Submitted by Revolutionary_Cut236 t3_zq0lgr in tifu

I'm such an idiot!

I accepted a job at a pizza place and the following stuff is a red flag I didn't see-

No signed contract Cash in hand (friends warned me it's tax fraud) They don't know where I live No emergency contact No records of a payroll I'm not getting the national minimum per wage

It seemed to work well around my current job and I was happy. Until I started to do research on my national minimum wage and taxes. After speaking to some professionals and some friends I realised I would be committing tax fraud! That's at least 5 years in the can!

I will update on what happens next but if I get told I won't be put on a legal payroll to pay my taxes then I will be walking away from this. Its not a case of if you get caught but WHEN you get caught. And I'm not risking 5 years of my life for a job that doesn't pay well or legally.

TL;DR-I accepted a cash in hand job and it could cost me jail time. No thanks.

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nowhereman1223 t1_j0vkrud wrote

In my country a cash in hand job is not tax fraud on it's own.

What makes it fraud is when you don't report that income to the tax authority.

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Smarterthaniwas t1_j0vm3z1 wrote

He can hire you as casual labour and pay you from petty cash if he wants. It's so funny that you're cool to break the law (which you aren't unless YOU don't claim it on your taxes), but you're warning everyone else now that experts and friends have advised you (poorly, so I'm pretty confident you just had a couple random friends say it was sketchy - no professionals) it's illegal so you're putting him on blast ...funny.

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88mph_pfr t1_j0vnaqn wrote

Hm, reading the title, I definitely thought the story would be different.

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Figgy20000 t1_j0vo6ap wrote

Accepting a cash job isn't fraud. Not paying Taxes on it is fraud.

However, working for less than minimum wage is illegal almost everywhere. I suggest you quit the job immediately unless they give you an immediate pay increase to match the laws in your area, and track your earnings so you can claim it as income at the end of the year.

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Revolutionary_Cut236 OP t1_j0vswiq wrote

It was pretty quick. Because I'm not "working a lot of hours" I "don't need to be on a payroll". Someone at my main job is working 8 hours (4 hours less then this side job) and they are on a payroll. It can't be legal what this place is doing.

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Relay_Slide t1_j0vtggb wrote

Just take the cash and relax. There’s absolutely nothing abnormal about this.

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ShinjukuAce t1_j0vxa4i wrote

If you’re American, it isn’t tax fraud as long as you report your income honestly. If you really have to work there and don’t have an alternative, then keep careful records of what you are paid, and just report that on your tax forms - the fraud comes when people are paid cash or run a cash business and then don’t report most of it and instead report an income that’s much lower than they really made.

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ShinjukuAce t1_j0w0sji wrote

But you won’t be in trouble, just as long as you fairly report and pay taxes on the cash you actually got from them. And if the company is committing tax fraud, they certainly won’t want to attract attention by snitching on you.

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Revolutionary_Cut236 OP t1_j0w1159 wrote

Either way there's no evidence of my payment, it's below nmw and they have a chappy attitude to me for raising my concerns about breaking the law that could get ME into trouble. I was gonna leave anyway after that text.

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Revolutionary_Cut236 OP t1_j0w1sd3 wrote

I wasn't clear enough. The person I mentioned works 8 hours at my main job. My side job was 4-10:45 with a 15 minute break which I took at random. The 2 days I worked totaled to13.5 hours. So I was Paid roughly for 2 out of those hours (which I will be giving back)

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PM_ME_FUNFAX t1_j0w3yr8 wrote

Unless you're making an obscene amount of money, fuck it take the cash. I'm sure the UK has some checks like the US, banks have to report over 600$ in deposits. If your getting paid on cash, and only spend in cash... You're fine.

I mean unless you go spreading it all over the internet.

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ElectroStaticSpeaker t1_j0wuigr wrote

Highly doubt the IRS comes after you for not reporting less than a minimum wage salary at a part time position. Especially not for a 5 year sentence.

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Revolutionary_Cut236 OP t1_j0wuslh wrote

I still don't really want to take chances. HMRC and IRS may have different rules with this sort of thing and one could be more harsh than the other. From what I heard, someone'ssmoother was caught doing it and was sent to the slammer.

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ElectroStaticSpeaker t1_j0wvo3i wrote

Sure I am not telling you to do this. But you can report the income yourself if the place doesn't automatically subtract it if you want to cover your own bases. It's not a crime to do work for cash and it isn't your responsibility to ensure your employer is paying social security for you or anything.

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Revolutionary_Cut236 OP t1_j0wvwn3 wrote

I could do that actually. However I did get a text from them saying I'd be on the payroll. So I'll have to see how that goes. If they don't deduct tax then i could report it myself. But they better pay the NMW since the money i get will be on record.

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desi_pepsi t1_j0xlvd4 wrote

Damn, the hand job must be hard. Do you work daily?

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Conwaydawg t1_j0xp1kv wrote

Omg. The worry over this tribal thing is ridiculous. IRS would never came after you. They would never have know. Do you know how many illegal immigrants do this every day?

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Longjumping_Shirt390 t1_j0z6z6r wrote

Imagine being upset you’d be committing tax fraud lol. The greedy government doesn’t need any more money.

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GaWdLy1 t1_j0zkz8w wrote

I came here to read about your handjob that was a mistake. All I came away with was a very poorly-punctuated story in which you claimed to not know that not paying taxes is illegal...

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Moddaboy t1_j108dsf wrote

You can work cash in hand but it’s up to you to claim your own taxes.

I worked a cash job(warehouse) eight years back for a year and half and the first three months I didn’t claim to help me get back on track to get a new apartment faster than after I did claim did taxes never came back to haunt me. I know so many people who don’t claim tips and only claim taxes on their bartending jobs and no clue to this day how the government isn’t like we know you can’t survive on less than minimum wage and look into it (Canada)

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GaWdLy1 t1_j10cxbm wrote

Doesn't need to be an essay, but if the casual reader (read: redditor) can't tell whether you're talking about red flags for a 'cash-in-hand' job or accepting cash in hand for a hand job, you're not communicating well.

It's not an assumption, it's just a hole left behind due to your communication "style".

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