Cash

[charligirl]

This is not a marriage question, but I know more people here than in other forums and would like opinions, and scriptural advice on this

What do you think about christians paying a mate to do a job (building work, car repairs etc) on a cash basis... i.e. not through their books and so no VAT to pay.

 

[E_Powers]

depends on my relationship to them and the task. my usual fee is beer or food. nut i have but rerly chare money and i do alot of stuff for free.

 

[charligirl]

depends on my relationship to them and the task. my usual fee is beer or food. nut i have but rerly chare money and i do alot of stuff for free.

Perhaps I should clarify... I mean from a moral standpoint that not going through the books might be seen as illegal as cash-in-hand means no VAT to pay.

 

[bliz]

If you ask Jack to repair your car, and Jack has a business repairing cars, it should be run through the business.

If you ask Jack to repair your car, and he works on cars in his spare time, I don't see that anything needs to be reported if you give him cash for the job.

If I hire my friend Susie to wallpaper my hall, and Susie has a wallpapering business, and she gives me a bill, and I pay her in cash, it's Susie's affair, but she should run it through her business.

"Render unto Caeser that which is Caeser's."

 

[charligirl]

If I hire my friend Susie to wallpaper my hall, and Susie has a wallpapering business, and she gives me a bill, and I pay her in cash, it's Susie's affair, but she should run it through her business.

"Render unto Caeser that which is Caeser's."

OK so if Susie says she is happy to accept cash, because she knows you are hard up and this would make the bill cheaper, she tells you a sum that you know doesn't include the tax and you pay her in cash, wouldn't that make you guilty as well for not insisting to pay the full amount?

 

[Avaya]

depends on my relationship to them and the task. my usual fee is beer or food. nut i have but rerly chare money and i do alot of stuff for free.

Did you know that from an IRS Standpoint, that is still taxable income - if you do it for free? for instance, say you operate a day care center and get $20 a day per kid. And your cousin fixes cars for a living. Say you agree to one free day of daycare for your cousin's child in exchange for your cousin changing your oil. The IRS says you have to claim $20 in income and your cousin has to claim $XX in income. Most people don't do that, but it's still the tax law and if the IRS catches barterers then they will levy taxes.

As for the OP, it's just wrong. If you want your mate to do something for you, it should be for free. Writing off an expense for tax reasons when basically the $$ flowed back into your household income, is wrong.

Okay, I re-read your post and I think I see that you are not American and by mate you don't mean your spouse, but 'just another person'. So anyway, I'm saying it's still immoral and legally wrong.

 

[Yitzchak]

I think that legally the government is going to want their money. Obviously people get away with all kinds of things when it comes to taxes whether you are talking about England, the States, or Canada.

I would tend to think that the government gets greedy and takes things to an extreme in wanting to have their hand in everything. However, if the law is that you should pay taxes, then it is actually pretty clear morally. Maybe not fair but definitely the right thing ot do to pay the taxes which are due.

Plenty of waiters and pizza delivery guys get away without paying taxes on all their tips. The government is aware of course that there is an underground economy. They simply don't enforce it all aggressively.

So my opinion. What you described is a common way to avoid taxes. Most likely people doing such things never get caught. But it is avoiding paying taxes. I guess it depends on how you look at that. Many people don't think it is sin to avoid taxes. Many do.

 

[Yitzchak]

I would like to add this. Most likely you are talkign about a small amount. so why work so hard to avoid a small amount?? If it is indeed a large amount , then it is no longer a small crime but a more srious issue. So my advice, pay the taxes.

 

[Andy Broadley]

Moral arguements on this topic are all well and fine but it is worth remembering that if the 'black economy' was removed from the equation, the economies of most western countries would collapse. Figures to support this have been produced but I would not know where to look for them.

 

[charligirl]

Thanks for all your posts, I happen to absolutely agree that it is wrong too.. which is why I am insisting that it goes through the books and is all legal. It is a large amount, about £600.... the whole issue threw up a moral dilemma that I was interested to get other views on.

I have heard of many christians who think paying a mate (and yes I do mean friend not spouse! ) cash for a job is ok, but I am of the opinion that it is actually stealing from the government. I also think it can close the windows on God's blessing... you can tithe, give and all the rest of it, but then to avoid taxes on the other makes a nonsense of it all.

Thanks for the replies

 

[Andry]

In Canada there is a difference between avoiding taxes and evading taxes.

Avoiding is legal - every citizen has within their constitutional right by setting their financial affairs in such a way as to pay least amount of taxes by taking advantage of all available credits or deductions.

Evading is illegal - not wanting to or not paying at all, the taxes that you owe.

That said, the tax collectors IRS, CCRA, and Inland Revenue, are not that stupid. They know and accept that a significant amount of the economy is not taxable and cannot be enforced - no law is a law if it cannot be enforced - such as paying the neighbour's kid 20 bucks to cut your lawn. That's why there's a maximum non-taxable revenue allowed - it's approx. 8,000 in Canada.

But if someone makes their livelihood on a cash basis and does not charge applicable taxes, and ergo...will not pay their own taxes on the revenue...then that's clearly evading taxes.

 

[Yitzchak]

Moral arguements on this topic are all well and fine but it is worth remembering that if the 'black economy' was removed from the equation, the economies of most western countries would collapse. Figures to support this have been produced but I would not know where to look for them.

I remember the professor talking about that when I took economics at the university. It is a rather large amount of the economy.