I live in Pakistan and we have been going through a terrible economic turmoil. On top of indirect taxes, the salaries of average people are taxed like crazy. Meanwhile, the businesses refuse to even come under the tax net. While inflation and currency devaluation are going crazy, and the government has been begging IMF for a bailout, government departments did mental gymnastics to provide relaxation to 5,000 out of 10,000 big retailers tax relief with bullsh*t reasons like size of their brick and mortar shops. I'm so sick of all of this. Sorry for the trauma dump. I've been incredibly frustrated.
Karachi still largely relies on paper money rather than cashless transactions (I live in the UK and hardly ever carry cash on me). So it wouldn't surprise me if businesses are underreporting their revenue so they can avoid paying taxes. If a business insists on cash in the UK, there's a good chance they're underreporting their revenue.
This is 100% the case. I also don't like to carry cash but the amount of business, even the ones you'd expect to be well integrated with basic payment technologies, will try their best to discourage electronic payments. It is honestly very disheartening.
First of all, the businesses I'm talking about are already pushing the 2% fee on to the customer if you pay via card. Secondly, they throw tantrums even if you ask them to make a bank transfer instead. It's funny when a small corner store is more willing to accept electronic payments than a multistory electronics market. Lastly, all these tax evading mfers get 0 sympathy from me. For all its faults, the government has launched multiple drives to bring these aholes under tax net by offering them ridiculous incentives yet they refuse to, facing 0 reprecussions, while people like me, the salaried, are getting raw-dogged by everyone.