Covid 19 and non-tax payers

[SteveW]

I'm talking about.....
Homeless (By choice) people that rely on people giving them money in town centres to buy food, tins of strong larger and heroin. Much less footfall in our towns so they'll be hard hit.
Restaurant workers, those that are exploited illegal immigrants living on camp beds above restaurants and takeaways, they don't pay tax and their exploitive bosses can't claim any relief for them. They can't do-one to their country of birth due to borders being closed.
Back street car tyre fitters, car valeting business's, nail bars and brothals are also big supporters of the Black economy, with no chance of pay compensation.
Burglars..... A lot of folk with non-essential jobs will be sat at home, which will drastically effect the opportunity for day-time house invasion. They're going to still need their Class A drugs.
Professional gangs of shoplifters...how can they carry out their trade in these difficult times?
The building trade at a certain level has historically been very supportive of the free-spirited tax dodger......they'll just have to rely on their social security payments, which will mean a drastic drop in their income.
Is this the revenge of the tax payer?

[Brenhden]

I did hear how self employed people might get aid based on the ammount of income they declared last year. Maybe people will think twice about working cash in hand in future...

[daveuprite]

This is a timely post. There is a HUGE black market / cash-in-hand / unregistered economy out there. This is NOT the time to judge them, label them or berate them for how they work. It's the time for policy makers to come up with interim solutions that make sure they can afford to live and self-isolate. Not easy. But vital right now.

[Tonibe63]

This is a timely post. There is a HUGE black market / cash-in-hand / unregistered economy out there. This is NOT the time to judge them, label them or berate them for how they work. It's the time for policy makers to come up with interim solutions that make sure they can afford to live and self-isolate. Not easy. But vital right now.

Thank you.

[daveuprite]

I have an example in my extended family. A hard-working, qualified, HGV1 licensed truck driver. He did a spell in prison some years ago for a complicated reason that's irrelevant here. Which meant that he could not get driving work with a criminal record, which meant that he ended up getting delivery work with an employer willing to pay him cash-in-hand, literally job by job. He's been working like that for some time, mainly transporting cargo from Heathrow all over the UK. The work is now running out, for obvious reasons. If he makes an unemployment / universal credit claim he will be asked why he hasn't been paying tax and how he has been earning a living, so he can't suddenly pop up in the system in any legitimate way. He's taking any bit of cash work he can, right now, just to survive, when he should really be at home like the rest of us. Maybe it could be justified that his delivery work is exempt from the lockdown, I'm not sure. However he has bills and rent to pay of course, and the money will run out.

The easy course of discussion is to blame him for his past, his choices, not getting salaried employment etc - but that's not helpful right now and doesn't solve the question of how to keep him alive and isolated, like the rest of us. Sunak is going to announce funding for self-employed people today, and he's already guaranteed 80% of salaried staffs' incomes - but a large tranche of unaccounted for people will not be covered by those measures - yet they are just as likely to be covid-carriers as anyone else.

[Jak*]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52046893
Enough said

[redbikejohn]

The future needs to be a cashless society. That will stop all under the table cash jobs and companies creative bookkeeping.

[garyboy]

The future needs to be a cashless society. That will stop all under the table cash jobs and companies creative bookkeeping.

100%

Maybe combined with an ID card .. to put a stop to all the tax dodgers, benefits fraudsters, illegal immigrants, black economy workers, etc etc etc

these people are not contributing to our UK economy, like the rest of us tax payers are.

[daveuprite]

He's taking any bit of cash work he can, right now, just to survive, when he should really be at home like the rest of us. Maybe it could be justified that his delivery work is exempt from the lockdown, I'm not sure.

Well I can update this in the most profound way. Graham (who I'm talking about) spent the day today transporting pallet loads of medical ventilators from Heathrow to Aberdeen, flown in from China. He sent us a picture of the inside of his truck, packed from floor to ceiling.

If anyone really cares that he's not paying tax on his minimum wage pay for this delivery, they need to reexamine their priorities...

[Flipflop]

He's taking any bit of cash work he can, right now, just to survive, when he should really be at home like the rest of us. Maybe it could be justified that his delivery work is exempt from the lockdown, I'm not sure.

Well I can update this in the most profound way. Graham (who I'm talking about) spent the day today transporting pallet loads of medical ventilators from Heathrow to Aberdeen, flown in from China. He sent us a picture of the inside of his truck, packed from floor to ceiling.

If anyone really cares that he's not paying tax on his minimum wage pay for this delivery, they need to reexamine their priorities...

Sadly we live in a blame game world perpetuated by the main world leaders. Trump is more focused on blaming the Chinese for the virus than he is fighting it.
The banking crisis of 2008 was, potentially, a much worse situation for global economics than Coronavirus - but the world leaders united and quite literally saved the modern world as we know it. Unfortunately I can’t see the same thing happening today.
Divide and rule - it’s the oldest political trick in the book and your average Joe is still falling for it - maybe we deserve what we get.