tax dodging?

snagglepuss16

not sure if this is the right board, anyway i got some photos done professionally of my son, but when i went to pay the guy said he didnt take cards. As it was over £500 i though this a bit odd, i also never got any sort of receipt. is he a tax dodger?
photos are excellent though:rotfl:

McKneff

You should never pay cash for anything like this. Yes, sounds as if he is a tax dodger. Would he have not accepted a cheque either.
I wouldnt have paid it to be quite honest, what would have happened if the photos had been crap, did you pay up front or not.
Its a big no no not getting a receipt.
If he has any records 'under the counter' and the HMRC actually find them or if he gets shopped the HMRC could be onto you too.

Darksun

Well, if he's a sole trader then it may simply be too expensive for him to accept card payments (there are initial set up costs, and for credit cards a percentage of each transaction is taken as fees by the card company). Not giving a receipt sounds a bit dodgy though, there's no real excuse for poor paperwork - did you actually ask for a receipt?

snagglepuss16

i totally get both your points. it was cash up front yes, but i had seen the photos, they just hadnt been made up.i wasnt worries per say as loads of people have had photos done by him, including loads of coppers, ha ha.was just curious as what to others thought, i have what i wanted thats the main thing

vikingaero

Loads of people choose not to accept cards. That doesn't make them automatic tax dodgers. There's the cost of the merchant machine/account/monthly charges/transaction fees etc which may mean that it's not worthwhile for someone only doing a few jobs a week.

If you go to the Continent you'll find a lot of local businesses don't accept cards. Did you find out if you could have paid by cheque?

snagglepuss16

vikingaero wrote: »

Loads of people choose not to accept cards. That doesn't make them automatic tax dodgers. There's the cost of the merchant machine/account/monthly charges/transaction fees etc which may mean that it's not worthwhile for someone only doing a few jobs a week.

If you go to the Continent you'll find a lot of local businesses don't accept cards. Did you find out if you could have paid by cheque?

tbh i wanted to pay by credit card as it was a large amount, at start of december, not a good month!! , but ended up just paying cash from my account, i had the money anyway so wasnt a problem.
i understand it may have been expensive for him, but tbh when hes charging those prices for half an hour sessions worth, you'd think he'd have a few quid. no worries anyway im happy with my photos thats the main thing

maninthestreet

Cash-only AND no receipt sounds iffy to me. He's definitely trying to hide something.

RadoJo

OP - did you ask for a receipt and he refused, or did he just not provide one?

terryw

Same thing happened to me yesterday. I bought a magazine from street-seller and he would not accept my credit card and was quite abusive when I asked for a receipt after paying cash!.

snagglepuss16

RadoJo wrote: »

OP - did you ask for a receipt and he refused, or did he just not provide one?

no i never asked, as i said i wasnt fussed as i had what i wanted, but he never offerred either, which would of probably been a computer print off or hand written as he did not have a till!!!!!:rotfl:

RadoJo

Ok - if you'd asked and he'd refused, then I would have said it sounds a bit dodgy, but only taking cash and not offering a receipt if not asked aren't really conclusive evidence that this guy's doing anything wrong. On the basis of what you have said, I wouldn't think there's anything to worry about, so unless there was something else that set off alarm bells, you're probably fine!