Tax cheats, do you know one?

Homestead62

I don't know anyone like this and I would be too dim to try and fiddle my tax. I don't understand half of it as it is. I'd never want HMRC or any official body thinking I was a crook!

Of course, HMRC are not always right themselves and, as one Tax Officer confessed to us, the left hand doesn't always know what the right hand's doing.

I don't know anyone like this and I would be too dim to try and fiddle my tax. I don't understand half of it as it is. I'd never want HMRC or any official body thinking I was a crook!

MissAdventure

More fiddlers than the Philharmonic!

They must be bored out of their minds just standing there all day looking at their phones.

MissAdventure

I can think of few things more soul destroying than taking on the role of tax monitoring.

It was bad enough as a real job, let alone on a voluntary basis.

I wonder if everyone got that 😂

More fiddlers than the Philharmonic!

MissAdventure

Sometimes supermarket checkouts have that "cash only" sign... hmmm 🤔
Makes you wonder.

Much the same as Turkish Barbers and some nail salons. 🤔

I've not heard that phrase since I was a teen/early 20s.

GrannyGravy13

I find it rather disheartening that people think that using the legal tender of the UK is suspicious and in all probability leads to tax fraud.

But if they are saying "cheaper for cash" then surely that's wrong.
Processing fees for transactions through a bank are usually very low - certainly not leading to 10 or 20% lower cost of a service?

These people are presumably not declaring everything?

In my local supermarkets there are card only signs on some tills. I haven't seen cash only ones. In my local bakery they ask you to only use cards for £5 or more due to bank charges.

MissAdventure

Sometimes supermarket checkouts have that "cash only" sign... hmmm 🤔
Makes you wonder.

Small shops do like some cash because their suppliers ask for cash, trust is not always taken for granted!.

Sometimes supermarket checkouts have that "cash only" sign... hmmm 🤔
Makes you wonder.

We went to a local tyre replacement company on Friday. When we came to pay the man was rather embarassed when he asked if we could pay cash, as the companies computer system had crashed.

We scraped around our wallets but were £40 short, so I offered him a cheque, which he accepted quite happily.

This goes to show that just because someone asks for cash, no matter how inadequate their reason, they are not necessarily being dishonest.

I can think of few things more soul destroying than taking on the role of tax monitoring.

It was bad enough as a real job, let alone on a voluntary basis.

Barleyfields

GrannyGravy13

I find it rather disheartening that people think that using the legal tender of the UK is suspicious and in all probability leads to tax fraud.

In some cases it does. I would never pay a restaurant or takeaway bill in cash. Tax evasion and money laundering are rife. I use cash but am careful where I do so.

Aren't you rather condemning a whole sector as cheats and criminals? You really believe most restaurants are dishonest in their accounts? I think most people and businesses are honest, and so will pay by whatever means is most convenient to me at the time. I prefer to leave the tip in cash whichever payment method I choose.
And to answer the original question, no I don't think I personally know any tax cheats.

To me, it's up to the tradesman/ woman if they declare what they earn to the HMRC, and I think a lot are quite honest. Even if they didn't declare the £100 for doing a job on the house, the government will get it back in fuel duty on their vehicle or what they decide to spend at the pub.

GrannyGravy13

I have said frequently on GN that no Government whatever their persuasion has the balls to go after the big multi national conglomerates who play the system and thereby pay very little tax on their £ billions.

The so called man/women on the street on PAYE along with SME business owners pay all their taxes, and in some situations a proportion is paid upfront.

It is those who are able to get cash in hand jobs and who I imagine (I do not know for certain) do not declare all of their income.

I have said frequently on GN that no Government whatever their persuasion has the balls to go after the big multi national conglomerates who play the system and thereby pay very little tax on their £ billions.

I agree.

Getting wound up about a cleaner not declaring a couple of thousand pounds a year yet ignoring the main problem in tax evasion.

Farzanah

I pay window cleaner and cleaner by BACS.
In the past I have found some workmen hint that they will do a cheaper job if paid in cash. This means, if accepted, I would be complicit in tax evasion I presume?
I don’t engage such workmen.

Yes, I pay our window cleaner by BACS.
I'm assuming that, because he's an immigrant! he wants to do everything by the book.

I pay with whatever comes to hand.
I would happily revert back to cheques, wages in envelopes, handwritten .letters, and phone calls rather than emails, bankers drafts, apps and ruddy smartphones, though.

GrannyGravy13

I find it rather disheartening that people think that using the legal tender of the UK is suspicious and in all probability leads to tax fraud.

In some cases it does. I would never pay a restaurant or takeaway bill in cash. Tax evasion and money laundering are rife. I use cash but am careful where I do so.

Rosie51

Barleyfields

At the end of each year our window cleaner gives us a list of the dates when he will come the following year together with confirmation of prices for that year. He isn’t cheap but he’s very good and totally reliable. I would be wary of one who turns up ‘as and when’, maybe doesn’t charge a lot and also wants payment in cash. Is he fitting you in with another paid job and not declaring all his income?

'As and when' for my window cleaner, employed by a company and arrives in a liveried van, is approximately every month, but no set date. He's very good and does an excellent job. Surely yours doesn't actually come on the set date even if it's pouring with rain? I get irritated enough when it starts to rain within a couple of hours after mine have just been cleaned.

Yes, mine comes whatever the weather. I really don’t mind if it’s raining if he doesn’t. I could send him away, as I know others do, but I don’t. He has to earn a living. He comes every month and the windows will soon be mucky again whether it’s wet or dry when he cleans them.

Oreo

Doodledog

It is (legal tender) but how many people rail against those who claim benefits and earn a bit on the side, yet collude in tax evasion by paying tradespeople in cash to get a bit off the price?

I don’t know any tax cheats, but I can’t see that anyone would tell me even if they were.
I don’t get any money ‘off’ from my window cleaner , his price is his price, but he only takes cash anyway.

As you don't get money off (why the "" ""?) then I'd have thought it was obvious that that's not what I mean.

I'm talking about tradesmen who offer £X00 as a quote, or £X00 minus 20% for cash. It's blindingly obvious that they are doing it because they aren't declaring the job.

ViceVersa

Farzanah

I consider paying tax is a social responsibility which helps to pay for the services on which we all depend, and I am happy to do so.
I would have thought that tax lost through international companies who operate in U.K. but do not pay full U.K. tax through complex tax arrangements, far outweighs the sum lost through benefit fraud?

I was just about to say something similar. Isn't it funny how some people get their knickers all in a twist about individuals not paying a bit of tax (and I'm not condoning tax evasion at all, by the way), but when it comes to these companies who go all out to avoid paying tax in the UK, somehow that's not so bad?

Who says it’s ’somehow not so bad’? It bloody well is as far as I’m concerned!
But that doesn’t mean I’d excuse benefit cheats. If I knew any, I’d dob them in as soon as look at them. Dh and I pay our tax, always have done, and I despise anyone who thinks they’re entitled to cheat and fiddle at the taxpayer’s expense.

Doodledog

It is (legal tender) but how many people rail against those who claim benefits and earn a bit on the side, yet collude in tax evasion by paying tradespeople in cash to get a bit off the price?

I don’t know any tax cheats, but I can’t see that anyone would tell me even if they were.
I don’t get any money ‘off’ from my window cleaner , his price is his price, but he only takes cash anyway.

I find it rather disheartening that people think that using the legal tender of the UK is suspicious and in all probability leads to tax fraud.

I pay window cleaner and cleaner by BACS.
In the past I have found some workmen hint that they will do a cheaper job if paid in cash. This means, if accepted, I would be complicit in tax evasion I presume?
I don’t engage such workmen.