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Societal collapse?

Kenny said:
That used to being cashless it came as a surprise when I popped into a cafe near the windmills in Bruge and they only accepted cash!

Amazingly they let us leave to go on a 10 min walk to a cash point. Absolute trust there





(I must pop back in soon and pay that bill though)
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Most places I went to had a ten euro minimum on card payments, which as a solo traveller is a pain in the arse (particularly if you just went one drink in a bar). Had to take a fair bit of cash with me as a result.
 
AndyWolves said:
I've always assumed that any small business / sole trader who prefer cash over card is trying to dodge some tax.

Sure you pay a fee for it, but you don't have to count it all up and lug it all up the bank, who are probably gonna charge you to deposit anyway
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It’s ALL about evading tax. Let’s just say it’s much less risky if you take card/online payments AS WELL as cash.

By offering both you’re putting enough through the books so as not to raise suspicion - i.e. your business is functioning legitimately, your turnover covers your costs and your submitted accounts show you make a small taxable profit. You would use your invoiced/traceable payment work to achieve that.

Then however comes all of the cash jobs that don’t require invoices. That money goes straight in the back pocket to be spent in the pub/restaurant/supermarket/buying stuff for the home/clothes/a car/a motorbike or whatever it is that floats your boat.

That’s the balancing act that people use to keep HMRC at bay, pay minimal tax and effectively get a 30-odd% discount when buying something cash in a shop.

As I see it, cash only set-ups are blatant tax evasion but those people are running a high-risk strategy and will arouse suspicion. They know the likelihood of investigation is virtually zero and are prepared to take the risk.

People need to wake up to this. When you’re paying your 20 quid cash for your haircut (for example) you’ve had to earn £25 gross to pay for it. The recipient is paying fuck all and you’re facilitating that.
 
Heard a few stories of folk being caught out in Germany during the Euros as they still go cash only in a lot of cases. Going back over 20 years when I lived there now but back then you couldn't pay for hardly anything by card (this was still pre-Chip and Pin days in the UK, but paying by debit/credit card with a signature in most major shops was fine here). Mainland Europe is seemingly a fair way behind.

Think the £20 note in my wallet is the same one that's been sat in there since before Christmas. Always carry something just in case but in reality I don't use it for anything bar haircuts these days.
 
Del Woppio said:
Might be time for a trim then mate!
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There was more than £20 in there before! I reckon I drew out about £80 in late Nov/early Dec to pay my share for a meal out....which at short notice never happened so the notes have just sat there ever since, except when I've had my hair done. Can't think of any other times I've used it.
 
Deutsch Wolf said:
"Cash is King" is (in simple terms) about the balance of capital, monies owed and fixed assets. So if my business has £500 in the bank, £50,000 owed on outstanding sales invoices, £20,000 owed on outstanding purchase invoices and a property worth £250,000, it's "worth" more than your business that has £50,000 in the bank, £5,000 owed on outstanding sales invoices, £1,000 owed on outstanding purchase invoices and a property worth £100,000. But most people would probably prefer your situation to mine, all things being equal. I would!

It isn't about taking/using bank notes rather than card payments. One of my petty annoyances :D
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Yes, I don't disagree - i just went off at a slight tangent :)
 
A lot of the kids I teach don’t carry cash or cards, everything is done off their phone.
I teach a bit in economics about how the financial system works, so today will go into my bank of case studies.
 
catfishwolf said:
A lot of the kids I teach don’t carry cash or cards, everything is done off their phone.
I teach a bit in economics about how the financial system works, so today will go into my bank of case studies.
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I am definitely not a kid but that is me. Not sure why anyone would need a card these days
 
I haven't used a physical card for ages - i don't carry them out with me anymore. I think it's more secure not. To use my phone to pay you need my finger print or my pin. With my bank card, that's all you need.
 
Funnily enough I've just finished my first day working for Microsoft. I think it went ok. Well, apart from tripping over a cable early this morning. I'm 99% sure I plugged it back in the right socket though.
 
Took a punt on crowdstrikes shares today which looks to be paying off so far
 
catfishwolf said:
A lot of the kids I teach don’t carry cash or cards, everything is done off their phone.
I teach a bit in economics about how the financial system works, so today will go into my bank of case studies.
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Probably not on the curriculum but a bit on tax evasion and why certain groups are vehemently against the digital transition masquerading under the ‘cash is king’ mantra might not be a bad idea.

I had a business that saw all sides of this and ultimately the temptation is there and it boils down to your moral fibre as to how far you take it.

I’d often say if a customer gave you £100 cash for a job, non-traceable, would you peel off £30 and put it in a jar ready to give to the tax man, or think ‘fuck it he gets enough’ and go and spend it? I think there’s very few of us doing the former. However, that very quickly becomes the instinctive mindset for some and the evasion becomes huge. We all know the ramifications of that.

We just need to think about what we’re effectively doing when we are paying cash. If you’re cool about it fair enough but just wake up and don’t be oblivious.

I get the temptation if you’re getting a reduction in the bill yourself, but if you’re still paying full whack in hard cash then you really are getting the worst of both worlds - not only are you depriving the government of revenue, you are actually mugging yourself right off with no benefit whatsoever and you even have the misfortune of looking the person right in the eye whilst doing it.
 
I mean in the case of haircuts...they're all cash only round here.

I'm not going to go miles out of my way just to ensure that Terry Taxman gets his £1.50.
 
Surely there's a reason why these Turkish barbers are springing up everywhere, and it ain't gonna be just tax evasion.
 
pagey said:
Surely there's a reason why these Turkish barbers are springing up everywhere, and it ain't gonna be just tax evasion.
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You can choose any one of a number of theories - tax evasion, money laundering, people trafficking, illegal immigration etc etc.

Depends how ‘Farage’ you want to go really. That said, if anyone thinks the books and submissions to HMRC bear any resemblance to reality they need their bumps feeling.
 
In fairness the Turkish barbers do actually have real clients (including me). Unlike the sunbed studios of 20 years ago or nail salons of 10 years ago.
 
EpsomWolf said:
You can choose any one of a number of theories - tax evasion, money laundering, people trafficking, illegal immigration etc etc.

Depends how ‘Farage’ you want to go really. That said, if anyone thinks the books and submissions to HMRC bear any resemblance to reality they need their bumps feeling.
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In fairness to my assumption , there's absolutely no way the area my daughter lives can sustain 3 separate Turkish barbers, employing 7 full time barbers between them within three quarters of a mile of each other.

She lives opposite one that has 3 staff all day six days a week, and they have very few customers all week, apart from Saturdays, although never a wait to get done. It's just not sustainable, but they've managed to make enough cash to refit the shop, despite only doing it when they took the premises over about 2 years ago.
 
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