Q&A: Without a Fee
Without a Fee
Question
Hello Rabbi, I know there are people who prefer to be paid in cash (like, say, for tefillin, etc.), and their incentive is that it’s without a fee, and some of them do this in order to evade taxes. Is that theft? Is it moral to buy from them?
Thank you, and have a peaceful and blessed Sabbath
Answer
I didn’t understand what you mean by “fee.” Do you mean tax? In principle, there is an obligation to pay taxes, and morally it is not proper to cooperate with tax evaders.
Discussion on Answer
P.S. Actually, you can simply ask for an invoice / receipt.
No, that can’t be right. 2.5 percent is something like 50 shekels; I’m talking here about a difference of 400 shekels… I think it’s a way to report lower income in order to evade taxes.
I want to ask in response to that: is it permissible to buy tefillin from someone like that, if I tell him I want to buy in cash, assuming he is also the one who wrote the tefillin? And are those tefillin kosher? By the way, he didn’t tell me why there is a price difference. Am I obligated to ask him? Thank you very much, and have a good and blessed week.
I answered you that there is a simple solution: ask for a receipt.
Are you interested in continuing to ask in theory about an imaginary case in which you have no option to ask for a receipt?
That does not invalidate the tefillin. As for the tax issue, I already answered.
The questioner means the credit-card processing fee charged by the credit company, around 2.5%.
So his question is probably:
Some businesses prefer cash in order to avoid paying the processing fee, and many use cash in order to evade taxes. Should one be concerned about that?
In my insignificant opinion, there’s no need to worry, unless there is suspicion unrelated to the method of payment, for example if the business is Haredi (ultra-Orthodox).