[nousermane]

In addition to tax-dodging, or selling off-the-books, there is one other, small legitimate reason for a vendor, to avoid card payments:

Most banks/payment processors would charge a fixed amount per small transaction. Amount varies a fair bit, but as an order of magnitute, say - €0.15 or something like that. This means customer that bought cup of coffee for €1.50 and insists on paying with a card, will cost vendor whooping 10% extra (it is not allowed for vendor to pass on card transaction cost to customer).

For a larger purchase, €30, €60, and more - transaction charge is negligible, naturally.

[zelos]

Cash comes with its own costs of course: from a quick google a shop paying cash into a business account pays 0.5-1% in fees. Plus issues with theft etc.

[unmole]

The government subsiding the payment infrastructure seems like a better solution. This is what India does with UPI and Rupay. Of course it's debatable if it actually lead to an increase in tax compliance.

[rchaud]

> For a larger purchase, €30, €60, and more - transaction charge is negligible, naturally.

This is already the case. The status quo allows vendors to refuse card payments if the total is under €30.