Do you use cash

It is illegal to pay in cash when you know that the reason you are paying cash is to avoid VAT.

 

This of course is a stupid and unenforceable law. I don't agree with trying to avoid paying VAT which is why I never pay in cash, but I'm not sure how a law like that could ever be enforced.

Random inspections and intelligence based enquiries lead to most convictions.

I suspect it helps when people brag about criminality on internet forums......can any VATman that uses the forum confirm??

http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/renting/cashinhand-deals-can-cost-you-a-packet-36236.html

It is illegal to pay in cash when you know that the reason you are paying cash is to avoid VAT.

 

This of course is a stupid and unenforceable law. I don't agree with trying to avoid paying VAT which is why I never pay in cash, but I'm not sure how a law like that could ever be enforced.

Before the days of credit and debit cards and cheque books EVERYBODY paid in cash. Its not illegal to pay for goods or services in cash. I pay my tradesmen in cash , now weather they decide to forget to declare that income is up to them.

Before the days of credit and debit cards and cheque books EVERYBODY paid in cash. Its not illegal to pay for goods or services in cash. I pay my tradesmen in cash , now weather they decide to forget to declare that income is up to them.

Nobody is saying it is illegal. Its just that as a you appear to be a man with a property portfolio one would think that regular work from no doubt regular tradesman would be invoiced, paid by cheques/electronic means and logged so you can include and seek to recover such work as part of your accounts/expenditure/tax returns etc. You must spend an awful lot of time back and forth getting cash out from the bank.

All im saying generally is that to me it seems completely odd when some people choose not to evolve and sometimes go as far as be proud to be off the record, out of sight from the Authorities and everything sorted by way of a brown envelope and a note stuffed in a hand - at some point casual observers might deem it a bit bit suspect whether its totally innocent or not.

That screams even louder when we are talking about payment methods which has been in popular use for around 50+ years for personal cheques and over 30+ years for debit and credit cards.

We are not talking about some new fad such as bit coin and apple pay here.

Before the days of credit and debit cards and cheque books EVERYBODY paid in cash. Its not illegal to pay for goods or services in cash. I pay my tradesmen in cash , now weather they decide to forget to declare that income is up to them.

Didn't you say you pay cash to avoid paying VAT yourself?

---------- Post added 27-08-2016 at 00:56 ----------

I pay my tradesmen in pound notes when they do a repair on one of my properties. That way they dont have to put it trough the books if they dont want to ,and the Taxman will never know about it . its always been that way .

 

small self employed trades always prefer cash payments , its how a lot of them survive. I have no problem with that .

 

If i asked my plumber , or sparky for an invoice i would have to pay the old VAT , so i pay pound notes and bag myself a discount for cash.

Yeah, you did. Which according to the link at the top, since you admit you know it's for the purposes of VAT fraud, is criminal...

"Although it isn’t a crime to pay a builder in cash, it is illegal if you know that the reason you are paying cash is to avoid VAT. Good luck telling the VAT man you didn’t know you were tax-dodging if you can’t produce a receipt for the work."

Oooops.

As for the post office "account" that the DWP use - does that not have the same accessibility and visability to "The Man" just as much as any other bank account.

The only visible bit is that the money goes in and gets completely withdrawn the same day.

Isn't life too short to be scrimping and saving all the time. If you have the facility to buy a property and purchase things using a credit facility - why not.

If that what people want then fair doo's. But.. what is worse having little spare cash because you are scrimping and saving or having little spare cash because you are in debt. Its better to have money to spend when young than have lots when you are old and really don't need it. Credit and debt problems have become increasingly common and so have debt consolidation agencies so something is going wrong somewhere. Wasn't too much easy credit also the main cause of the banking crisis of 2008?

What happened in Greece is unlikley to happen here as we have more regulation (despite what the papers say) and those of us who take time read the paperwork and take an interest in how our money in our chosen bank is managed have provisions in place in the event something did happen.

Yes and part of that regulation meant that the government had to bail out the banks because the banks failed to manage your money properly. All at the taxpayers expense creating austerity for all, even the poor.

I am not sure what the Ken Dodd reference has to do with things - being aquitted in his particuar case is not some universal acceptance that deliberately going off grid to avoid tax is morally acceptable is it?

Who said going off grid was to avoid tax or morally acceptable? The point was he did not trust banks so kept most of his money in cash. As the case was acquitted there was no case to answer when it came to tax evasion so morality has nothing to do with it.

We're pensioners, our pensions go straight into our bank. The thought of queuing up weekly to draw cash at the post office just didn't appeal. I use a credit card for most purchases, pay it off in full every month, but benefit from rewards. We are in the process of buying some quite expensive furniture, and have chosen to take advantage of interest free payments rather than deplete our savings. We always have a small amount of cash around, to pay the window cleaner or buy a paper. I've recently started using contactless for small amounts like coffees in Costa.

Before the days of credit and debit cards and cheque books EVERYBODY paid in cash.

Cheques have been in use in this country for up to 400 years. Maybe you'd like to go back to bartering.

A close neighbour is having a new roof fitted to his house. I dropped the workers a tenner to clean out my gutters whilst they had ladders around. How do you do that with a card? I've done similar in the past with beer. You have to be alert to the possibilities as they arise.

You can do this with a card, just scoop all the crap out, although I'd probably use a small trowel.

You can do this with a card, just scoop all the crap out, although I'd probably use a small trowel.

:hihi:

This is one of those posts that I wish I'd made.

Cash has just about been done away with here, all but my wifes bank have no cash held at their branches .Most small transactions like paying at a car boot ,buying a cheap car or paying a lad to cut your lawn is paid by smart phone using SWISH an instant payment app .Can't say i like it but it's the way things are going .....just feel sorry for the old folks that are not up all this tech.

Cash is the only way to keep your privacy and stick 2 fingers up to data collectors such as that guy who developed the Tesco card.

They tried to get all our personal health data held by our GPs via the Care data scheme. It didn't work because enough people caught on and opted out.

Darn, eternal vigilance really is the price of freedom!!

PS how much is a roll of tinfoil these days?

......... Governments can't wait for it!....just imagine,the black economy worth billions disappearing overnight,your personal financial transaction trail open for governmental scrutiny if they so wish at the press of a button.............sound ludicrous?

Just wait and see!

Agree 100%

We simply must keep cash going as a viable alternative to electronic money, it is the last of our freedoms. If ever we are all weaned off onto electronic money they will be able to control us just by switching off our personal money supply when it suits.

Computer says no.....