Discussion:Paying cash..sounds like tax evasion
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Discussion Forum Index --> Consumer Questions --> Paying cash..sounds like tax evasion
| 2 January 2009 | |
| Went to buy furniture New Years because of a sale. The company advertised 15% off and 5% off if you pay cash. We were going to buy 4k worth so my wife starting writing a check. NO said the salesman we mean the green stuff only. I think this company should be reported. What do others think? | |
Death&Taxes (talk|edits) said: | 2 January 2009 |
| While we are at it, we can find someone to make the trains run on time. | |
Southparkcpa (talk|edits) said: | 2 January 2009 |
| If we reported every retailer that ONLY takes cash, the IRS would double in size. Even restaurants now complain that the credit card took cash "out" of the business. But 10 percent cash, on a 1 million biz is alot of cash!!!!
Make no mistake, they are cheating but we can't do a thing about it! One of the reasons I do not do retail. | |
Donniecastleman (talk|edits) said: | 2 January 2009 |
| If I see a product in a store that is what I'm looking for and is a good price, I'm going to buy it, and if they request cash that's what they'll get. I don't have the time effort or interest in policing everyone else as my plate is pretty full. You people on here that get your jollies from "reporting" everybody that does anything suspicious should do something more constructive, are you the same people that peek from behind your blinds at what the neighbors are doing or take pictures of neighbor's houses to send to the housing authorities if the yard isn't perfect? Surely not. To quote Hank Williams, if you mind your own business you'll stay busy all the time, I know I do. | |
| January 2, 2009 | |
| Weber Grill, yeah, dem guys, does the same thing. The manufacturing facility is in the far west burbs of Chicago, and for one weekend every summer, they sell 'overstock' etc, cash only. I've wondered if an IRS agent bucking for promotion ever stopped in. Thousands of cars line around the block. | |
| 2 January 2009 | |
| Why does an advertised "cash only" sale automatically mean non-reported income? Since it's advertised as cash only, I would hardly think they're trying to openly announce their invention to avoid claiming the income. Is it possible that they just plain want cash rather than checks (which can bounce) or credit cards (which charge fees and can be reversed if the owner doesn't like the furniture once they get home?)
Or maybe I just misinterpreted the question - if so, sorry. Maybe you meant that cash should equal checks? | |
| 2 January 2009 | |
| Credit card = average 1.29% - 1.79% merchant discount. You can even get blanket fees but those are for the big boys. | |
| 2 January 2009 | |
| You also can't track cash. The receipts are probably old school cash registers where you can't really track either. No inventory audits either. | |
| 2 January 2009 | |
| It seems like a big assumption to think they are cheating. If this is an established business it is probably a matter of no bank fees and bounced checks. If it's a fly by night out of the back of a truck then it may be stolen also, who really know's. I ran a convenience store back in the 80's, we were all cash, was I cheating on my taxes? or trying to not get ripped off? There are plenty of cash only businesses out there. | |
| 2 January 2009 | |
| I have read that the Italians require every retail purchase, no matter how large or small, to generate a duplicate receipt, one copy to the customer and one for the business and that it is tax evasion merely to fail to generate these receipts.
Cash only doesn't have to mean "off the books" but it's rather a suspicious circumstance. | |
| 3 January 2009 | |
| I think the assumption that they are cheating says more about the OP than the furniture store. | |
| January 3, 2009 | |
| Perhaps the cash-only sale is a sign that the company is getting ready to go out of business. | |
| 7 January 2009 | |
| I am seeing a lot of gas stations advertising cash only price as well...LOL | |
| 7 January 2009 | |
| Not accepting personal checks is a common business practice and I don't think it necessarily implies tax evasion. Personal checks bounce and it is expensive and time consuming to collect on them, and credit card companies charge fees of 3% and up. That's why many gas stations offer lower prices for cash -- it saves them the credit card fees, and most of them never accept personal checks under any circumstances. One of my favorite restaurants in San Diego has been in business since the 1940s and has never accepted anything but cash. Most fast food chain restaurants were cash only until fairly recent years.
Of course it is easier for the owners or employees of a cash business to skim receipts off the top. That's why sales/use tax auditors use shelf tests and observation to estimate unreported receipts. | |
| 7 January 2009 | |
| I've been perplexed since I was a Junior Accountant in 1972 - why the writers of tax legislation never required Banks as "required information to be reported" annual deposits for Bank Accounts. The Bank is required it register the Taxpayer ID number on each, one would think it would be an easy matter for Banks to report to the IRS, at the very least, "total deposits" and match that to "gross income" of the Taxpayer.
An all cash business still has to pay bills, and unless they are doing this with cash as well, at sometime cash will be deposited and a record left behind. It is usually not until the rare field audit - that a comparison is made of deposits to gross receipts. | |
RoyDaleOne (talk|edits) said: | 12 January 2009 |
| I do a check cashing business, where 97% of the deposits are not income. | |
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