Who do you pay in cash?

Don't tradespeople give you a better price if you pay cash because they can then avoid putting it through the books, and paying tax on it.

I thought that was the idea behind it.

That too lol.

We pay by card and by cash. My husband takes out a sum from the ATM every week, we use that except when doing a big shop at the supermarket. Visits to the supermarket apart from that and to the greengrocer, newsagent, petrol station etc are in cash. We keep a tab on our spending that way and know what we have available to spend.

So, now supermarkets can't take cash? If I go to a boot sale - no cash? Buying my newspaper - no cash? What happens when a café, newsagent, pub have a notice no cheques or cards under £X ? Do we say 'sorry but the government says I can't pay you in cash because that means you are dodgy!'

It is ludicrous, the country prints the coins of the realm and now some idiot is trying to stop people using it!

Ofcourse it is fine to pay cash.
As long as we remember that the cash we pay is from earned income.
So, for every pound you pay in cash you would have had to earn £1.20? ! £1.30? £1.50?, depending on which tax bracket you are in.

Sometimes the people who would prefer to be paid in cash act as if they are doing you a big favour.
That is not the case for most of us.

It is up to the person you are paying to declare it for tax! If they are are quoting a cheaper price! It is up to them!

Yes I agree - the onus is on the service provider to pay any tax due. Nothing to do with us as buyers. Of course shops etc. accept cash, because their business practices are transparent in that respect.

Not quite, jeni and ana.
If you employ someone for , let's say 3 hours a week, that is fine.
If you employ someone on a daily basis, even for only 3 hours, I think it becomes a different ballgame.
Well, that is the impression I was given.

I employ self employed people to to things for me!
It is their responsibility!

What about the bar in the house of commons-do they pay the full price or is the drink tax free-same difference surely. An MP gave my DH aHouse of commons bottle of scotch-we thought it must be very special and expensive-treasured it as we drank. Later found that MPs can buy the stuff for a pound or so

My SiL runs a small building company. He is sometimes paid in cash sometimes cheque. He has an accountant ..his books have to balance. But he often has cheques bounce because people transfer money from one account to another and sometimes it is too slow! Currently owed £15k from well known person who is having trouble releasing funds! Meanwhile he has to pay his team, the suppliers, his mortgage etc. He prefers cash because it is quicker for 'cash flow' and not because he does not pay tax.

jeni
That is absolutely fine, if they are totally self employed.
In which case they would have their proper liability insurance?
And there would be no come back to you if they fell of a ladder whilst cleaning your gutters?

johnanna, in no situation is it incumbent upon the person paying for the service to verify the service-provider's tax arrangements! Cash is still legal currency!

Now you're going off on a different tangent completely - what's that got to do with paying cash in hand? Most people check their builder's credentials before they employ them.

ana
I got the impression that Jeni was talking about people who work for her on a regular basis.
Not big one off jobs.

Johanna is talking about the responsibility that might fall on the the person paying a cleaner cash in hand if the 'self-employed'cleaner slipped and broke a leg etc.I work as a self employed consultant and have to pay for public liability insurance in case I damage someone/thing in the course of my work. Hopefully the schools i work for have insurance to protect me.

Quite! And being Bristol! It's always 'cash on the nail '
The 'nails' are within 100 yards of the court where I work!

Thanks nanaej, that is exactly what I meant.
And a lot of us do not realize this.
And some of us are even ignorant enough to think such an accident would come under normal household insurance. It does not.

So there, jeni! Hope you've checked your self-employed people's insurance policies!

Our cleaner, like many, is from Eastern Europe. To have an NI number, she is required to set up a business account which charges for every cheque processed, so of course she prefers to be paid in cash. I know she declares her income for tax because she is applying for citizenship and has to prove that she is self-supporting and paying tax.

I agree that it is the responsibility of the employee to decare their income for tax purposes (though wrong for an employer to knowingly collude in any evasion), but I also think that the whole austerity programme is about penalising the poor while the rich get away with avoidance on a massive scale.

Does Mr Gauke think that it was morally right to give the richest people in the country a tax break?

My Gardner was in insurance before he got the hankering for the outdoors!

My husband and I run a struggling engineering company. All of our work is business to business so all payments made are strictly through the bank (cheque, card or BACS) . We don't do any work directly to the general public so cash in hand is never an option.

However (call it sour grapes) it does annoy me a bit when builder/hairdresser/cleaner friends brag to me that they "only put enough through the books to keep tax man happy and stash the rest".

I kinda get the point that was being made.

gillybob afree it is unfair when anyone plays the system! BUT the country is being bankrupt not because of a few hundred quid cash in hand but because of the zillions that big businesses stash away..that is why Gauke's comments are so insulting..does he think the general public are so naive that they will start blaming plumbers etc for the economic crisis???

The problem as I see it nanaej is that if every plumber,hairdresser,builder,gardener,cleaner (crikey the list is endless) does it (and I suspect they do) then there is a BIG problem.

I remember many years ago (when we used to have holidays) my husband and I were chatting to the owner of a restaurant in Cyprus, we chatted about what we did for a living etc and the tax system in both countries. I mentioned that I thought the tax system for small businesses in the UK was unfair and prevented growth. He said that in Greece and Cyprus anyone who pays tax is a fool and everyone who deals in cash has an "agreement" with the tax man.

What's the difference?

Cash in hand.

How typical of an MP to look for a sound bite, declaring payment in cash immoral, when he has failed to think about the wider picture.

My bank wrote to me this month advising 'We've noticed you're using cheques to make some payments. Did you know that you can make payment easily by phone or on line? If you's like to find out more about Telephone Banking or On line Banking please call us on... We'll be happy to help."

So rather than handing my window cleaner cash, am I to ask him for the details of his bank account? then spend my time going to the internet or phoning up to pay him. He then spends time checking I have paid him!! Remember the window cleaner like most tradesman does not earn enough to pay VAT so Mr Gaurke is suggesting that some how people who offer services are immoral and do not declare their income and that it is up to us to try to make our payments more traceable.

Furthermore if I go to my travel agent and pay on a credit card for the flight there is a surcharge due to the cost he incurs so I would have to pay more to use the card. Naturally I pay by debit card. Likewise I believe that the tradesman is charged for processing cheques through the bank I pay him cash so that he does not incur this charge.

our MP's need to get real about day to day living for honest people who do not earn millions but pay their bills with probity.