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you can solve this by direct action. when your cleaner arrives, explain you'd like to make a direct arrangement next time, and ask for their phone number. no a
by ruined 1y ago
you can solve this by direct action. when your cleaner arrives, explain you'd like to make a direct arrangement next time, and ask for their phone number.
no app can patch this 'analog hole' of the gig industry.
- alyandon 1y ago100% spot on. I do this with subcontractors quite frequently for house related stuff and most of them are quite happy to work with me directly.
- reaperducer 1y agoWanna really make their day? Pay with cash.
- kenmacd 1y agoThat's really more of a "Want to pay more than your fair share of taxes? Help them commit tax fraud". Cutting Google out of the mix can be seen as a net positive for the community. The same can't really be said for taxes that go to your local services.
- jazzyjackson 1y agoBulk of income taxes go to the feds. Plumber will still pay plenty of sales tax. I'd say the value of having a plumber that likes you outweighs what benefits one receives from government programs, making it rational to stiff the man.
- behringer 1y agoIt's your moral duty to avoid paying tax, if you're an American.
- hvb2 1y agoUh? What? Care to explain? I know it's considered a sport but a moral duty?
- komali2 1y ago[flagged]
- margalabargala 1y agoGiven that America is a democracy, it would appear that a majority of Americans do not share your morals, so on the contrary it is your moral duty to pay your taxes.
- behringer 1y agoIt's debatable that we're a democracy.
- margalabargala 1y agoI would bet that in aggregate, more than half the taxes you pay go to your state, or some local polity smaller than state. Local political entities (county, city, town) are absolutely democracies and also have the maximum amount of actual impact on your life. The federal government is mostly irrelevant. By avoiding paying taxes, you first and foremost damage the community you live in.
- sneak 1y agoFun fact: precisely nobody who voted to elect the congresspeople who voted for the income tax amendment are alive today. It’s a big stretch to assume that the current tax regime is related in any way to the will of the group of people who are currently subjected to it.
- AngryData 1y agoI don't know if I would agree with that take taken by itself without qualifiers. "if you're American" is doing some lifting but could mean anything. But otherwise I kind of agree, the average American is getting fleeced while the ultra wealthy are avoiding massive tax costs while benefiting the most from state infrastructure and economic policy.
- sneak 1y agoPaying in cash in no way helps anyone commit tax fraud. It is very plainly morally and ethically unambiguous to pay in cash.
- jimsug 1y ago... > very plainly morally and ethically unambiguous unambiguous[ly] _what_? Bad? Good?
- IncreasePosts 1y agoPaying in cash absolutely helps commit tax fraud. It doesn't mean your contractor will commit fraud, but if they wanted to, it's a lot easier if you pay with cash compare to check or credit card.
- komali2 1y agoThat's 100% on them. I'm under no obligation to give some credit card company my personal information just so more fingers are in the pie when accusing the contractor of fraud. Cash is good and I accept 0% of the blame of what other people do in response to me paying them with cash instead of something else.
- IncreasePosts 1y agoOf course, that's fine. I was just responding to "Paying in cash in no way helps anyone commit tax fraud", which is clearly wrong
- fsflover 1y agoThen you also have to agree that building roads helps thieves to escape.
- AnthonyMouse 1y ago> That's really more of a "Want to pay more than your fair share of taxes? Help them commit tax fraud". This seems like a trope put forth by the middle men other than the government who want to keep getting their cut of every transaction in the world. "Don't cut out Visa and PayPal, that's practically stealing from your neighbor!" You can obviously accept payment in cash and report it as taxable income, and not doing this is a good way to get caught, because if you're spending thousands of dollars a year more than you're declaring in income and the government asks you where it came from, you're going to have a bad time. Meanwhile people who want to risk going to jail can do it just as well by deducting personal expenses as business expenses, or just making up business expenses and hoping nobody comes to check. All while letting payment processors siphon off something like 5% of your gross revenue, which for these kinds of things is often in excess of half your net income because your net margins were less than 10% to begin with.
- gruez 1y agoThat might work for cleaners, but not for rideshare, food delivery and vacation rentals, which probably account for the vast majority of the "gig economy".
- mrandish 1y agoGood point. I think lack of competition inflates the 'share of revenue' online marketing services can extract. And competitive alternatives are nerfed due to the app store hegemony and the anti-competitive behavior and dark patterns of giants like Google & FB. They needed to nerf the open web to maximize their profits, so they did.
- theteapot 1y agoOwning and renting a vacation accommodation is gig economy? Those poor renting seeking plebs.
- loloquwowndueo 1y agoEver heard of airbnb? I think mainly it helps property owners skirt the whole “I’m a landlord” thing and all the legal obligations it entails.
- theteapot 1y agoYeah, I just don't really consider sitting on you fat butt and collecting rent a "gig". That's called rent seeking, or a scam.
- kelvinjps10 1y agoYou can do the same as the cleaner example. For example get the rideshare numer, food delivery etc
- palata 1y agoI'm not convinced. What makes an app like Uber efficient is that it connects you to the closest driver when you need it. If you have the number of a driver, they may not be working at that time, or they may be far away. Same for food delivery. Very different for a cleaner: you never need a cleaner "right now", you can schedule it.
- Kranar 1y agoEvery service I know of explicitly bans this practice, so unless you can employ the cleaner full time then if they accept your arrangement they risk getting fired.
- theoreticalmal 1y agoI don’t know the service company in question, but if it’s a gig-style matchup, how would the company know what their contractors are doing? Also, wouldn’t this incentivize the contractors to develop as many personal relationships as possible, as a hedge against getting arbitrarily kicked by the contracting company?
- Barbing 1y agoSemi-related: If I'm not mistaken, services like Upwork and Fiverr will look at certain metrics for outliers, like repeat business in a particular industry. And for eBay, I think they’d look into cancelled bids on high-value items and check messaging history. Disclaimer, based on old memories
- TylerE 1y agoData analysis. If someone has a low repeat customer stat, but high ratings, smells fishy.
- abustamam 1y agoI used to tutor using a company called Wyzant. I got banned from their platform because I directly contacted my client via phone. I don't know if all such platforms have a similar policy, but it only makes sense. If everyone did direct, these companies can't make money.
- geekamongus 1y agoThen you are losing out on the insurance the company is supposed to provide, usually through bonding, in case the cleaner pockets your favorite jewelry, for example. Or they knock over the Faberge egg while dusting.
- danny8000 1y agoYou cannot directly hire a housecleaner in the US without that person becoming your "household employee". You will need to withhold Federal Social Security tax and Medicare tax. In some states you will need to withhold state income tax and pay unemployment insurance. https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc756 https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc756
- mmmlinux 1y agounless they are an independent contractor. which would likely be the case.