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Comment by occamrazor | Hacker News Reader

Why would the dealership offer a better deal for cash payment than for s check/bank transfer, unless they want to underreport the sale price and the taxes owed?

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A check would likely be the same deal as cash. But there's no incentive to keep that amount of money sitting around in a checking account.

I don't think a dealership would try to under report the transaction for tax evasion purposes. There's too much risk. The customer will get a receipt for the real amount they paid, and it's also very possible the customer will report the transaction on their taxes as a business write off.

> I don't think a dealership would try to under report the transaction for tax evasion purposes.

Ah yes, the famed honor and integrity that the car dealership profession is known for.

> customer will report the transaction on their taxes as a business write off

Businesses don't do this. Unless they're money laundering fronts, businesses don't buy stuff in actual physical cash unless they have to, and they know that any cash discount would be from under-reporting the sales tax and that recording the transaction would be bad for both sides.

I take it you haven't done any home remodeling work lately? Businesses like plumbers _love_ cash, in the sort of amounts under discussion. Thinking it doesn't happen is just bizarre.

That's not paying the business, that's paying the person - it's exactly the same thing one step back. That cash won't appear in their business accounts. The whole purpose of paying them cash is to enable their tax evasion.

Simply false. In every case of my personal knowledge, and there are very many, it has been to protect the right to privacy, and no taxes have been evaded. I find use of cash in all amounts to be increasing as surveillance increases.

> Businesses don't do this. Unless they're money laundering fronts, businesses don't buy stuff in actual physical cash unless they have to, and they know that any cash discount would be from under-reporting the sales tax and that recording the transaction would be bad for both sides.

There's nothing wrong with buying computer parts with cash for your business and then writing it off. I do it whenever I'm in a pinch and want something "right now" instead of ordering it online and waiting for shipping. A store will give you a receipt.

I choose to use cash whenever possible to purchase small and large things because I don't like the idea of banks and other payment providers profiting from me without sharing those profits.

Unfortunately my business involves accepting money digitally, but I say it's unfortunate not because I'm trying to cheat any systems. It's because I'm forced to allow banks and other entities to harvest my private financial data and leverage my money for profit, and the alternative of not doing that is worse (ie., I personally accept it instead of being unemployed and homeless).

> Businesses don't do this.

My old bar owner had no option but to pay the liquor distributor in cash (for various reasons) with both parties having no intention to engage in tax evasion.

Well, maybe the bar owner was but I believe liquor receivables were how the tax man determined if he was under reporting income so his books had to align with the distributor.

Not paying a middleman a percentage of the transaction would have some value to it.

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