Cash In Hand, Morally Wrong?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18968679
We all do it but is it an innevitable consequence of our punative tax system or imply morally wrong?

[ToraToraTora]

doh! imply=Simply

[hc4361]

We don't all do it.

[factor-fiction]

I wouldn't do it for a big job such as paying a decorator but I do pay the gardener and window cleaner their £10 as cash simply because it's easier than searching for my cheque book

[retrocop]

ff
I was going to suggest that it might save the casual labourer/artisan in more rural areas trying to track down a Bank, Building Society,Post Office that is no longer there.

[flump1]

They will be expecting us to pick up receipts from the ice-cream van next !

[jim360]

At least some cash-in-hand trades are just simpler, rather than deliberate tax-dodging, surely?

[ummmm]

It's morally wrong if the person receiving the cash doesn't declare it.

[woofgang]

I have never done it, nor have I ever been offered a cash in hand or "legal" price alternative. I do pay cash for such jobs as window cleaning but have no knowledge of what the bloke does with the money and I would think it rude to ask.

[alavahalf]

.... "We all do it" ...

Speak for yourself ... that is a broad brush to paint everyone with ?

[retrocop]

No more "Bob a Job" then? Will it deter the street urchins asking "Penny for the Guy"?. Hope so.

[-Talbot-]

I only do cash in hand jobs so I can afford a coffee in Starbucks. I like a coffee whilst browsing Amazon on my Google tablet.

[wired]

Inland revenue have a good idea how much money is "circulating" and how much tax is due on those amounts, there is always a shortfall, so to an extent it is theft but the ordinary working person does not earn sufficient taxable income to make a great difference with cash in hand. It is the large corporations and multi-millionaires , football clubs etc who find ways to avoid paying tax or come to an arrangement as to how much they will pay that create the largest shortfall.

[Gromit]

There are different degrees and it is not black and white.

I use an odd job man and pay him cash. But from what I know he will be under the £10K tax threshold anyway. Cash means he does not do books (he is not too bright).
But I also know of someone with convictions for supplying drugs and money laundering. He had a self build house put up paid for entirely by cash in hand contractors. He was doing it on an industrial scale.

So I will turn a blind eye for small amounts, but large scale is different.

[woofgang]

ha ha Talbot

[ToraToraTora]

so hc, your garage bill is £500, but £400 for cash, ie lose the VAT, you still pay a monkey? right oh! I always ask if there is a cash option. This avoids VAT and the tradesman then has the choice to declare or not.

[youngmafbog]

//.... "We all do it" ... Speak for yourself ... that is a broad brush to paint everyone with ? //

So you have never paid anyone cash ?

Cash for small amounts is unavoidable, I dont use cheques and many small tradesmen dont carry a card reader with them, it wold be too expensive.

[ToraToraTora]

we all do it even the saints above, I simply don't believe them.

[woofgang]

paying for something with cash though is different from the implication of "cash in hand"

[woofgang]

so now i am a liar as well???

[jd_1984]

As the customer "morally" we don't know whether the tradesperson declares it, for all we know he does. Ok there is an assumption that cash in hand transactions are not always declared but we cant tarnish all builders, window cleaners, barbers, ice cream man etc......... with the tax avoidance brush. As a youth I did some labouring work, the guy paid me £200 per week in cash, never told me anything about tax or self assessment forms etc.... It was only for my parents telling me I needed to declare and showing me what to do. I could have run that risk, I was honest from the start