Has anyone on AB ever avoided VAT by paying 'cash in hand'

[sp1814]

I'm posing this question because we are all rightly outraged by money-grubbing MPs and workshy dole cheats...

...but how many of us have paid cash-in-hand to builders, carpenters, painters, home helps, cleaners etc?

Isn't the argument the same? Benefit cheats and MPs who have fiddled their expenses steal from the public purse...and so does anyone who avoids paying VAT.

So c'mon y'all...who's got a 100% clean sheet?

[TheOtherHalf]

Serves you right Zeuhl. Thats whats called dirty money. Ha ha

[joeluke]

mama......just a stereootypical fairly well off but bored housewife

I worked for several hours for a payment of about 20 minutes!

Well worth it though!

[Greedyfly]

Never have paid anyone cash in hand or received it

[TheOtherHalf]

Im surprised you had any energy left after several hours of gardening. My hubby doesnt

[joeluke]

I bought a second hand car recently for £2000 and was paying in cash. I thought the dealer might have knocked a bit off for cash but he said that he would have prefered me to have paid by card because his bank charges him £4 for every £1000 in cash he pays in.

Obviously cash is not king any longer

[sandyRoe]

Paying cash you should get a reduction of about 1/6.

[merciasounds]

Bless you EDDIE51 - I have a trim, sometimes hi-lights or a colour, and she does hubby's hair too we're all happy!

[sp1814]

Zeuhl's post from 12:31 and R1Geezer's post from 12:36 have a strangely unarguable logic to them...

[sp1814]

joeluke

You wrote:

"I once did some gardening for a female neighbour and she paid me with sex"

Sorry, I should've been clearer with my original post. I was asking about real life instance of tax-dodging, rather than stuff we've seen in 'specialist videos'.

[askyourgran]

I pay cash to my gardener, window cleaner, newsagent and most local businesses, I also paid cash to my nephew and his mate (both off duty firemen) for erecting a fence in my garden. I consider these to be private transactions, not strictly business deals, I have already paid tax on my pension and tax on my bank account.

[rowanwitch]

I do barter jobs too,, gardening for cat sitting, sort of thing....but apparently if the tasks done are not of equal value e.g if you paint someones lounge that has a cash value e.g £300, if what they do in return is of lower value e.g mow your lawn and water your plants for a couple of weeks when you are on holiday ( £100) if you'd pay someone the difference can be assessed as a financial gain. A friend used to do peoples cars for them in return for cooking for dinner parties etc and he was told this by a friend who did bookkeeping to keep a note showing the transaction were even in case he was ever caught 'working off the books'

[joeluke]

sp......a tad jealous cos nothing exciting like that has ever happened to you are we?

[sp1814]

joeluke

Ha! I could tell you tales that would make your hair curl so much that you could win a Leo Sayer lookalike competition.

[joeluke]

sp

yeah, but who wants to hear about stories you've copied from the pages of the latest copy of your Razzle magazine?