Ask the Accountant…
Question: I was recently asked about receiving cash payments from customers. After showing him how to record cash payments against a customer invoice, it became clear that he wanted to keep the cash, not record it as income.
Answer: Truthfully, I have never been asked this before and was floored. When I said that this was not legal, the response was that “everyone” did it, and he only wanted to know how others hide the money.
My advice is if you receive cash as payment from a customer, record it as you would any other deposit and deposit it into your business. It’s not worth the risk or the hassle, and it’s the legal thing to do. Would you want to do business with or hire someone who did this?
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