Opinion: People who do nixers and don’t pay tax on the income?

P

Purple

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What is the opinion of posters about people who do nixers and don’t pay tax on the income?

These could be plumbers or electricians or they could be teachers doing grinds or solicitors or doctors pocketing cash payments or farmers/growers selling product for cash or at farmers markets and not declaring the income.

Morally I see no difference between this activity and the property developers who evaded millions, the only difference is the developers were better at it, better thief’s as it were.

Do others agree?
 
I'm not sure where you are getting the idea that property developers have evaded tax.

I do agree that the scale of tax evasion, whether it be €1 or €1 million is immaterial. They are equally wrong.
 
I don't know about this.

Morally yes, there is no difference - it is tax evasion - but there always has been and always will be a black or cash market and I think some degree of tolerance and common sense should apply. Almost impossible to properly police anyway.

I would have far more of a problem with people claiming SW and doing nixers than those simply topping up their income.
 
If a tradesman said to you, that'll be €3000 or €2500 in cash, let's be honest about it, how many people here would pay the €3k?
 
I agree; most people will facilitate tax evasion if iy saved them money as well.
 
We are getting some renovation work done to our house and have signed contracts with a builder. The VAT is going to come to 7k so I can see why it would be tempting for people to just get things done for cash.
The guy that drew up our plans reckons a lot of extensions he sees now, the clients are just getting the builder to do the shell and they are then getting it kitted out by tradesmen cash in hand to save money. It is probably something that is going to beocme more common.
 
If a tradesman said to you, that'll be €3000 or €2500 in cash, let's be honest about it, how many people here would pay the €3k?
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I have enough to worry about making sure my own tax affairs are correct, paid and up to date. Why should I have to worry about other people's tax affairs? I pay them the money in whatever form they like. Then it's out of my hands. It's up to them to declare it.

I'm not 'facilitating tax evasion' - just paying the trades person the amount they want, in the manner they want.

Why, also, do people assume that cash payments must be to evade tax? Maybe the trades person doesn't want a cheque that will bounce, or maybe doesn't have a bank account (like some politicians)

I would be far, far more concerned about where our taxes are ending up, and how much money is being wasted on the banks.
 
I would advocate a hard line approach. Every citizen of this country has a responsibility to pay their fair share of tax.

However, due to the complexities of our tax system, it is very difficult for people with occasional extra income to determine their tax liability. Our tax system is way too complex. If we had a simple flat rate tax, this problem would go away. Everyone would know that they have to pay X% of all their income full stop, so would be easy to be tax compliant.
 
I usually never think about it but when I hear about friends of friends bragging about how much money they are making on nixers it makes my blood boil. This guy (architect) is making about E20k a year tax free. and BRAGS about it to people who were just made redundant. I don't really know enough about them to report them.
 

I imagine Revenue would just need a name and address and they will find their own method of investigation
 


What annoys me the most, is the same people who don't pay their taxes still demand excellent public services.
 
Like anyone who's added a few extra KM onto their expenses and then complained at TD's fiddling expenses, there is no difference on paper. But I suppose like theft there are different extremes and caveats and are classified differently or have different punishments.

As an aside on nixers, a long time ago I when putting forward a quote for work, I was asked by the individual (when looking at the proposed fee) with a straight face whether there is anyway I could do the work as a nixer and keep costs down. That's not too unusal a request, it's just particular individual was emploed at a state agency. I can't say which agency exactly, it rhymes with Hevenue Hommissioners, but that's all you're getting out of me.
 
Mpsox said:
If a tradesman said to you, that'll be €3000 or €2500 in cash, let's be honest about it, how many people here would pay the €3k?
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One problem with that approach is if there are issues with the work down the line, you have no come back, as no legally enforcable contract exists.
 
Mpsox said:
If a tradesman said to you, that'll be €3000 or €2500 in cash, let's be honest about it, how many people here would pay the €3k?
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Its not my business to enforce a tradesman to legally comply with his tax returns. If he told me the job could be done for 2500 Id assume he was using cheaper materials or something and not give a thought to his tax affairs - why should I?
 
Leo said:
One problem with that approach is if there are issues with the work down the line, you have no come back, as no legally enforcable contract exists.
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Why not?, you've bought a service and paid for it, if the suppliers tax affairs are not in order, that's not your problem. As other posters on here have said, requests to pay in cash may not necessarily be a tax dodge.
 
truthseeker said:
Its not my business to enforce a tradesman to legally comply with his tax returns. If he told me the job could be done for 2500 Id assume he was using cheaper materials or something and not give a thought to his tax affairs - why should I?
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Unless both parties are somehow both required to register the deal then yes you can use that defence. In this country though a "cash price" obviously infers and under-the-counter arrangement.
 
What annoys me the most, is the same people who don't pay their taxes still demand excellent public services.
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That annoys you the most does it?

How much money could we be talking about here? - does it even come close to the billions that we are losing because of the government? Out of Nama, Bank bailouts, bank guarantees, tax breaks for property investment, TD pensions and 'expenses' etc, etc, etc... this probably annoys me the least.
 
Just as an aside, to be perfectly honest, every single job that has ever been carried out on our house by tradesmen I have paid for in cash -without receipt. AFAIK, the experiences of my friends have been the same.

VAT, invoices etc was never even raised by either party, but neither was the phrase "cash price" with nods etc.

Just the way it has always gone. How much? €x - there you go.

Whilst it's safe enough to assume that at least some of these were undeclared income, I'm not passing judgement either way, just saying how utterly casual and commonplace this seems to be.
 

So stealing is ok as long as you aren't very good at it?
 
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