Paying in cash.......morally wrong

[osdset]

Paying cleaners and tradesmen cash-in-hand is ‘morally wrong’, a minister said yesterday. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2177973/Paying-cleaner-cash-morally-wrong-Minister-says-families-settle-bills-cash-hand-bad-tax-avoiders.html

 

Oi! Ministers! Sort your own house out first!

Having been a tradesman that always welcomed the opportunity of the (increasingly rare) cash-in-hand job, I can confidently inform the minister that your average householder faced with "Ok missus, the bill is £xx plus 15% to cover my tax, plus another 20% VAT (where appropriate)" or "£xx for cash", cash will win nearly every time.

 

Besides which if 'Tommy Atkins' turns down the cash work then I guarantee that 'Ivan' & Co won't.

 

And another thing, if the government want's to clamp down on cash and tax issues look no further than black and mini cabs, try insisting that a black cab driver pays tax on his tip, or try to pay a mini cab driver with a cheque.

[hilaryfrances]

I pay my cleaners cash in hand and dont ask questions. I leave it up to them to declare it or not.

 

As for any member of the Government talking about things being "morally wrong" Well that beggars belief, more dodgy deals go on in the Houses of Parliament than anywhere else.

[raydetinu]

Agree, they are taking the p**s, they are just not real and making themselves a laughing stock, you just cant take them seriously anymore. What a joke.

I still cant believe he said that!!!

[sillygirl1]

They are taking the proverbial here, many people I know are paid cash in hand and declare it on their tax returns, the main reason for being paid cash in hand seems to be that cheques take about 10 days to clear, can still bounce and then they are hit with unfair and unreasonable bank charges.

 

The credit card companies charge huge amounts for a single person to have a credit card machine and it is not viable for most small sole traders to use this method at all.

 

The government really has lost the plot here - what about their 'unpaid' researchers and their 'self-employed' staff they use in the Commons for varying tasks?

 

The MP who suggested this needs a reality check!

[maroondevo52]

Agree with the comments so far, these people are living on another planet.

The ministers a 'clown'.

[duckwaddler]

So now it's ALL the tradesmans fault

 

Yes, that's correct, the mess this country is in is because of tradesmen, the sick, the disabled, the pensioners, celebs, students, protesters, unions, human rights, immigrants, large families etc etc.............

 

It has not one thing to do with the banks, huge bonuses, war and conflict, numerous huge companies such as vodafone who pay zero tax, the olympics, M.P.'s expenses bill, the elite tax dodging trillions............

[locutus]

Lets give a worst case scenario, "cash in hand" builder, making £50,000 a year, how much tax is he evading? then look at the schemes that are built to escape paying tax for the mega-wealthy?

 

This seems to me "look over there, look at that injustice! Don't look at us!"

[raydetinu]

I would like Jeremy Paxman to interview this guy on that point and rip him to shreds!!

[duckwaddler]

Also here's another way of looking at it............

 

We've recently hired a joiner, he's not been working for us all day everyday - more on demand sort of work, just doing jobs such as new door frames, door hanging, new wooden window sills etc - and when we pay him, we pay him with cash.

 

What do they expect every tradesman to carry a card reader? Or do they expect every tradesman to have a management and customer service team who we should pay?

 

No - if job has cost us say £275, and he only puts £200, or £250 of that through the books - then so what?

 

I'm not being funny or anything, but it's not as if private tradesmen can earn a big fat bonus at the end of each year is it? Nor do they claim for items such as lunch, a bath plug, a shower screen or for their roof or swimming pool to be repaired!!!

 

And they are WORKING, EARNING A LIVING! Not "scrounging" as the government so eloquently put it!!!!! But no, they're still not happy - they want to bleed even the hard working now out of every single last tuppence!

 

As ConsumerDude said over on his thread, how dare they take the moral high ground?!?!

 

As far as I'm concerned they can take their moral high ground, dig a hole in it - and climb in it!!!!

[Nystagmite]

How else are these tradesmen meant to be paid? As mentioned, cheques take a few days (or longer) and I believe it's the same with bank transfers.

[duckwaddler]

How else are these tradesmen meant to be paid? As mentioned, cheques take a few days (or longer) and I believe it's the same with bank transfers.

 

Well, what they're insinuating Nystagmite, is the tradesmen are not full declaring everything!

 

Seems to me it's a case of "monkey knows they're own tricks best" - they're ASSUMING that the tradesmen are dodging tax due to being paid cash in hand, it says far more about them than it does any of the tradesmen!

[osdset]

Seems to me it's a case of "monkey knows they're own tricks best" - they're ASSUMING that the tradesmen are dodging tax due to being paid cash in hand, it says far more about them than it does any of the tradesmen!

The tax man has always assumed that building workers are getting undeclared cash earnings, when I first went self employed my accountant told me to declare the odd cash job each year that I might otherwise have just ahem, 'forgotten' about, the idea behind that was to divert attention away from my books on to someone who was declaring nothing.

I don't know how effective this strategy was in real terms but the revenue runners left me alone!

[duckwaddler]

This quote from that imbecile on the link you posted has made me lmao!

 

‘Getting a discount with your plumber by paying cash in hand is something that is a big cost to the Revenue and means others must pay more in tax.’

 

Erm - no, I don't think so!!!! Nobody pays anymore tax on their earnings than what is legally required - or am I missing the point? I've never heard of anybody receiving a "you must pay top up tax to compensate for the avoiders bill"

 

I think he's getting this mixed up with the well known fact that if people shop lift it causes the price of items to rise in the shops

 

[LaughingGirl]

I'm stunned that he had the nerve (or lack of awareness!) to actually allow those words to come out of his mouth.

[sillygirl1]

I don't think he thought about it - that is why he came out with that patronising rubbish.

 

I wonder if anyone who worked on his second home got paid in cash.

 

I am doing my own business and a lot of it will be cash sales, so I will be recording each one for the taxman and providing an invoice when requested - in fact if the taxman wants me to pay myself twice - once as the owner of the business and once as the employee doing the books, then they can!

[maroondevo52]

Any time I've had a Tradesman do work in my house I've paid him cash, what he does with it is up to him.

They'll soon be asking us to declare the Tea and Buiscuits !!!

[debt4get]

$30 Trillion hidden by the rich in offshore tax loopholes, and these buller boys and toffs, have the temerity to say that builders and plumbers are now the problem.....their hypocrisy knows no bounds...though in fairness you would not catch an MP paying cash for a job, because they need the receipt in order to claim it all back in expenses

[duckwaddler]

$30 Trillion hidden by the rich in offshore tax loopholes, and these buller boys and toffs, have the temerity to say that builders and plumbers are now the problem.....their hypocrisy knows no bounds...though in fairness you would not catch an MP paying cash for a job, because they need the receipt in order to claim it all back in expenses

 

LOL!!!

 

No, they just hire relatives as "cleaners" - pay them, then claim it back as expenses! Then it's a no brainer, a family member gets a wage that is at the expense of the tax payer!

[sillygirl1]

Don't forget the scones, cakes, sarnies and occasional mug of soup in winter. I remember some years ago my friend who has a restaurant had some workmen outside for a few weeks redoing drains and the road. In his dim and distant past he had done roadwork and knew how cold it could get (this was winter) so he made them the occasional pizza and pasta. He also let them use his loos.

 

Some jobsworth from the council came along and wanted to know why these 'workmen' were using his loos without charge, he told the guy he was entitled to let them use the loos witthout charge but was actually going to charge the jobsworth for 'management time' as he was primarily a chef and he was asking management questions. Jobsworth left him alone after that.

[duckwaddler]

Tradesmen who work for the council are not permitted to "fraternize" with the public Sillygirl! Ridiculous I know! If I want to let any person, tradesman or not use my loo, drink my tea/coffee or eat my food - then that's my business, not the business of council jobsworths!

[sillygirl1]

That was my friends view, they were digging up the road outside his place in sub-zero tempratures at night and he knew from personal experience how hard road digging is.

 

If the MPs want to start moralising to the rest of us they need to get their own House in order first.

 

In the 1880's there was somebody called Lady Aberdeen who loved to preach to people, one of her letters instructed people 'not to drink stewd tea' and to 'keep themselves and their property spotlessly clean at all times'. without realising what being poor in the time of a potato famine really meant in Ireland, many did not have 'property' to keep clean at all!