Who is liable if the VAT doesnt get paid?

I am sure that this has been asked before but i couldnt find the answer by searching.

My builder asked me if I wanted to pay VAT or not and therefore whether we would be paying by cheque or cash.
We decided to pay by cheque and were happy with paying VAT (I dont really think of it as a choice)

Two questions arise.
1).....What do other people on AAM do? am i the only one paying VAT on these things?

2).....If revenue look into it, who would be liable? On the one hand you could argue that just because somebody pays in cash doesnt mean that they are trying to defraud the revenue commissioners and that it is the responsibility of the builder to pass the VAT on. However it is completely obvious if there are no paper records or receipts for a cash transaction that the VAT hasnt been paid.

3).....My dad (an accountant) told me a story in the UK once where one of his clients (take away/restaurant) was buying more food containers than portions sold - which led the revenue to believe they weren't declaring all their sales. (may not have been for VAT reasons because i dont think that VAT was applied to Take away in those days - but the idea is the same) Do the revenue have the power or ability to look into things in this detail?

anon473

anon473 said:

If revenue look into it, who would be liable?

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The builder is responsible for charging VAT on his services and passing it on to Revenue.
You could not be found liable in any way, whether a customer pays by cash or cheque the assumption is made that VAT is included in the price being paid.
The practice of not charging / paying VAT is widespread in certain markets

Also bear in mind that if you don't pay VAT, then the builder doesn't have to declare the cash and so saves on income tax too. He should be charging you less than the price ex-VAT if you pay him cash.