The Cash Economy is Alive and Well
It’s been a bit of a horror week at Maison Johnson. We’ve had five different tradesmen out to fix things that have broken down or fallen apart, including a plumber, an air-conditioning specialist, a glazier and a roof tiler. The icing on the cake was going out to the shed to discover that my workbench was basically hollow from termites and having to call in a termite guy:
I’ve been using that bench quite a bit recently, I’m surprised it didn’t collapse into a pile of dust as I was hammering away. Those termites are sure good at eating out wood while maximising structural integrity.
What impressed me most over the last week is that 3 out of 5 contractors that came to our house offered to accept cash for their work so that I didn’t have to pay GST. They were pretty upfront about it too, they didn’t seem concerned that I might be an employee of the Australian Taxation Office — I’m pretty sure the penalties for that are pretty stiff, so they’re taking a big risk.
(For the record, we didn’t pay cash.)
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