Tax cheats, do you know one?

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.

It's his lookout if he is.
I no longer work for hmrc (though I used to)

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?

I pay £5 for my flat.
Mind you, he does a terrible job.

Doodledog I pay the window cleaner in cash as his visits are ad hoc, so standing orders wouldn’t work, but I think that’s the only one, and it’s £10 every 3 weeks or so. I rarely have cash on me these days anyway.
I never know exactly when mine's coming(supposedly monthly), so I do a bank transfer each time as a couple of others have also said, might that work for you? As an aside I'm envious of your price I pay £16 for a very small house.

Claremont

I do, many.

Tax cheats, do you know one?

How do you know many?
Are you in a business where you know others who are cheating?
Or do you work for HMRC?

Claremont

I do, many.

We've got our account set up so we can pay regular workers by BACS, but even so a warning flashes up on the screen to check if we're sure we mean to make this payment.

Which reminds me - we had a scam phone call yesterday saying suspicious payments had been made out of our account. Did we want to speak to a member of their team who could help?
(At least, I hope it was a scam.)

I only use cash for small purchases and don’t pay tradesmen in cash. I couldn’t care less if the bank or credit card company knows how and where I spend my money.

GrannyGravy13

I use cash when eating out and on some purchases I see no reason why the bank should know how and when I spend my money.

Use it or lose it.

Raffle tickets, monthly entrance fees to clubs (I'm not talking about subscriptions) etc. Church collections took although I am assured on here that some churches are up to date with card machines.

It was always handy to have coins or a note to put into a charity box but now I find that those collecting for charity want you to sign up to a monthly direct debit, not drop a donation in a tin. I'm sure they miss out by not having thst facility.

I've no reason to suspect someone needing cash is necessarily not paying child maintenance, or on a fiddle.

Why would I?

As a grown up, I expect them to have sorted out their arrangements legally and clearly.

That's where my responsibility ends.

I sometimes need cash, just because almost everything do is online these days, so it's rare for me to have a couple of pounds in my purse.

If I ask someone to fetch me in milk, then I want to pay them.

I use cash when eating out and on some purchases I see no reason why the bank should know how and when I spend my money.

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'm more than happy to pay anyone in cash. What they do with that cash thereafter is none of my business.

Any tradesman or business that asks for payment in cash. No. I won't report you but I won't collude with tax evasion.
Cafes that have signs all over saying "cash is king". No thanks I'll go elsewhere.

No Government has the guts to do so.

I think we need to tax wealth more (note wealth, not income).

Don’t you think we need more tax income rather than less?

The tax system needs to be reformed. The income tax threshold has not been increased for 5 years and the 40% rate now starts at 50k a year, which means people like police constables are now dragged into the higer rate. I think the tax threshold should be increased to 20k a year and the 40% rate shouldn't start until you start paying 60k a year. Also the 45% top tax rate should be abolished.

I agree it's really bad and get just as cross what these international companies get away with - my assumption is that it's either very hard or actually not possible to hold them to account. -but I don't understand enough about the ways they operate to dodge paying tax in individual countries.

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?

I have dealt with two kinds of tradesmen in the last year: one was working for a company and I paid by card, so I would assume the money would go to his company and he would be on a taxable salary. The other was a plumber that I paid in cash and whether he declared this or not isn't my problem.

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'm not outraged by others financial arrangements.

It's enough trying to manage mine, living in fear of having disability benefit stopped or being investigated, although what for, I don't know.

I always feel I'm some sort of a fraud, even though I know I'm not.
That's why I get cross at the suggestion that someone might decide "Ah, she looks as if she might be on the fiddle, somehow".

Our window cleaner leaves a bill and is paid by BACS.