Surely buying anything off this woman is just helping perpetuate the situation?
I'm not claiming to stand on any moral high ground about her drug dealing, but her income is undeclared, so she can continue to claim state benefits.

I try to resist paying anyone "cash-in-hand" as I know they're just avoiding tax and national insurance. Seeing 40% of my salary deducted each month makes me wonder how much the self employed "discount for cash" types are fleecing this country.

It even annoys me when the corner shops don't ring up a sale on the till.
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Tue 9 Oct 2012, 10:57, 2 replies)

Trust me.
Not my choice.
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Tue 9 Oct 2012, 11:52, closed)

How do you *know*
that they're not paying NI and/or tax?

I pay my cleaner in cash which she declares. Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with her not declaring it.
I have a friend who was suspended from the NHS because a member of the public complained about her. She was reinstated when the claim was found to be unfounded. Length of time off work with full pay? Nearly 10 months. Ten months full pay, and having to pay the other workers overtime to cover her shifts.
When our money is squandered like that (one isolated incident), I can appreciate why someone might want to take the cash-in-hand and NOT give any to a wasteful government.
(dchurch bah, Tue 9 Oct 2012, 12:54, closed)

Obviously I don't know everyone is avoiding tax this way.
I do know a number of builders, for example, that keep two sets of books for declared and real earnings. One, earning over £35k about 20 years ago, paid less in tax for a year than I did in a month.

I've often been quoted much lower estimates for paying cash to tradesmen as well. I wonder why?

An investigation a few years back went into a large number of corner shops to buy items and see if they were entered via the till. A large percentage weren't - which is illegal. It's a known scam to avoid paying income tax and VAT.

I should think that plenty of us would like to get cash-in-hand for doing work, but if you're PAYE you just don't get a chance.

Lower wage earners I should think are less frowned upon doing this than the big time earners.
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Tue 9 Oct 2012, 13:35, closed)