[y-curious]

My barber loves talking about “creative tax tricks” he does as an all cash joint. More interesting was how he managed to purchase a home despite having very little reported income. It involved friends in the “legitimate” cannabis industry in California, but he got it done.

I’m not sure the stress is worth (presumably) 20% or so savings for his income.

[convolvatron]

its not just his income. everybody in the cash economy wins. if I take cash and pay my employees in cash, that's a few transactions the tax man misses out on.

quite a bit of labor runs on cash. you can usually get a deal for a lot of services by paying in cash. sometimes the floor manager will take cash and never even report the transaction to the business much less the tax man (I rent forklifts and get plating work done this way).