canadiancontractor
If you’re doing cash jobs, you’re not thinking straight
Canadian Contractor"Cash is no good to a contractor," says Joe. We can hear some of you screaming "Then send it my way!" But Joe is in some respects correct.
A recent comment about a Steve Maxwell story from FIVE years ago: How to stop cash only clients in their tracks.
The problem is not the contractors, it’s the home owners who refuse to pay HST and insist on paying cash to us. That is the problem with the industry. That is why so many contractors have to turn down work. Cash is no good to a contractor. You may as well take that money and burn it to keep yourself warm because, unless you are paying HST and income tax, cash is completely and totally worthless.
Joe
Editor’s Note: Now before everyone starts beating up Joe for not knowing what to do with good old cash, ask yourself this question: If your business needs to borrow money, take on partners, or has any hope of one day being sold – how useful is a cash business to you at that point?
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Home renovation contractors are at the top of the CRA shit list for tax evasion, accounting for almost 30% of the $42 billion underground economy and it’s not all their fault. CRA has 35 investigation teams on the move, many of them looking at contractors. It takes two to tango, and it’s unfortunate that so many homeowners insist on playing the cash-under-the-table game. Unfortunate, because when the tax man shows up, it’s the contractor who gets nailed to the wall. I’m with the contractors on this one and I know it’s tough to compete against a tax cheat. CRA needs to change the rule – when one of these situations shows up, both parties should face similar consequences.