Are you committing a crime when you pay someone "under the table"?

Goathead

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Sat Mar-05-05 09:58 AM
Original message

Are you committing a crime when you pay someone "under the table"?

Let's say all parties involved have no intention of reporting the transactions to the I.R.S. Paying the neighbor kid to cut the lawn cash "under the table" or a waitress not reporting her earnings in tips may seem petty but these occurrences do figure into calculating the size of the Black Market.

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oneighty

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Sat Mar-05-05 10:02 AM
Response to Original message

1. They are private contractors

Pay them cash and forget it.

IMHO

Opinion is not law though.

180

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sweetheart

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Sat Mar-05-05 10:03 AM
Response to Original message

2. No, you're patriotically denying the bush criminals of war funds

Plus, you're helping someone earn more money without the evil overhead
of the IRS and supporting the war crime regime.

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sandnsea

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Sat Mar-05-05 10:06 AM
Response to Original message

3. It depends

The kid mowing the lawn is day labor and the homeowner isn't a business. If he earns less than something like $600 a year, he isn't required to report either.

Waitress tips are calculated and reported by restaurant revenues these days, so they pay taxes on them.

The laws are pretty clear and when you pay under the table, you're breaking the law. But I know for a fact it goes on ALOT. Much more than it did 30 years ago.

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warrior1

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Sat Mar-05-05 10:09 AM
Response to Reply #3

5. just the term

under the table implies some sort of law breaking. If it's a lot/like people involved with the bushies, your talking about a lot of moola.

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rzemanfl

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Sat Mar-05-05 10:08 AM
Response to Original message

4. Think Halliburton, then ask yourself if you care. n/t

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CindyDale

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Sat Mar-05-05 10:10 AM
Response to Original message

6. If you pay under $600 in a year, you are not required to report

what you pay to a contractor, assuming the the neighbor's kid falls into that classification. If you pay more than that, the IRS requires a 1099 form.

As for the tips, one is required to report tips as income.

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SmokingJacket

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Sat Mar-05-05 10:44 AM
Response to Original message

7. If the IRS would start a website or something, where you could

pay small taxes as you went along, many people with microbusiness or ebay enterprises would definitely do it.

I'm always making money in weird (legal!)ways, and I would feel better about it if I actually could report it.

It would be a better match for the "new economy" than massive once-a-year accounting...

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readmoreoften

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Sat Mar-05-05 10:47 AM
Response to Original message

8. Hmmm

Crime as in hurting people? Or crime as in not funding Bush's murder of Iraqi kids?

Or crime as in America has bigger problems than you paying a kid to cut the lawn without opening up a subchapter s corporation.

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