A nice dinner, but...

[redbird]

As I mentioned, I'm in Montreal, visiting rysmiel. Our original dinner plans were scuppered by transit problems, so we decided to stay in the neighborhood and get Indian food instead.

The first place we tried was only offering a buffet, which we didn't want, so we went to the other Indian place on the block. We had a very nice dinner, including chai, chicken tikka masala (mine) and lamb korma (rysmiel's, and sweeter than I usually care for, but they were pleased), papadam, excellent garlic naan, and mushroom rice. The rice and naan were notably good.

Then I went to pay the bill, and the proprietor asked how I was going to pay. I asked about credit cards, and he indicated he'd prefer cash. Well, it's a small business, and if they don't want to pay credit card fees I sympathize, so I checked that I had the cash. At that point, he indicated that if I paid cash it would be $48, and credit card would be $55, because he would neither print a bill nor collect the federal and provincial tax.

If I had realized that intent sooner, I would have handed him plastic, but I didn't feel like arguing the ethics of the situation with someone who had just fed us a very nice meal. So okay, cash, but I'm likely to be a bit more hesitant the next time a small business tells me they'd prefer cash: I am fine with not giving Visa a fraction, but those taxes are paying for services I use. (A restaurant that has a "cash only" sign for all purchases is visible to the local government in a way that this sort of small-scale tax evasion probably isn't.)

[Restaurant name redacted because it would feel wrong to identify the restaurant after cooperating with the small-scale cheating at the time.]

Comments

[amaebi]

Thank you for preferring to pay taxes, and for being vocal about it.

[editrx]

Egads. While I prefer my customers to pay with cash or check, it's to prevent credit card fees, but cc are so convenient for most people, I'd rather keep their custom. Avoiding tax is reprehensible. I once had a contractor who was excellent tell me he'd give me a cash discount, then had the gall to tell me the same thing -- that he wasn't reporting any of that income to state or federal government.

[stardreamer]

You were blindsided, so don't feel guilty. In your position, I'd do two things: (1) not go back to that restaurant again, and (2) quietly spread the word about his tax evasion to other people you know who care about that sort of thing.

[redbird]

*nod* I don't know a lot of people in Montreal; I told rysmiel what had happened within a couple of minutes (I went up front to pay, so they didn't see the interaction), and I assume they'll tell any of their friends it's relevant to.

[switterbeet]

I'm kind of surprised he was so blatant about it in a restaurant context. I've experienced lots of contractors/freelancers who will offer *winkwinknudgenudge* cash discounts, but it's especially weird to have that occur on a small scale where you'd presume they'd want good word of mouth.

[redbird]

Maybe he figured that this would get good word of mouth, that there are more customers who would want to pay 15% less than would object to tax evasion.

[switterbeet]

Yeah, possible. But it's kinda like how you* don't ask people you just met at a work function to do drugs with you, because, well, you just met them and this is a work function.

*General "you"

[redbird]

Well, yes. I wonder whether he's doing this often, and what response he's getting from other people.