Cost of Locksmith

Feel free to move this post if it's in the wrong section, I'm still a newbie!

Long story short, I rang a locksmith on Saturday as my keys got locked in my car (still not sure how this happened but anyway.......). On the phone I was told this would cost €150. Fine, no problem.

My question is this. As I hadn't that much cash on me at the time, my Mum paid him by cheque. As soon as she said this to the locksmith he replied, "Oh well if it's a cheque that'll be €170.25".

I obviously had no choice at the time but does it really cost €20.25 to lodge a cheque these days? I'd love to follow this up but not really sure where I stand so any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Hi,

It's VAT! 13.5% exactly, I guess when people pay them cash its undeclared and they don't add on the VAT. Not right of course but not uncommon.

Never thought of that! Thanks gillarosa.

So basically any cash he gets is cash in hand undeclared and cheques cost him money. Sounds perfectly legal to me - NOT!

AnnieC said:

Never thought of that! Thanks gillarosa.

So basically any cash he gets is cash in hand undeclared and cheques cost him money. Sounds perfectly legal to me - NOT!

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Wonder if its common among locksmiths as I had a similiar experience with one recently. My one even gave me his mobile number and said if i needed anything else done to ring him direct and not the office and he'd charge me less than office rate plus ex-vat.

Twelve or fifteen years ago, I was at a friend's house when he discovered he had locked his keys in his (brand new, company) car. He had to call a locksmith, who duly arrived, fixed his problem and took £50 in cash (a lot of money back then). 4 or 5 years later I saw the locksmith (who had a distinctive name) in the Revenue tax defaulters list for a settlement for over £100,000 (again, a lot of money back then). Draw your own conclusions.

truthseeker said:

Wonder if its common among locksmiths as I had a similiar experience with one recently. My one even gave me his mobile number and said if i needed anything else done to ring him direct and not the office and he'd charge me less than office rate plus ex-vat.

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That's even worse - he's doing a nixer for an existing customer of his employer as well as not paying tax, so both the employer and the government are losing out. And in all likelihood he's probably doing it during his working hours, so the employer is losing out twice...

rmelly said:

That's even worse - he's doing a nixer for an existing customer of his employer as well as not paying tax, so both the employer and the government are losing out. And in all likelihood he's probably doing it during his working hours, so the employer is losing out twice...

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This will not be the case if he's self-employed, or is owner/director of his own company, as seems likely.

ubiquitous said:

This will not be the case if he's self-employed, or is owner/director of his own company, as seems likely.

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nope, neither - he was an employee.