Would you report someone for working a second job cash in hand

[dammit88]

…. And not paying tax? Earning around £100-200 extra per week on top of their normal pays job.

has anyone ever done this? Did anything happen?

No I wouldn't. I do know someone doing this and haven't.

No

But I think this is a probable outcome. If an "employer" is paying cash in hand what else are they not doing correctly? That isnt fair on anyone. Health and Safety is a big issue in so many industries. I worry about particularly young men, struggling to find work, low qualifications, who will take any job to earn some cash.Not a good outcome for them.

In my county they used to do (no more) a stop at a large layby for cars/Vans MOT, Tax,etc. Normally once they found 1 breach - there were many more. That is the issue - if someone breaks the law in a small way - do they break in others?

Who do you think should pay for the school state system, NHS, elderly care, defence, etc? We all need to pay. So cash in hand to avoid taxes is not OK, or child maintenance.

Which is why i never said "Evasion" instead "Avoidance"

Chris Dawson of The Range, gave his wife several 100 million to avoid £15m in tax... all legal... but earn £100, evading £20 in tax and that is so very wrong.....

The system is set up so the wealthy have vehicles to avoid tax but your ordinary joe, on PAYE has none.

But my point is, the very wealthy, when using tax avoidance measures, will not use the money saved in this country.
The cash in hand worker will, almost certainly, be spending that money in their locality.

I would rather someone do some cash in hand work, than claim benefits and sit on their arses.

But i would report if someone was claiming AND working cash in hand regularly.

I pay for it all via my taxes, as does OP in her main job.

We pay considerably more proportionately via PAYE than higher earners outside of this who pay themselves dividends.

I'd love to know if the posters so who would happily report OP, who may be able to give her kids a little treat for Easter with a small bit of extra cash, are filling a self assessment each year and declaring every little bit of income, including interest earned from savings.

Spousal transfers are, as you say, legal. There is another thread on here making the point that any assets gained during the course of a marriage are joint anyway. Perhaps Chris made the transfer to his wife in recompense for her giving up own career! He had better hope they don’t get divorced….

He could alternatively have legally ceased to be UK tax resident but he hasn’t, presumably therefore he is dorbfing significant time and therefore money in the UK.

However, even despite use of legal tax planning mechanisms Chris Dawson and his wife are regularly on the list of the top 100 UK tax payers, last year’s entry showing they paid £14.7m. They are reported to have paid £147.5m in UK tax between 2018 and 2024.

Let’s not pretend that those earning money cash in hand are all (hard up parents taking in ironing) working for otherwise law abiding people either - it’s usually linked to / an gateway to other illegal activities.

No. No one should have to pay tax on a second job. You give up your life and freedom to earn that. If we can't earn enough on one job so forced into a second, why should we pay tax on it?

If only working part time in first job, that's different. Beyond full time hours: no. Do not report.

What counts as a second job?

If I'm earning £25k.im two jobs each? I shouldn't pay tax in the second £25k?

But if I was in one job earning £50k, I'd have to pay more tax?

@jasflowers

I would rather someone do some cash in hand work, than claim benefits and sit on their arses.

What about the cash in handers who are also claiming benefits - i.e. breaking the law in two different ways?

Impossible to do and makes no sense.

Lots of people have two "main" part time jobs - basically splitting a normal working week between two different employers. Should one of their jobs be tax free?? Makes no sense.

Maybe, but just maybe, we could have a tax law where, say, pay for over average full time working hours (say 37.5 per week) is tax free, but it would be impossible to administer.

Not to mention the fact that lots of people work far more than average hours in a single job - should some of their hours be tax free too??

No, and you should really get on with your own sad and pathetic life rather than sticking your nose in other peoples' business

Feels like you just repeated what I said haha. And yes, anything above full time hours should not be taxed (unless paid 1.5 or 2x pay). Whether those hours are split between multiple jobs is irrelevant.

It's unclear why you think it's impossible. Do you not know HMRC know exactly how many hours you work.

The person who needs reporting is the employer not the employee

For keeping their hard earned money? Never.

I feel very differently if someone's stealing someone else's, including the taxpayer.

No would never do it.

I wouldn't. But I would be angry and would think poorly of them.
That is income they could be hiding and still claiming benefits, or pretending they don't earn as much to get out of paying child maintenance.

How many times on here do we see mums fucked by their ex's who only declare half of what they earn?

You said people should never taxed on a second job.

Not this whole "full time hours" nonsense

Yeah, it was implied the first job was full time.. especially when I said people shouldn't have to work more than full time hours.

So if I have I e job where I work 60 hours, Earn £60k, I pay tax on it all, but my friend who works job A at 40 hours at £40k and Job B at 20 hours earning £20k, at a total ofn£60k as well.... they shouldn't be paying tax on job B?

How does it work in your mind about pension contributions and national insurance etc?

No probably not tbh. Unless they were doing it to avoid paying CM.

Ah okay, I understand now why it didn't make sense to some people - I do see the potential problem in the scenario you describe. So, I'd be open to a cap. In my mind, I only know people who work minimum wage jobs (essentially) so when they get a second job, it feels disgusting that they have to continue paying tax when they're working on their days off.

Personally, I don't need there to be a cap. As far as I'm concerned, those two poxy days we get out of seven to ourselves.. whatever we choose to do with that time should be separate from the government and not required to be disclosed.

Days off mind, not side jobs during the week. And who is earning 20k from a Sat/Sun job??

Can we not focus on one or two extreme examples, and just focus on what the majority experience and think about them and their real-life needs? People doing bar work, for example, at the weekend because they need extra money - their full-time 9-5 doesn't pay enough to cover bills. Why should anything they do on their days off have anything to do with the government.

Maybe we just need designated / declared work days and days off. There is a way to build a fairer system, just needs people brainstorming that rather than excuses for why not to do it.

Yes, but it's is complicated. More complicated than someone earning minimum wage wants to earn more money.

What counts as full time? What happens when you do 4 days on 4 days off shift pattern or whatever.

What you appear to be proposing is tax the first 40 hours and the rest is un taxed? In which case I would imagine an awful lot of people will be contracted at a taxable minimum wage for the first 40 hrs, then paid £££££ ph for 1 hour each week/month/ year etc in "overtime"

Yes, it will be manipulated. We saw it with NIC in a few different ways. I.e. a single employer "splitting" into two different "branches" and employing the same people (full time) but as two separate part time jobs, for both employee and employer to avoid NIC. Likewise using monthly "bonuses" alongside a low weekly wage - basic low weekly wage below NIC threshold, so no employee/employer NIC, but then a large monthly "bonus" over the upper NIC threshold, so the upper part of it outside the scope of employee NIC meaning the employee, overall, paid less NIC than had it been an "even" wage every week without the monthly "high".

Making part of the income tax free is ripe for evasion/avoidance and just makes our tax legislation (already the biggest and most complicated in the World) even worse. It's a complete non starter. Another one of those "nice in theory" ideas that is completely impractical (not to mention unaffordable as the country is neck deep in debt/deficit/interest as it it so anything reducing tax take just makes things worse!).

Not if it's set up correctly, but definitely if people look for excuses not to do it.