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Should Fireplace Fitters Ask For Cash?

November 16, 2012

It is morally wrong to pay fireplace fitters in cash and arguably unsafe to do so. Cash payments are often unallocated to the HMRC and frequently undeclared hurting the economy and genuine companies that pay full taxation on their turnover.

 

 

 

Advice of paying for installation:

1. Morally we all have a responsibility to do our part to ensure the UK industry grows. Part of the problem is the large extent of undeclared income that is never transferred to HMRC. In reality the majority of fitters ask for payment in cash and frequently do not declare the income. This does little to help the economy and genuine businesses and tradesmen that correctly file their income assessments.

2 . Paying a tradesmen in cash leaves absolutely no electronic paper trail that can be independently verified. For this reason if anything was to go wrong, you have no cover and no verifiable means to prove the amount of money you have paid towards work carried out. This leaves the consumer at a very venerable position if there was some sort of conflict and arguably it is the fitters word against yours with regard to how much payment was made.

3. Many tradesmen will argue that they do not accept cheques as they are an unsecure form of payment that can be cancelled or bounced when they present them to banks and hence leave them exposed for work carried out. However all businesses nowadays accept card payment that offer consumers greater protection and can be recalled up-to 30 days after payment if required, and hence this argument is partially void. In conclusion: It is advisable to pay installers via a means that leaves a digital paper trail. Verifiable payment methods offer buyer protection in a much greater way than cash payments. Perhaps the government should consider introducing a safe scheme that allows consumers to pay tradesmen in an alternative payment method other than cash, especially as cheques will soon be discontinued in 2018.