HAIRDRESSER CALLS FOR BACKSTREET BEAUTICIANS CRACKDOWN
THE hair and beauty black market has ‘blown up’ since the pandemic, according to representative bodies who are lobbying Revenue to chase tax dodgers.
One of those bodies, the Hair and Beauty Industry Confederation (HABIC) estimates its sector is losing €500m a year to the shadow economy, costing the State €55m in lost tax receipts.
Lisa Finnan, who is on HABIC’s executive council, said one of their ‘main objectives right now is to put an end to this’.
She said the hair and beauty sector is currently receiving special attention within Revenue.
‘They are actively looking to come down on it,’ she told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
Ms Finnan, who owns the Beautique Skin And Beauty Clinic in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, said that in 14 years of business she has ‘never struggled as much to get staff’ because it is ‘much more profitable for people to be set up at home’.
‘It is as simple as that. A lot of them are claiming social welfare, they’re getting all these things that they’re claiming from the Government and they’re also earning a load of cash on the side.’
Lisa Eccles, who is president of the Irish Hairdressers Federation (IHF), said belowboard
hairdressers are ‘going from house to house relatively unwatched and able to work for cash. And for all we know they’re also claiming social welfare or whatever else.’
Ms Eccles, who owns Zinc
Hair and Beauty in Kilmainham, Dublin, said there had been ‘a huge drop off’ in available salon staff since the pandemic.
‘Obviously one element is people deciding to change
career path, but I think an awful lot of people were definitely lured to the whole idea of doing hair at home for cash and then just not declaring it,’ she said.
The IHF president said insurance, VAT and stock costs have all risen considerably over the last number of years, as well as the cost of hiring people due to higher wages and increased sick leave entitlements since January.