‘Paying cash-in-hand is not being a good citizen’
MIDDLE-CLASS home owners who pay cash in hand to their gardener or window cleaner are not “good citizens” because they are aiding tax avoidance, Theresa May’s employment adviser has suggested.
Matthew Taylor, who was commissioned by Theresa May to review working practices, called for an end to cash-in-hand employment amid concerns they were costing £6 billion in lost taxes.
His report recommended that Mrs May should encourage a move away from cash payments towards digital transactions to make it easier for the taxman to ensure that self-employed workers are declaring their earnings. He suggested that in future mi- grants could be barred from accepting cash payments as part of the conditions for them working in the UK.
Mr Taylor, who previously worked as head of policy for Tony Blair, criticised people who deliberately paid builders and other workers in cash so they could secure a discount.
He said: “If you are deliberately paying in cash because you know that you are getting a lower price because the person you are giving cash to is not paying their proper taxes, well that’s not good citizenship. Good citizens should want a tax system that is fair.”
However, Downing Street said
that cash payments are “legitimate”: “Our view is that cash in hand is a legitimate means of paying for goods and services and probably something everyone has done. That’s not about to change but we need to make sure that we are continuing to be at the forefront of technology and innovation that make our day to day lives easier.”
David Green, the chief executive of right of centre think tank Civitas, said the attempts to discourage cash-inhand payments were “overkill”. He told The Daily Telegraph: “There is nothing inherently wrong with cash – there is something inherently wrong with not paying your taxes. It is a blunderbuss approach to tax evasion.”
The issue of cash-in-hand payments previously sparked outcry in 2012 when David Gauke, now the work and pensions secretary, said when he was a treasury minister that people who paid trades workers in such a way were “morally wrong”.
Mrs May yesterday used a speech at the launch of the Taylor review in a bid to shore up her authority almost a year after she became Prime Minister. She said that her enthusiasm for the job re- mains “undimmed” as she appealed to Jeremy Corbyn and other opposition politicians to support her over Brexit and other legislation.
However it appears unlikely that Mr Taylor’s review will be implemented after it was opposed by both Labour and the SNP, highlighting Mrs May’s fragile majority.
The report recommended that employees of companies in the “gig economy”, such as Uber and Deliveroo, should enjoy sickness benefits and paid holiday leave.