Is it so bad to pay cash in hand to avoid VAT?

I APPLAUD Tom Utley’s honesty in paying VAT for work to his bathroom (Mail). It used to be the case that a quotation was deemed to include VAT and the workman would make the necessary payment to HMRC.

How can the Government regulate cash in hand? It’s a good decision by Theresa May not to make officials waste time and money in trying to recover tax on these payments. ROBERT J. EVANS, Birmingham.

I WORK in the building industry and had many dealings with customers who, faced with 20 per cent VAT on the bill, try to deprive the taxman by saying: ‘What can you do for cash?’ One man asked me for a written quote for £15,000 on headed paper. He then admitted he was submitting it for a building society loan, would do the work himself and use the money to buy a car. Name and address supplied.

I APPLIED for a part-time cleaning job. I’m in receipt of Pension Credits so inquired how much l could earn a week, to be told I could keep only £5 of my £80 pay. I turned down the job, but it made me realise why the black market is flourishing. mrs MEG BOUTELL, St Leonards-on-Sea, e. Sussex.

FORGET about paying Joe the plumber cash in hand. What about the fat cats stashing away their millions in tax havens? DAVE OVERTON, Willoughby, Lincs.

MY SELF-EMPLOYED husband was told by a female tax inspector: ‘There should never be any job where cash exchanges hands.’

This was the same tax inspector who had hired my sister-in-law the previous week to work as a cleaner in her home. She offered her cash, saying: ‘What happens between us is our business!’ Name and address supplied.