Hairdresser asking me to pay in cash

[Sally3490]

I've been going to my hairdressers for about 10 years. It's quite pricey £160 for full highlights and a cut (London). When I was last in they asked if I would pay in cash in future. The ATM is on route so in theory I could, but it adds some level of inconvenience and I'd rather not be carrying that amount of cash with me. But also, I feel it's damn cheeky. They are charging alot of money and should be paying their taxes. AIBU?

Who cares!!!!

If it cuts down on tax evasion, it needs to be stopped. Nobody needs to be using cash.

What is wrong with paying in cash ? The atm is on route so what is the big deal? Cash doesn't bite you. If you really can't bring yourself to use cash find another hairdresser.

This.

Using cash to pay for some things is good. But when requested and clearly is to avoid paying your share into society then pretty low. All those people are doing is asking everyone else to cough up for them really.

But it’s not clear if that’s what they’re doing.

on the balance of probabilities I would hazard a guess that is precisely what is going on.

I don’t think you were “targeted”. They probably think they have a good relationship with you and felt comfortable asking, it is no secret that small businesses prefer cash. If you like your hairdressers and don’t mind a little extra journey to the cash point before your appointments I’d just do them this favour. If not, just say sorry you don’t pass a cash point on the way. It isn’t a big deal.

Really? I’d imagine they need cash for other purposes - my hair salon has a little thing where an elderly client can get a taxi home paid for by the salon. The taxis in my town only take cash because the card fees are insane and put people off. The tips are left in coins and they convert them to notes to hand out to the apprentice etc at the end of the week.

My hairdresser is cash only and im happy to do this.
I fontbthink £160 is expensive nor that much to carry around, especially if the stm is nearby.

My hairdresser, who is self-employed, has just asked me to setup bank transfer which will help her to send her tax records to HMRC. I rarely have cash to pay anyone these days.

It’s really depressing how people try to avoid paying tax, yet expect services to run well.

Ok. I've changed my mind if that is the cost. I wouldn't carry that much cash. I used to pay £25 in cash to save my hairdresser the card fees. Now I go to a unisex barber to have my long hair trimmed once a year and it costs £12. No way would I pay £160 in cash (or otherwise).

My local chippy has a sign about it saying 'prefer cash'. Lots of taxi drivers do the same.

Haha, yes because they're evading tax too.

The lady who does mine and my sisters hair just has a converted room at her house so she’s self employed, not part of a big city centre salon - there is just her and we have always paid her cash as she doesn’t have a card machine. She keeps her prices reasonable and she’s a great hairdresser and she said she’d have to increase her costs to cover the machine fees and she doesn’t need to.
She bank deposits her cash and I know she is honest as during Covid when she couldn’t operate her furlough or whatever it was reflected her average earnings…. Whereas people who weren’t honest didn’t get the full amount.
Honesty is always the best policy I’d say.

Just say no as you don't like carrying cash. Up to them how they handle it. Likely to be a tax dodge.

A friend of mine who is a cleaner was cash only for years. She only paid enough into her bank account to cover her rent and utilities (which she also declared on her Tax Return). The other cash was used for petrol, shopping, hair etc etc. Unfortunately she was investigated by HMRC who wanted her to explain why there were no bank transactions for purchases of fuel/shopping etc. She couldn't explain and lived alone so it wasn't as if she could say her other half was paying for these. She thinks a misgruntled ex customer reported her to HMRC. She ended up with a massive tax bill with penalties which she is still paying off.

The taxis in your town only take cash because they don’t lay their taxes in full and probably scrounge off the benefit system.

Like the hairdressers.

Otherwise why wouldn’t everyone be asking for cash payments?!

I agree with PP above…

.. when asked to pay cash ask what their cash rate is.

You can buy them in Argos or Amazon from about £25. So many businesses lose sales by not offering card payment. I can only assume there’s a good reason they want to avoid it.

Does she understand why or think she’s hard done by?

Not forgetting also all the self-employed workers who couldn’t get furlough during Covid because they hadn’t been declaring their income.

That's not true though.

Our business uses Monzo, a flat fee of £1 per transaction up to £4000 per deposit.

Whereas a card payment fee using Stripe to Xero costs around £2 for a £120 odd transaction.

So I could take 33 £120 transactions in cash for £1, or pay around £66 in card fees.

We don't, because it is is more convenient for us not to, but it isn't true to say universally that cash is as expensive as card.

Unless the OP knows what systems the hairdresser uses you cont know whether it is accounted for. All our jobs are logged on a works management type system that link to Xero, so however they are paid for they go through the books.

Oh she absolutely realises she was in the wrong. I'm just highlighting that it does happen. She declares every single penny now and just takes bank transfer. Pisses me right off that so many people do it whilst the rest of us have to pay our taxes.

I accept that there are costs for a business in handling cash, but I presume that in some circumstances those costs are less than the equivalent costs for using a card. Some shops in my area prefer cash for small transactions and some have signs up asking for cash for purchases under £10. I am always happy to oblige in those cases, but always pay by card for larger amounts. I definitely wouldn’t pay £160 in cash.

It might be worth mentioning another reason some people wasn’t to be paid in cash. 20 or so years ago I had booked a taxi to take me to the airport. I expected to be able to pay by cheque, or possibly card. When we arrived the driver said he wanted to paid in cash. I told him I didn’t have it, which was perfectly true. We had a bit of an argument and he said that the reason he wanted to be paid in cash was that he was overdrawn and if I paid by cheque the money would be kept by the bank, whereas if I paid in cash he would obviously have some money that he could spend and he needed to buy food.

Whether that was true or not I don’t know, but I ended up agreeing and had to go inside the airport to use a cash point machine. Very annoying, especially as I had my 5 and 3 year old with me and lots of luggage.

It’s a minor inconvenience.
It doesn’t mean that the hairdresser is not paying tax, a lot still wages in cash, especially for part timers working Friday and Saturday.
It is your money so your choice.
I don’t mind doing it. I have had new doors fitted and floors bought through a reputable company, the subcontractors, the fitters requested cash. It’s normal for some trades.

Did you ask her why she’d prefer cash instead of just assuming it was tax related?

Yep they’ve just started a Making Tax Digital scheme I do some book keeping for a friend.