Would not take my money

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

Had to get some minor work done on the house. Went to pay for it and...

"Credit cards have fees so we don't accept them. We gladly accept Venmo and Zelle."

"Oh, you don't use them... hmmm. No, actually we don't take Apple Pay either."

Cash? Hmmm, I can call the office and see..."

"AH! Yes, we do accept a personal check."


Good HEAVENS! What on earth??? I expected Alan Funt to show up and put his arm around my shoulder.

 

[cleanshaved]

Never had an invoice handed to me by the tradesman straight after doing the job. It's normally emailed later that day or days following. I normally use online banking and just transfer the money into their account.
No fuss, no muss.

 

[Legion]

Had to get some minor work done on the house. Went to pay for it and...

"Credit cards have fees so we don't accept them. We gladly accept Venmo and Zelle."

"Oh, you don't use them... hmmm. No, actually we don't take Apple Pay either."

Cash? Hmmm, I can call the office and see..."

"AH! Yes, we do accept a personal check."


Good HEAVENS! What on earth??? I expected Alan Funt to show up and put his arm around my shoulder.

"We gladly accept all forms of payment the tax man can not keep track of".

 

[cleanshaved]

"We gladly accept all forms of payment the tax man can not keep track of".

Sunday cashie job to a tee.

 

[DesertIguana]

Well working off the books great until you caught. The IRS, SEC, and last California Franchise Tax Board, and Board of Equalization are like 30 Crocodiles if you get on their radar.

 

[brucered]

If you are willing to do an an under the table cash deal, make sure you benefit too? I never do cash deals and always request an invoice, so know the business is reporting their income.

As long as they don't ask to scan your Right Hand or Forearm.

 

[borwish]

People can get upset if you tack on a percentage to cover the CC fees and the use of cash can be a temptation for theft. I can understand the company trying to simplify things from an accounting perspective.

 

[ByMyBeard]

That's the first I've heard of someone not accepting a CC at all. I've had a few that add whatever the percentage is to the invoice. I believe Apple Pay is just an extension of a CC, so I guess that tracks.
I agree - typically the technicians I've worked with simply drop off a copy of the bill to be paid later. And usually payment methods/options are discussed up front. Very odd interaction there.

 

[DesertIguana]

Then you got BitCoin, friend took a chance years ago bought a large quantity of BitCoins. He say he was not sharp, but gamble the BitCoin would increase in value, he was so right. Uncle Sam got wise, he said today went he turn a point in to spendable dollars. Uncle Sam takes over 40% of his profit in Taxes. They consider the profit a short term capital game.

 

[StillShaving]

Is this a situation where personal checks less than 10K are not tracked/checked/verified relative to the person receiving them for payment for work services?

 

[Rudy Vey]

Is this a situation where personal checks less than 10K are not tracked/checked/verified relative to the person receiving them for payment for work services?

I think the 10k refers to cash....I had a colleague who took all his money out prior to Y2K. And then he and his wife had to go to the bank daily and put 9.99k in so that they did not get reported - actually the same bank, they should have known he took all his money out a week before. That's just the law and the bank had told him. To my knowledge checks are not reported when over 10k.
But using a check for payment and making it out to the company is, as I think, the best way. It would end up in a company account (if the company is legit). When I got my generator last December, they asked me to use checks and make them out to the company, not a person's name, like the owners.

BTW, I see lately in my area that restaurants give you a break if you pay cash instead of cards.....wonder why, the fees are maybe 4%, but they give you 10% off when using cash....reporting non-issue????? And some others add the fee to your final check, like gas stations do when you use a card.

 

[StillShaving]

I think the 10k refers to cash....I had a colleague who took all his money out prior to Y2K. And then he and his wife had to go to the bank daily and put 9.99k in so that they did not get reported - actually the same bank, they should have known he took all his money out a week before. That's just the law and the bank had told him. To my knowledge checks are not reported when over 10k.
But using a check for payment and making it out to the company is, as I think, the best way. It would end up in a company account (if the company is legit). When I got my generator last December, they asked me to use checks and make them out to the company, not a person's name, like the owners.

That is what I thought. Though I was wondering about check handling as pre-pandemic I paid a handyman to do some exterior painting among a few other things around my house and paid him using a check. The total was in the thousands but not close to 10K. I cannot remember the details now, but he went to my bank (not his bank) to cash it and my bank called me but I was not available to answer (I saw the missed call hours later). The check cleared and my bank never contacted me about it a second time, but afterwards I got the impression that this guy operated on "cash" and probably did not report his income to IRS and paid his small crew in cash. I hope my impression is wrong, but I do wonder how many per-job/temporary workers are not paying taxes.

BTW, I see lately in my area that restaurants give you a break if you pay cash instead of cards.....wonder why, the fees are maybe 4%, but they give you 10% off when using cash....reporting non-issue????? And some others add the fee to your final check, like gas stations do when you use a card.

A 10% break is quite significant. I sometimes see offers for extra cash back (beyond the 1-2% that is available with some cards) for buying gas or other narrow categories, especially if one signs up for a new card or a special offer tied to their existing card for a few months. I always wondered how the credit card companies made up the difference. How can they give more cash back than they are collecting in fees from the merchant? (I assumed a 2% fee, sounds like you are saying it is closer to 4% fee). If the merchants paying even higher fees for these special offers, no wonder they are trying to get people to use cash.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I think the 10k refers to cash....I had a colleague who took all his money out prior to Y2K. And then he and his wife had to go to the bank daily and put 9.99k in so that they did not get reported - actually the same bank, they should have known he took all his money out a week before. That's just the law and the bank had told him.

The irony here is that the bank is obligated to tell you about the reporting requirement for cash transactions over $10k, (cash transaction report) but if you deliberately structure transactions to avoid the CTR, they will notice, and they're required to file a suspicious activity report (SAR) for each transaction, and they're obligated NOT to tell you that they've done so.

Structuring is actually illegal on its own, but it's usually only charged in conjunction with other crimes.

 

[hairless wonder]

"We gladly accept all forms of payment the tax man can not keep track of".

Lol! But my guess is the contractor doesn't want to pay the credit card fee.