40 Million Cash Users Are NOT Criminals!

Some interesting figures in this article in The Times The claim from HM Revenue & Customs is that the British public paying cash-in-hand is costing the British Government £2.3 Billion a year in tax revenue.

VAT is at 20%. So if £2.3 Billion in VAT is being lost, it would imply that payments of £11.5 Billion are being made in cash each year to avoid VAT.

Around £130 Billion in cash was spent in the UK in 2024, so even if this figure is accurate - not the made-up anti-cash propaganda that is becoming the norm in this country - it only accounts for around 8% of all the cash spent in Britain.

Put another way, the vast majority of all the cash used in the UK has zero connection with tax avoidance of any kind.

There are 40 Million frequent users of cash in the UK - they are NOT criminals.

Looking at it from a different angle, HMRC collected £859 Billion of tax in the last financial year. So a loss of £2.3 Billion because of cash-in-hand payments would amount to only 0.27% of tax collections.

Even if this seemingly deliberate stigmatisation of cash is true in the first place…

What a massive problem cash is - NOT!

Mark Garnier OBE, a Conservative MP, is saying legislation should be passed limiting cash purchases to £500.

Mark, before you start trying to limit cash purchases via legislation, have the decency to first pass a law that gives the British public the legal right to spend their cash, when and where they choose.

The British public are NOT criminals and deserve the same rights in relation to cash use as citizens in all the UK’s European neighbours.

Source: thetimes.com/article/60320c66-3d4d-4071-afb4-d9bdc511ff40