Anonymous wrote:Cash only-businesses that didn't file taxes or significantly under-reported their income were largely shut out of Hurricane Sandy disaster relief. A critical part of getting SBA disaster assistance was showing previous' years income through tax filings and associated losses to physical premises and sales. Same thing happened with PPP loans, which required you to show previous expenses through tax filings.

Lots of cash businesses either didn't file taxes or showed really low income. So they didn't qualify for relief programs in times of crisis.

Brick and mortar cash businesses are smart enough to file. They just under report earnings. Dramatically. Ditto for contractors, hvac repairmen, painters, cleaners, landscapers, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can think of a restaurant in Kensington that is cash only. And another one in St. Michaels.

Actually not anymore for the one in Kensington. About a year ago, they finally started online ordering which includes a convenience fee. I think in person is still cash only though.

Which means they are still under reporting cash sales to avoid taxes.

Have you noticed they don’t write orders down? No real paper trail.

We could probably do a whole other thread on people who own legit businesses or professional practices that run all their personal expenses "through the business".

Anonymous wrote:Cash only-businesses that didn't file taxes or significantly under-reported their income were largely shut out of Hurricane Sandy disaster relief. A critical part of getting SBA disaster assistance was showing previous' years income through tax filings and associated losses to physical premises and sales. Same thing happened with PPP loans, which required you to show previous expenses through tax filings.

Lots of cash businesses either didn't file taxes or showed really low income. So they didn't qualify for relief programs in times of crisis.

Sad, but that’s the cost of free riding. You don’t pay in when times are good, you don’t get paid out when times are bad. Same with nannies who take payments off the books - there’s no Social Security or unemployment available for you when the gig is up.

Anonymous wrote:I believe the city of Philadelphia mandates that businesses accept cash, with a few exceptions. Isn't DC contemplating a similar law?

DC already has a similar law, but it isn't enforced.

I believe the city of Philadelphia mandates that businesses accept cash, with a few exceptions. Isn't DC contemplating a similar law?

Some home improvement businesses.

My old contractor who I knew very well bought some material at a contractor only warehouse that only took cash. Home Depot was almost 50 percent more.

He also has some people working side jobs who only took cash. For insurance he had a plumber and electrician who had full time jobs who would help occasionally on weekend. He also had a few day laborers.

His contractor only Sheetrock place was “sketchy” massive warehouse, you shake hands in a price. He delivers it, you unload and inspect then pay cash no receipt and done,

The plumber was a licensed plumber but he was not working an 8 hour day on his day off as a favor to my guy with no contract or proof did work without getting paid for day cash

I used to immediately think it was sketchy and fraud, but I've encountered more and more places I've frequented for years switching from credit cards to cash because of the high cc fees.

My doctor's office made this switch in January. They were accepting cash or checks but have eliminated the check option as of April due to so many bad checks being passed. It's a pain in the butt to always make sure I have enough cash on hand to cover my previous balance, but I really like this doctor so I deal with it. My longtime hair stylist has also switched to cash or Venmo only. My local pizza joint will give a 10% order discount if you pay with cash vs. card.

I did drop my mechanic after he made a stink out of me not paying for a $1700 repair bill with cash or check. I told him I was not going to take an Uber to go to an ATM (none nearby within walkable distance) or go home for a check (if I could even find one at the time!). If he wanted payment via one preferred method, he should have made that known before the work was done. He and his front desk lady both complained very loudly about the high cc fees they'd have to pay on a $1700 charge. She even thought about trying to figure out what the fee would be and adding it on until I told her she could not do that because no fee was previously disclosed. Because they were both being such jerks about it, I pulled out my AMEX to pay, which notoriously has the highest merchant fees for companies, instead of the Visa I was going to use.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20-something years ago, my old agency did an investigation of a well-known Peruvian chicken place in Wheaton that only took cash. When they did a search warrant on the owners house, they found millions in cash hidden behind the drywall. Owner did some time in prison and the restaurant re-opened when he got out and is still in business today.

El Pollo Rico?

I'm not the PP, but yes it was El Pollo Rico. It was all over the news at the time.

Anonymous wrote:I can think of a restaurant in Kensington that is cash only. And another one in St. Michaels.

Actually not anymore for the one in Kensington. About a year ago, they finally started online ordering which includes a convenience fee. I think in person is still cash only though.

Cash only-businesses that didn't file taxes or significantly under-reported their income were largely shut out of Hurricane Sandy disaster relief. A critical part of getting SBA disaster assistance was showing previous' years income through tax filings and associated losses to physical premises and sales. Same thing happened with PPP loans, which required you to show previous expenses through tax filings.

Lots of cash businesses either didn't file taxes or showed really low income. So they didn't qualify for relief programs in times of crisis.

When the law changed to allow retailers to add a processing fee lots of my customers switched to paying by check, seeing an extra $450 on a $15,000 bill was a surprise but it was a fee I had been paying for decades so they could get their JetBlue miles or whatever points

Allowing retailers to add back the processing fee also curbed a lot abuses by processors. At the end of the month I never really knew how much was going to be clawed back, if someone had a blue AMEX or an MCI world card sometimes I would wind up paying in the 7% range which would eat up huge amounts of my profit, now by allowing the pass-through Everyone has straightened up with a flat 2.5, 2.8 or 3% fee.
Some of you might be thinking, why don’t you just raise your prices by 3%, my business is hyper competitive and I lose customers if my prices are even 50 bucks more than a competitor.

Anonymous wrote:Housekeepers are "cash only" i.e., venmo, zelle, checks. So are all of you people saying that all housekeepers commit tax fraud?

NP. I'm not prepared to say ALL housecleaners are, but most are, yes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don’t make enough to afford the credit card mark ups - which are huge for small businesses.

This is it for us as a small farm that does farmers markets. We try to make it as easy as possible for people to pay at our tents, we have venmo, paypal, zelle, and a card reader, of course cash is also accepted. When someone pays with a card we pass the "swipe fee" on to the consumer - our reader company charges 3% and our bank charges another fee to accept the transaction into our account. Most people don't have a problem with the fee tacked on, but a few will then pay in cash. We report all income on our Schedule F, so, at least for us, it's not about tax evasion, but I'm sure others are not as honest as we are.

This is how my farmer’s market operates. Everyone has a card reader, almost everyone has a “cash preferred” sign, and if you pay with cards the fee is passed on the customer. I don’t consider this cash only, although I generally pay cash only unless I’ve forgotten to go to the ATM recently. It’s just easier for both of us.

Anonymous wrote:20-something years ago, my old agency did an investigation of a well-known Peruvian chicken place in Wheaton that only took cash. When they did a search warrant on the owners house, they found millions in cash hidden behind the drywall. Owner did some time in prison and the restaurant re-opened when he got out and is still in business today.

El Pollo Rico?