Being Paid Cash Under the Table? Think About Your Future

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Being paid cash (off the books) – sounds tempting…but don’t do it!

Tempting because you’re not paying tax and the other government remits – your gross earnings come to you – what could be better!

Problem is….as with anything in life…if it sounds too good to be true…it probably is. And this is one of those instances.

Let’s start with some of the more obvious problems you face being paid off the books. You will not collect vacation pay or be able to collect unemployment insurance when you stop working. You will usually earn less than minimum wage.

Lesser known, but probably the greatest consequence to you of being paid illegally is that you don’t exist as far as WSIB in concerned. So, if you’re unfortunate enough to hurt yourself – who is going to pay you? (You can go to WSIB, admit what you’ve been doing and they will attempt to help you, but that will take a great deal of time. And you will be opening up yourself to investigation by the CRA as to why you haven’t been paying tax).

That nice CPP pension that everyone looks forward to when retiring – will not go to you for any cash earnings – again if you’re off the books, you can’t qualify for benefits.

So here’s the bottom line…Being paid cash, by itself, is not illegal. What is illegal is not reporting this cash income. If you are being paid cash, and you are not reporting this income to CRA, or paying the applicable government remittance, you are being paid illegally.

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