Paying for jobs done.

I don’t paying in cash, provided I get a receipt.

Oh dear, how naive I am. It has never occurred to me that my cash paid tradesmen might be cheating the system. Now that it has been pointed out I’ll continue to trust them …

Don’t mind

I haven't been asked for cash in a very long time. Milkman and
window cleaner have on line accounts I pay on my mobile phone. Everyone else the laundry and the butcher take cards even the market stalls have a card machine now. In a restaurant if DH pays he adds the tip when he pays the bill by card. Sometimes I leave cash in smaller cafes and the hairdresser. The beauty parlour (is it still called that its not grand enough to be called a spa) invite you to tip after via your on line bill - having taken 50% first on booking?

Petra Just for the record I will be 83 in a few weeks I am not annoyed about paying cash and that is what I will be doing. I was just wondering what other people thought. As has already been said I don't know how this payment will be accounted for, not for me to say.

When my husband was still working most of his customers chose to pay cash. His invoices clearly stated other payment methods like BACS, cheques etc but they asked to pay cash.

I used to bank the cash once a week and it was all recorded.
I believe most small businesses around here are the same. Hardworking, honest people.

I meant to add that if there was any attempt at dodgy dealings it was usually the customer! “Do I get a discount for cash?” He always told them that there wasn’t because they would get an invoice and that was the price. You never know whether the customer is HMRC or VATman. It really is not worth the risk.

We pay our window cleaner in cash, it’s up to him not us to declare it. Others we pay using bank transfer. For large jobs it’s proof of payment plus a kind of guarantee.

I pay by bacs. tbh I can't think of a single reason why a workman would prefer cash unless it was to avoid paying tax. It's quick, simple and it makes keeping accounts so much easier. I pay tax so I don't see why everyone else shouldn't either. The black economy affects us all so I avoid it.

I’m perfectly happy to offer cash if I’m satisfied with the work, their manner and general professionalism, especially if it’s someone who’s done satisfactory work for me previously. I object to tradespeople asking to be paid cash, certainly on a first job.

twiglet77

I’m perfectly happy to offer cash if I’m satisfied with the work, their manner and general professionalism, especially if it’s someone who’s done satisfactory work for me previously. I object to tradespeople asking to be paid cash, certainly on a first job.

I really don’t see how you can object to people wanting to be paid in legal tender. I think wanting a receipt is fine yo show a payment has been made n but first job or tenth job what difference does cash or bacs make? My objection to a large amount in cash is not wanting to have to arrange to have it. .

I pay the cleaner £45 in cash. Yesterday I paid the window cleaner £40 cash. Neither of them have specified a preference I just automatically hand them cash - easy - job done.
If they’d preferred an alternative payment I’d have been happy with that too. I bit more bother but not a huge inconvenience.

When I worked in B&Q we were one of the few shops who took £50 notes as so many builders would pull a wad of notes out and pay with them

One of the older people locally was asked to pay a bill in cash that included VAT

I don't keep much cash with me any longer, and pay my window cleaner through bank transfer. Our builder and plumber used to be paid in cash when they were under the VAT threshold, but now they're paying VAT and we pay both through their banks. Our electricians always give us proper invoices including VAT. I can't think of any tradesmen who have asked for cash recently.

Talking of the black economy. During Covid . The govt were giving out grants to the SE . You had to send three years accounts with your claim . A builder friend of ours was moaning that he didn’t get the maximum amount because his accounts showed a low income due to lots of cash jobs!!!

I’ll pay cash for a small amount but for a larger amount and if I need a receipt or guarantee, it’s bacs .

I happily pay in cash, but I rent, so I'm only paying for small jobs to be done, under £100. What they do after that is for their conscience to deal with.

I pay my window cleaner in cash because that’s what he asks for. How he keeps his books is his business.
If a tradesman does a small job and I have enough cash in the house I might pay cash. I paid a joiner £30 for a small job, but his next job was £80 so I paid by BACS.
Most jobs are much more expensive so it has to be by bank transfer.

I do pay a couple of trusted workmen who I've known for a long time in cash. Others are all by bank transfer. I have no idea if the cash is declared and I don't care. The sums involved are generally small and I'm sure there are rich people with accountants evading tax in many legal and illegal ways so why not help out a local worker? OK I accept it's bad in principal but like i say I don't care.

It’s always window cleaners (or gardeners) as if they are some special case for cash payment because it’s only a small amount to pay.

My window cleaner charges £20. He does mine and three near neighbours’ houses in less than an hour with a pole-driven system. £80 earned. (I pay by bank transfer.)

Allowing for travel and a lunch break, say he does six hours cleaning. He’s earned £480 for the day. If everyone were to pay him in cash, do you really think he’s going to the bank every day to pay it in? Even once a week to pay in £2,400? If he’s working 48 weeks a year, taking four weeks holiday he’s grossing £115,200 a year.

What happens, of course, is that many people who work this way will give, say, some cash to their partner for housekeeping, give the children pocket money, go to the pub, bookies, barbers, myriad other small things that all add up into a larger sum and may only record a fraction of what they actual earned.

And that’s why there’s a £50 billion tax gap - £30 billion of it from small businesses under-reporting their takings.

It’s all very well for people to say that how a trader accounts for his earnings is none of their business but I suspect they might also be the first to complain about tax evasion in general and the lack of money for public services. Cash payment makes tax evasion much easier. £30 billion evaded would go a long way to improving public services.

Tax Watch reported on how the number of staff working on investigations had dwindled.

www.taxwatchuk.org/hmrc-skills-future/

The report is two years old now and I do believe more effort has been put into recruitment but it takes a long time to train new investigators.

Yes there are big fish evading tax (more usually avoiding which is a different thing) tax but someone earning £115,000 a year and only putting say half through the books, will be evading around £30,000 in tax year, three times the amount of an average state pension.

Of course, putting everything though the books doesn’t mean a trader still won’t under report and hope they don’t get caught. Self assessment has made that very much easier to do and get away with.

We pay by cheque, transfer, or cash with receipts.

We usually pay cash to tradespeople and always have done, including for a lift conversion and a small extension.

Actually, as a partner in a very small building firm, may I clarify that it is much easier for tradespeople to be paid by bank transfer. We state on our invoices that we prefer to be paid by bank transfer on the day of completion of the work. Our clients are usually householders, and the vast majority are decent people. It is 20 miles to our nearest bank, so cash payment is actually a pain. The time taken to drive there, the cost of fuel and parking, the walk from car park to the bank and back again. The endless queuing in banks. time lost when you could be working on the next job. It is messy and inconvenient. Bank transfer is much easier from a book-keeping perspective and for our accountant to deal with when doing our annual accounts. The accountants' fees are tax deductible too, so why would anyone want to make hard work of the whole process? We are not dishonest people, we have always paid our taxes and NI and we have never looked for ways to avoid paying what we owe. Cheques are almost unheard of now. They too are, or were. a pain. The time waiting for them to clear can be really inconvenient. So the simplest way is by bank transfer.

RosiesMawagain

I’m always asked to pay by bank transfer these days, so no issue.

Same here, we have had several jobs done recently, from the small jobs of cleaning the oven and carpets to large jobs such as new fascias and soffits and a new patio and all of them asked for bank transfer payments.