Taylor Review: UK should end cash-in-hand economy - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40561807

I would support the cash in hand taxing if there was proper oversight of some of the cowboys that call themselves tradesmen (they're typically blokes).

You're lucky if the scrotes answer their phones or call you back, never mind carrying out the job you're paying them for. And to a good standard.

I always thought, and still do, that the government of the day was going after the low-hanging fruit in terms of taxation. But if it was being done in conjunction with regulation I could support it as someone who has saw nothing but fcuking clowns as a new homeowner!

And frankly, if you can afford to tell multiple clients you're too busy in ONE day, then you either need to organise better or you're making a small fortune out of others' anxiety to be able to cover your own outgoings.

Yes, let's go after window cleaners who are dodging paying a few hundred quid a year in tax rather than, I dunno, Starbucks.

perfect example of the government standing up and shouting 'Look, a squirrel'.

Indeed. I don't see how you end 'cash in hand' without actually doing away with physical cash. If it's there, people will use it. How on earth would you enforce it? For a start you need a damn sight more enforcement people and if you're going to do that then, as jonbwfc says, they'd be better utilised going after bigger fish if you actually want to raise more revenue.

This is the kind of fuzzy bullsh!t they excel at - Worth £6bn a year and many were untaxed. I'd love to see their working out on that one. What portion of that £6bn is going untaxed? How much tax revenue has been lost?

Tell me again, how much did Amazon, Vodafone and Starbucks make in the UK last year? How much tax did they pay?

they may have got the figures from the EU (thats not a dig or joke). if you recall a few years ago the EU guessamated the UK's black economy and billed us another £1.8 billion in extra payments. just as an aside, that was the point i completely gave up on the EU ...

One of the things being talked about was use use of electronic payment systems.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40568347

He can hope all he wants.
Unless you withdraw physical cash or possibly provide an incentive sufficiently juicy (in which case how much does the incentive cost compared to the unpaid tax) to use electronic payments then cash in hand is going to continue.
As Spreadie said earlier in the thread, this is typical government [LIFTED] going after the little guy while the big boys merrily go on avoiding appropriate contributions.
There's a reason the Tories cut so many jobs at HMRC when they got in. That's one department they (or rather their paymasters and backers) definitely don't want operating with enough staff and at full efficiency.

You are arguing about the wrong TAX
One is Corporation TAX, which is the company and nothing to do with Income Tax
The other is Income Tax, which IS individual
Anyone Evading Income tax needs to be stopped because they are NOT paying towards NI, the Health Service etc.

Cash in hand could be either type of tax - if the individual taking payment cash in hand is operating as a sole trader of some sort (like a plumber for instance) then they are avoiding putting the payment through their business accounts (so they charge once price for CIH and a higher one, which includes the VAT for paying using something traceable like a cheque, cash transfer or card). Also, a business may be avoiding their obligations to pay employer NI contributions if they pay cash in hand because again, the payment doesn't necessarily go through the books properly.

In any case, the point I was making (and I believe Spreadie also) still stands. The £6bn figure that was quoted is a lot of money (and it is in isolation but it's only 0.31% of GDP (using the figure for 2016 on the ONS website)) but, by and large, it's generated from lots and lots of relatively small transactions and the people involved will almost certainly be at the lower end of the income spectrum. I don't disagree that cash in hand is tax evasion and is wrong however the point is that it's relatively small beer compared to the amount of money 'lost' to the exchequer every year from both high net worth individuals and also from companies who have creatively been able to structure their tax affairs to do so (whether the methods are technically legal or not).

This government has no compelling interest in going after that potential revenue because it hurts the people they rely on for their financial base - they'll pay lip service to doing so but their main tactic is to go for misdirection and blame people at the other end of the spectrum (people on benefits, immigrants etc) for the financial difficulties of the country.

Also, of course, it's possible if you're doing a job say cleaning windows, you might not be earning enough even with cash in hand to pay very much tax anyway. You pay nothing at all on the first £11,500 and 20% on anything up to £45K. If you're earning the equivalent of a minimum wage full time job (35 hrs/week at 7.50 an hour) on a say 50 week year you're earning £13,125 a year. That means even if you follow the rules exactly you'll pay a grand total of £325 in tax. Frankly, I'd be incredibly surprised if it wouldn't cost the government more than that to collect it from you, let alone how much it would cost to catch you if you were avoiding paying it.

Yet the government apparently claims that this is an issue, when on the other hand it happily lets the likes of Vodafone off paying billions. But only after some nice business lunches at some very expensive restaurants.

It's cobblers. Corporate welfare and austerity generated economic slowdown is what the destroying this countries finances, not window cleaners being paid cash.

The cash grey economy is actually a benefit. The cash is spent on day to day stuff and keeps turnover of small businesses up.
Discuss!