her private life.

I think you are a fool if you don’t think she would have mentioned these things if they were her motivation. If paying tax mattered to her she would have assumed that her clients felt the same and wanted to reassure them.

I’m farther to the left than any of the left-liberal mainstream parties so my view is not motivated by right wing politics.

but you’re all doing the classic liberal self-loathing dance. If it quacks etc.

"Saved you financially" how?

I don't think most people would discuss the details of their finances like that, would they? I certainly wouldn't tell any of the people I work for that I was in my overdraft or had debt to pay!

I wouldn’t feel comfortable with doing this if she has openly told me she wasn’t going to declare it.

I pay our cleaner in cash but she’s never actually asked me for cash, and I occasionally bank transfer when I forget.

Maybe she declares it; maybe she doesn’t. That’s a matter for her. We’ve never actually discussed anything like that.