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?

Not everyone has business accounts. It’s not a requirement.

That’s what I was going to say.

Other people’s taxes are none of my business.

Fair enough. I still find it strange to insist on cash only..surely from a safety perspective you'd expect most people to prefer to have less cash on the premises.

YABU - why are so many people in the belief that paying in cash = no taxes. I do a bank transfer to my hairdresser, as that is what she prefers.

Couldn't they accept bank transfer if they don't want to pay the card fees, if it's not tax evasion? I agree it's a big sum of money to carry with you, and can understand the reluctance to do it.

Not anymore, the days of Visa / Mastercard hegemony on card transactions are over. There are many cheaper alternatives now.

They pay the same fees to pay cash in so there is no reason not to allow customers to choose to pay by card if they wish. Unless the business isnt declaring the income to avoid tax and vat

So you're happy for her not to pay her fair share of funding schools, hospitals etc whilst you do? Unless you are also committing fraud? When your kids' schools ask parents to pay for things and waiting lists in the NHS are months long and criminals are being freed early from prisons all due to a lack of funding, you're ok with that too as your hairdresser is more important?

Exactly. Can you imagine if all self employed people did this? And these are probably the people that complain about pot holes, the state of the NHS and police service etc.

That's not what I said at all. Big reach. I said their tax affairs are not my business. Which is true.

I never pay cash, as my tradesman ex used to ask customers to pay cash so he could hide his true income for his child maintenance payments. So sorry to tar everyone with the same brush, but I know he’s definitely not the only arsehole doing this!

However much people protest I am convinced cash only = tax avoidance.

My hairdresser works from home and takes cards for my £15 cut.
My window cleaner takes payment by bank transfer as do all the tradesmen I have used in recent years.

All that "cash is king" stuff is about not paying tax.

Pause for thought? The UK spends £50m - £120m per year on producing banknotes (source: Bank of England). It also spends £20m - £25m on producing coins (source National Audit Office). Even by Royal Household standards, cash is a very expensive king.

It isn’t about taxes, it is fees for the use of the payment system.

What are you talking about 🤦‍♀️ cash handling fees…they just deposit it into the bank.

Banks charge businesses for deposits. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Which charges businesses to pay in cash.

Well that’s an entirely different thing. It’s not a handling fee. And these fees are lower, plus sliding scale, unlike the fees for using payment machines

What "entirely different" thing does a cash handling fee cover if not the processing (including deposits) of cash?

You can also pay into a current account for free and then transfer into your business account 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, clearly it was too early in the day for me because my brain decided to ignore deposit fees entirely. But they are lower than fees for using payment systems, so it is logical that it could be for this not for tax purposes. Surely they’d not be so brazen to ask for cash like that to avoid tax when anyone could be part of the clientele

It’s not multinational companies or ‘the wealthy’ that evade tax it’s overwhelmingly small businesses such as OPs hairdresser. Don’t be so naive. These people are spitting in the face of PAYE employees.

Remember too you have to get cash to the bank. That service costs money too. That is unless you are going to send members of staff there with carrier bags full of bank notes.

Some banks (business accounts) absolutely do charge you to deposit cash (and cheques). My organisation has switched banks precisely because of this.

My hairdresser/beautician used to be cash only back in the day but as soon as mobile banking apps became readily available, she moved to bank transfers as it makes her accounting/tax returns a lot easier!

In addition, businesses in France, Belgium, Portugal, Greece and Spain are required by law to accept card payments.