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

Well, millions of people would have to be investigated every day then.
I've just paid for a tram ticket in cash, same as loads of people on the same journey. Then I paid in cash for a coffee at Caffe Nero.
It's perfectly legal.

There really is nothing in OP's post to suggest that.

I can’t speak for others but there are so few of them around where I live (city centre) these days.
Plus I get charged for cash withdrawals.

Why are you getting charged for cash withdrawals?

Yep, there's one in my village, it's a 10 min walk away and it costs £2.50 or thereabouts to use.

The husband "working abroad", with the OP suggesting this is somehow untoward? The suggestions of fraud with zero evidence whatsoever??
If the cleaner was a style advisor with John Lewis, I don't think there would be the same attitude.

That's annoying. I am able to use free ones.

I think with the CoL crisis and everyone being squeezed left, right and centre we all have an obligation to ensure we dont support tax evasion and benefit fraud. There is undoubtedly abuse of benefits and those that do this have helped create a society suspicious of people who do claim which is completely wrong for those where it works as intended. 10 years ago I wouldn't have cared but times are very different.

@brokenteddychair 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.

So apparently, you have magical powers which far exceed those of any medical doctor on this world, as these powers allow you to remotely diagnose and assess people who are unable to work due to health issues without doing a single physical exam.

Don't you ever leave the village?

We have ATMs at waitrose, sainsburys local and Tesco express all free to use

Did you say... Tesco?

Have you honestly never been somewhere where all the ATMs charge?

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

No...my kids both have bank cards that I transfer money to if they want it and their school is cashless

In all honesty, it is a hassle. There isn't a cash point on my way to work. To get to the nearest cash point for us is a 15 minute walk, and there isn't parking if I wanted to go whilst driving past.
We get shopping delivered so I don't regularly go to the supermarket.

Yes, I could walk to the cash point but having a cleaner is supposed to make my life easier, not harder.

I'd tell her I want to continue bank transfer or get another cleaner

Do you ?i have only been charged if I use the corner shop, the small town i use has loads of free cashpoints as does supermarkets, it is always an excuse that people are so so busy that they have no time to withdraw money.

Honestly, no.

There are always some that charge but you can always get cashback at a shop, or withdraw from a post office.

Its really not a big no no off MN

Honestly she’s probably not earning much and the tax she may or may not be dodging is a pretty small amount. It’s a personal choice and if you feel strongly about it then that’s you but for me I don’t care about someone dodging a couple of thousand in income tax when there’s huge corporations dodging billions. I see both sides but that’s how I feel.

Yeah I work in central London 😂 but it would be a pain in the arse to remember to withdraw cash when I'm out, in the correct denominations, and not use on something else, every week - just so I could pay my cleaner. So I would inevitably from time to time end up having to go to the nearest cash point and pay to withdraw.

It's inconvenient to me to be thinking how to pay my cleaner every week when a direct debit works better. If I really liked her I might do it but if I thought she was doing it to dodge tax that would piss me off and I wouldn't bother putting myself out.

But how did they learn how money works in the first place if they've never handled cash?

I don’t have strong feelings about it, but she’d be able to keep the VAT which would probably add up to far more than the income tax.

LOL that people genuinely think those paid cash in hand declare all their income.

If it’s to help with budgeting, the cleaner can just take cash out herself. No need to make that the OPs problem.

what the utter fuck???

what would you do if your employer pulled that on you?

VAT registration is only mandatory in UK if your taxable turnover exceeds £90,000. So who knows if she is or not. I would be surprised if my cleaner was although I don't know (or care)

I'm paid cash in hand about 70% of the time and declare every penny of my income, thank you very much

Children don't need a physical representation of value to understand simple addition and subtraction. Presume they got past that stage when they outgrew the abacus