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I've been quoted 3.6k to replace my roof, which is an excellent price for a 3 bed semi. The chap did the house over the road so I know his work is good. Moral or legal implications involved as he has told me this is a 'cash price' 😉 😉 what to do......
Why are you assuming its dodgy? Maybe it saves him going to the bank for cash.
Pay him cash.
Do you actually have any reason whatsoever to suspect that he is actually intending to commit tax fraud?
I'd do it even if I knew it was a way for the guy avoid paying tax.
After all, all these big multi-nationals pay minuscule amounts of tax as a percentage of profits and the Government turns a blind eye so if I can save a few hundred ££££s on a job around the house then I will.
at perhcy. none whatsoever. My preferred method of payment is bank tranx. I'll ask him and see what he says!
Cheerfully thank him and say you want a receipt and you want to pay by bank transfer.
Problem solved.
The moral and legal implications sit with him IMO. Its not you who would be cheating the tax man.
The question IMO is are you prepared to pay extra to cover his lack of morals (if indeed he is planning to not pay tax on the job). I'd pay cash...
It's only your own assumption that this is tax fraud
It's perfectly possible for a tradesman to, for example, run more than one business, one that operates under the VAT threshold for small/private jobs and one that he uses for established contracts/customers - this could be for artificial reasons or genuine ones, in which case it's entirely legitimate - it's impossible for you as a customer to know which, so to jump to the conclusion it's tax fraud is impossible.
jekkyl - Member
at perhcy. none whatsoever. My preferred method of payment is bank tranx. I'll ask him and see what he says!
You're going to ask him if he's going to pay his tax? I bet he suddenly finds himself too busy to do any work for you
You'd want a proper receipt for such a big job I'm sure, as long as you get that no problem.
Be careful, he might also be laundering money on behalf of a drugs cartel / Mafia / tanning salon.
good point perchy, he did look a bit tanned! I could ask if he has many godsons or daughters.
It ever cross your mind he's simply trying to avoid the bank charges?
I find this recent fear of cash rather alarming.
I would suggest that you need a receipt/Guarantee for this work especially if you come to sell the property and someone may ask who did the work etc. He very may well be disclosing cash payments in his returns so decision is purely up to you.
Posting it on an open forum should help the tax man find him if he is doing anything wrong and needs to charge him later down the line though....
I'd assume that's cash as opposed to invoice and delay in payment and waiting around for cheques to clear.
you know what he is "saying"
you know what you are "doing"
you decide
Pay him by cheque. Why would you want to handover thousands of pounds in cash? Plus a cheque proves that you have paid him and presumes he must have done some work for you - in case he wants to deny that he has anything to do with the leaky roof.
Do you actually have any reason whatsoever to suspect that he is actually intending to commit tax fraud?
Unless he comes from a planet which I haven't heard of "cash price" means not paying VAT for starters.
Would you rather it was £5k and paid by transfer?
Don't think too much into it. Pay him cash but get an invoice so you've some comeback if it there are any problems later on.
Posting it on an open forum should help the tax man find him if he is doing anything wrong and needs to charge him later down the line though....
Yep, hmrc are bound to track the perp down now.
You know he's talking about dropping the VAT. A receipt is not worth anything in way of return work, he'll either be honest and sort it out of there's an issue or not.
As soon as ou mention bank transfer I'd assume the price will hit £4k, as long as you're ok with that, crack on.
Unless he comes from a planet which I haven't heard of "cash price" means not paying VAT for starters.
Or it might just mean that he's unable to get credit terms with his suppliers.
I employ subcontractors every day.
Some of them wouldn't blink at 90 day payment terms as long as they know the money's coming eventually.
Many others, of the "man and a van" variety, need paying weekly on a Friday for the work that they've carried out that week otherwise their suppliers won't give them materials and their kids won't get to eat at the weekend.
Being a good tradesman doesn't necessarily make you a good businessman......or a tax fraudster for that matter.
Or it might just mean that he's unable to get credit terms with his suppliers.
Yeah, right, that's probably it......he can't get credit.
He could ask for a deposit, a cheque really doesn't take that long to clear - 3 days.
Don't tell me......he probably hasn't got a bank account.
+1Unless he comes from a planet which I haven't heard of "cash price" means not paying VAT for starters.
In which case he'd be equally happy with a bank transfer! So I guess we'll see!Or it might just mean that he's unable to get credit terms with his suppliers.
Pay him cash and then donate the tax as an ex gratia payment to HMRC...
Yeah, I thought not as well.
He set the price, its his issue.
Pay him cash and then donate the tax as an ex gratia payment to HMRC...
You do realise that he's not giving a "cash" price as a favour to the client, don't you? He's doing it as a favour to himself.
Why shouldn't he pay his taxes? And why should you help him?
Ask whether if you buy the materials the price comes down.
Ask for his Paypal gift account details. 😉
he may not have a bank account or be just moving between bank accounts,
he may have financial difficulties, attachment of earnings etc,
he may have an aversion to capitalist banking morals,
do us trades men still say "wink wink", thats unless we think we have a chance of a date.
Plenty of reasons he might want paying in cash, but keeping it off the books is by far the most likely one IMO.
You do what you've gotta do.
Prove it! Can't ? Why bother asking?
As long as you get a receipt for the work, why not pay by cash? He has his responsibilities to HMRC not you!
Plenty of reasons he might want paying in cash
My favourite one is [i]"he may have an aversion to capitalist banking morals".[/i]
Would it be different if he wore an amazon hat or a starbucks t-shirt?
The realities of the modern world. Read somewhere 80% of German transactions are in cash, indeed !
This will never stop and the only responce is to have proper regular tax audits of all of us
"starbucks"
In spite of the headlines I would be very surprised if Starbucks don't pay appropriate VAT.
cash is easy to bank.. just pop it in an envelope done,, cheques means forms filled in.. people 'forget' to pay online..( all above applies to yorkshire bank at least..)
3500 is a fair wad for a fairly standard roof.. tiles are fairly cheap after all.
cash is easy to bank.. just pop it in an envelope done,, cheques means forms filled in.. people 'forget' to pay online..( all above applies to yorkshire bank at least..)
3500 is a fair wad for a fairly standard roof.. tiles are fairly cheap after all.
I like paying by cash as I know when it comes out of my bank and there isn't any issue with wrong bank transfer details or anything.
I'd want a proper receipt but so far in my house renovation no one has had a problem with this, even the £3500 I just paid for new windows and door. That person I paid I know pays his tax properly but he just prefers cash or bank transfer as cheques are a hassle. Probably easier for him to split it up to pay various suppliers quickly rather than waiting for a cheque to clear.
As far as I'm concerned the tax issues are the workmans problem, not mine.
If he's got an overdraft over the limit, any money that goes in the bank stays there and he won't be able to pay his own creditors.
It's not always as simple as it looks.
There may be a different price if you ask to pay by bank transfer. There may (or not) be a different price if you ask for an invoice.
£5 (cash) says that the 'cash wink' price is the price, but he wants you to feel like you got a better deal than you actually have..
It's perfectly possible for a tradesman to, for example, run more than one business, one that operates under the VAT threshold for small/private jobs and one that he uses for established contracts/customers
It's perfectly possibly but wouldn't be legal. The HMRC have clear notes on this sort of thing. I.e if the business are similar in trade if not in business name but owned by the same person then you can't circumvent VAT that way.
They would have to be totally different businesses.
Unless he comes from a planet which I haven't heard of "cash price" means not paying VAT for starters.
But he may not be over the VAT threshold anyway. I know our electrician isn't. Nothing illegal about not adding VAT to the price, it just means he doesn't claim the VAT back on his materials (probably no biggie for him as an electrician). That said, I'd have thought a roofer would get through far more materials and as a result be VAT registered.
In spite of the headlines I would be very surprised if Starbucks don't pay appropriate VAT.
I think the issue was they were reducing the Value Added part to avoid the Tax. There's no VAT to pay if your £3 latte costs £2.99 to licence the starbucks logo from your sister company in Holland. No value added, no VAT.
It's not just VAT that has to be paid to HMRC anyway.