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

You need to get a new bank account , who pays for cash withdrawals?

Ahhh thank you, I didn’t realise that.

So it’s actually cheaper to deal with small businesses?

And if the husband was abusive and she doesn't have access to the bank account? Or it's swallowed upon bank charges etc and needs the cash to eat and buy fuel?

Op how much do you pay her per hour?

Let’s assume she manages to get work for 6 hours a day, 50 weeks of the year, @ £15 per hour. She probably can’t do even this much in reality, due to the time travel time between customers (which you don’t pay for).

So that means:

Annual income: £22,500
Income Tax: ~£1,986 (20% on profit above £12,570)
National Insurance (Class 4): ~£595 (6% on profit above £12,570)

I couldn’t feel worked up over this; it’s such a low salary to start with

It is bollocks I agree, and also, you don't have to be paid in cash to be 'on the fiddle'.

Folk fiddle by attributing payments to places they shouldn't be allocated. Accountants fiddle for folk all the time.

It's the ATM which charges, not the bank.
Honestly surprised so many people have no idea about the massive swathes of the UK where there are no free ATMs. I know MN skews middle class, but still.

If she's a really good cleaner and you refuse, she'll replace you as a client within seconds. Whereas finding a good new cleaner won't be as easy.

But you do you.

It is indeed.

I don't disagree with your second sentence - previous posters seem to think OP is obligated to turn a blind eye

WHAT 🤣🤣🤣

Exactly. This weird idea that paying by bank transfer eliminates the chance of someone fiddling the tax man is just laughable.

Huge corporations will all be paying the tax calculated according to the laws that the global finance system has agreed - there is no "dodging" going on.

Vote new governments in that might change the laws if you don't like them.

But if you live in a dirt poor deprived area then you are unlikely to be needing to pay a cleaner each week surely

OP has no evidence that the cleaner isn't paying her taxes so what would she be turning a blind eye to, exactly?

"The price she pays for wanting cash"
??? She's allowed to be paid in cash just as much as bank transfer.... and ON TIME for doing her job. If you can't be arsed to pay someone on time... do the job yourself.

I'd pay your cleaner in cash.

If you wish to buy Tesco vouchures, give her some for a Christmas gift.

Obviously they have both seen and used cash during their lives!

But we are now at a stage where they are old enough to have bank accounts that I transfer to , therefore I don't need to give them cash or really have it around the house.

The cleaner is a paid employee, she isn't doing me a favour. So I can decide if a new request from her is worth it to me, and if it isn't, she can choose to stick to doing things how we have always done (ie paying bank transfer) or choose not to work for me anymore. Thats fine. Neither of us would be unreasonable in our decision

The response was to those on the thread who seem to have no idea how ATMs work.

But anyway you're wrong. People in poor areas can be inconvenienced by having to pay in cash, whether that's for a cleaner or any other service. It was a pain for me when I lived in what you so charmingly call a "dirt poor" area and I had to pay eg a plumber.

And now I live in a posh as fuck small village and there is still no free ATM, nor a post office.

Oh good lord not another 'I don't want to pay cash' bloody post 🙄🙄
You've clearly never been SE and had to absorb the ever rising costs of handling money! For your convenience (or mistrust) your cleaner will have to pay added banking charges just because you think he/she might be avoiding tax.
Maybe you should be more concerned with multi billion organisations such as Amazon etc who avoid paying it rather than (speculative) your lovely cleaner.
Get someone else of you're that bothered and pay the higher price that comes with bank transfers etc

Yanbu, you’re absolutely right that everyone should be paying their fair share of tax. I wouldn’t agree to paying her in cash - if she is prepared to lose the job over it by dropping you as a client then let her. Your conscience will be clear at least.

Well you had to get cash for them when they were younger didn't you

Yeah you can get rid of the cleaner for asking for cash but then you have even more hassle of finding another decent one. After my great one left( she got married and moved away) I had on the trot that were mediocre.

That was far more hassle than visiting an ATM once a month ( you don't have to withdraw money weekly)

Why not sit down with your cleaner and demand a full medical breakdown of her foreign husbands injury, a description of his job and tasks he is undertaking in the house renovation. Then cross reference on a spreadsheet and compile a graph of the varying degrees of dishonesty of nationalities not British as this is entirely relevant to the question of whether you pay her cash or not. If you are then satifsfied with the results of your investigation and agree to cash payments you might also consider insisting she sign a statement promising that she will pay her taxes in full because that is totally your business as well.

You are joking right? 🤣

It was the article that said poor areas lol. And I lived in one before .

Why couldn't you pay your plumber by bank transfer then? Seeing as cash was so inconvenient

I think the fact that she was previously happy to be paid by bank transfer and that she has said “because the costs are burdening me and I need to ask clients to start paying in cash” is evidence enough. Why would clients paying in cash help her if not for the reason of under-declaring her earnings?