Landlord insists on rent paid by cheque....tax avoidance??

poppysarah

Do they want it made paying to


S Smith?

Where S could be Susan or Stephen?

That sort of thing would indicate someone might be putting money through another account to me...

HappyMJ

peaches48 wrote: »

Heard from my bank that you will no longer be able to use a Guarantee Card (Debit Card) to guarantee a cheque when written, after 30 June 2911. So anyone receiving a cheque for payment of goods and services will have to take it on faith that the payment will go through.
Does the rent cheque have the cheque guarantee number written on the back. If so, you could inform the landlord of this, to try and get him to accept a S/O instead. If he only ever receives cheques from all his tenants (assuming he has more than one), then he is going to be biting his nails waiting to see if all the cheques clear!

No...there is no need to guarantee a rent cheque. If it doesn't clear the landlord knows where to go to get the money. Cheque guarantee cards are only really useful for shops that take cheques where they do not necessarily know exactly where the customer lives.

I would rather pay by cheque myself. Or cash. I refuse to and have never paid by direct debit but I would consider setting up a standing order.

If you don't want them knocking on the door for the cheque why don't you post it a week before the due date.

poppysarah

HappyMJ wrote: »

No...there is no need to guarantee a rent cheque. .

And the guarantee is only good for £250 even on my best card!

chewmylegoff

MegaMiniMouse wrote: »

Yes, contrary to conventional wisdom, HMRC does not find it easy to follow the paper trail of cheques

A cheque-book stub, filled in by the payer, is less than worthless

MMM

it's very easy for HMRC or any other govt agency to follow the trail of a cheque. all you do is write to the bank and compel them to tell you where it came from.

Blacksheep1979

MegaMiniMouse wrote: »

There are many different ways to get from London to Manchester

Nobody can check them all!

MMM

It still ends up as an electronic transfer from one account to another - both just as traceable as each other. Stop being so paranoid.

lincroft1710

peaches48 wrote: »

Heard from my bank that you will no longer be able to use a Guarantee Card (Debit Card) to guarantee a cheque when written, after 30 June 2911. So anyone receiving a cheque for payment of goods and services will have to take it on faith that the payment will go through.
Does the rent cheque have the cheque guarantee number written on the back. If so, you could inform the landlord of this, to try and get him to accept a S/O instead. If he only ever receives cheques from all his tenants (assuming he has more than one), then he is going to be biting his nails waiting to see if all the cheques clear!

Peaches, I think you need to amend the year in your post.

Why do they put these keys so close together on a keyboard?

peaches48

Thank you, yes, it should have read 2011...

MegaMiniMouse

MegaMiniMouse wrote: »

Yes, contrary to conventional wisdom, HMRC does not find it easy to follow the paper trail of cheques

MMM

My 'source' for the above information (which has been challenged a couple of times in this thread) is admittedly nearly 30 years old, but it came straight from the Horse's Mouth

I was the subject of a full audit by the Inland Revenue, and I was pleading with Her Majesty's Satanic Tax Inspector to follow the paper trail

In her letter to my accountant, she replied that cheques are notoriously difficult to track, and nothing useful would be gained by trying

MMM

00ec25

MegaMiniMouse wrote: »

My 'source' for the above information (which has been challenged a couple of times in this thread) is admittedly nearly 30 years old, but it came straight from the Horse's Mouth

I was the subject of a full audit by the Inland Revenue, and I was pleading with Her Majesty's Satanic Tax Inspector to follow the paper trail

In her letter to my accountant, she replied that cheques are notoriously difficult to track, and nothing useful would be gained by trying

MMM

I have worked in the finance profession for just as long and I can assure you that even without the extra powers HMRC has to demand disclosure, following a cheque trail is not difficult and any auditor could do so very easily if given HMRC's powers

I assume you are keeping this thread going, despite the reality of the modern world, because you won't accept that you are out of date?

MegaMiniMouse

00ec25 wrote: »

I assume you are keeping this thread going, despite the reality of the modern world, because you won't accept that you are out of date?

I would have said that it is the cheque system itself which is out-of-date! The modern world has no place for such antiquated manual systems, partly because such systems are labour-intensive, prone to error, time-consuming to check, hard to track etc etc

The Banks (and probably HMRC!) can hardly wait until the day dawns when cheques no longer exist...

MMM