Owning your own home

I’d need to straighten up that number 6 pronto on the purple one.

Needs another 6 adding to the third bin tbh.

Serious garage envy, we're (hopefully) moving to Biggleswade next month and I can't wait to have a space to tinker on various projects.

Biggles is only 15 mins up the road from me...

Garage was the primary moving factor for me. Zero regrets.

Spotted the bins and remembered you're that way. Living the dream.

this.

Such garage loft access/storage potential.

Very envy.

I was working with a joiner today that said it took him 3 years to spend 40k in cash that he'd been paid for in jobs, so some folk apparently do have 30k behind the sofa. Absolutely not me though.

I'm sure he declared all £30k to HMRC though for VAT and income tax, so that's OK.

Some tradespeople are annoyed with suppliers not wanting to take cash due to Covid-19. Having to pay by debit/credit cards makes it a lot harder to live by undeclared cash.

Mine pay all their guys in cash. I bring £5k in cash and the big boss divies it up into envelopes

Ed Balls thread >>>>>

I would be shitting myself everytime I carried that much cash around.

fuck that. a VAT receipt or you're not setting foot in my house. Encouraging tax avoidance is never a strong look.

Just because someone is vat registered doesn't make them the virgin mary when it comes to avoiding tax.

true - but it's better than nowt. also - a quick google of any company will let you know one way or the other.

Isn't the VAT threshold something like £85k a year turnover? I'd have thought that a large proportion of self-employed / small business traders don't need to charge VAT.

The most scam is those that charge it, but don't pay it.

If they are working on their own, sure.

If they hire a couple of labourers for most jobs and supply materials I'd have thought not.

we've had floorers and landscapers in who were more than happy to provide receipts etc. and were upfront about their tax affairs when asked. but yer right - they could be bullshitting for all i know. still - better than trying to get work done on the cheap by colluding with obvious tax dodgers. a red flag if ever there was one.

Encouraging tax avoidance

Some would argue that it's the person paying cash that is "actively practicing tax evasion".

By knowingly paying a tradesperson in cash without a VAT receipt for the sole purpose of getting a cheaper quote by avoiding VAT it is the person paying that is effectively not paying the VAT.

In most cases the tradesperson just passes on the VAT that you have paid onto HMRC, so if you're not paying it in the first place it's not the builder that is evading tax (although they are the ones enabling it by offering to do the work off the books).

As TW says, invoicing and charging VAT but not paying HMRC is a different thing, choice of payment method doesn't really affect this.

Some trades people want to keep stuff off the books to keep corporation tax bills down too.

Fiddy used to pay me in cash when I did a labouring job for him. He used to rock up to meet me in Brixton on one of his many ludicrous/amazing bikes, pull an insane stack of fifties out of his jeans pocket and hand me a couple. Neither of us were mugged/arrested, somehow. I didn't earn enough for HMRC to care at the time.

By knowingly paying a tradesperson in cash without a VAT receipt for the sole purpose of getting a cheaper quote by avoiding VAT it is the person paying that is effectively not paying the VAT.

But the tradesperson being paid in cash might also miss that job from their annual return. My brother-in-law is a carpet fitter. He pays an accountant to prepare his tax return in a way that doesn't arouse the suspicion of HMRC but substantially reduces his tax bill. Anything paid in cash makes that process easier.

(there are other issues with my brother-in-law which are probably not for a public forum)

But the tradesperson being paid in cash might also miss that job from their annual return.

Yes, that's why I said "Some trades people want to keep stuff off the books to keep corporation tax bills down too."

Ask no questions, get told no lies. That's my strategy.

this works as well, i guess.

have you been to the bricklayers yet? have they taken down their silver jubilee bunting?