Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire No more cash?

A few days ago, I discovered a place that absolutely would not take cash green money, only credit cards. Took my wife to the Yuma AZ airport to catch a flight out, went to exit the parking lot, machine that controlled the exit gate would only take credit cards, no cash at all. If you dont have a credit card, you aint gettin' out of that parking lot. First time I have encountered something like this.

So, the City of Yuma had to pay Visa $3.00 to process my $1.00 fee to get out of the parking lot ?

Probably a lot cheaper to not have to pay someone to deal with the cash in the machines. Where are you getting a $3.00 fee? Probably less than 30 cents.

There are lots of places now that do not accept cash - mostly to prevent employee theft. I think we'll see more and more of it.

Worse, I see a day when the only way you'll be able to pay will be with your smart phone. Or to identify yourself, for that matter. To my mind that's scary. And not just because it'll force me to get one of the damn things.

I pray for the day there is no more cash. Costs too much to print and protect from counterfeiting. Also all the tax cheats who shove unreported cash in there pockets and don't pay their fair share of taxes. Bring it on!!
Also, let's do away with any business deductions and expenses. Tax every business a percentage on total gross sales. Very little accounting. Figure your tax burden when figuring out your sale price of goods or services. Would do away with receipts, decisions on what's an admissable deduction etc. No depreciation crap. Easy and open and fair. Would stop the Amazon's, Apples,etc from paying little to no tax.

What about "Legal tender for all debts public and private?"

Most Bolsheviks do.

Not a commie. Just outdated.

Well, that’s racist, lots of them dindus don’t have credit cards. How can they be expected to have a job, be responsible enough to hold a job, be gainfully employees long enough to get credit. How can they get credit if they don’t have an ID. You know it’s a hardship to get an ID.

I’m going to write my congressman about this! Racist, racist, racist!!!!!


I think we should give them layabouts a free credit card so they won’t be inconvenienced.

Typical proglibbieleft thinking, scott. Tax THEM. Not you, of course. Just everybody else.

I pay my share. I work for a large company who reports every dollar I earn. I cannot hide or not report my earning. I have never taken anything but the standard deductions and pay what tax it says I owe. (Whether I like it or not).
I'm just tired of some of my friends and even family who are liberal, vote for every tax and program, but hide half their income and cheat the system they helped create.
I'm also tired of companies such as the one I work for, blow money on unnecessary travel, bogus meetings, etc and pay less tax than the people who work for them.

So you'd be fine if the company you work for had to pay higher taxes and as a result had to fire some people. You, for example?

You obviously didn’t think that post through.

Tax is going to be a MF this April. I’ve worked a ton of overtime, wifey makes a lot, I just started SS last March. They ain’t taking tax out of it, decide not to have it taken out until I retire. I bet we will pay 55,000 between the two of us. We should be supporting at least two dindu’s!

I'd be fine if we all played by the same rules. Our CEO makes over 20 million a year. Theres layer upon layer of managers and waste everywhere. My co-workers and myself are not the problem. Maybe it would force them to make real decisions.
I have seen us throw parts in the storeroom away, in dumpsters, because they say it causes too much tax burden. Does that sound like the right thing to you.
I met a guy on a hunt trip who tried to sell me some Kings camo and bragged now he could write the whole trip off as a " business" trip.
I'm as conservitive as anyone and I hate over regulation etc. But you gotta admit the system is not working. Just my opinion. I would hope we could make it work for all of us.

Eliminating cash is just another way for us to be monitored, our privacy chipped(pun not planned) away.

A FTF gun buy, fahget aboutit.

Obviously you've never done business in countries with a VAT or similar taxes, nor considered the full implications of your scheme.

Much of what I do touches Latin America, which uses a VAT (value added tax) system. All the tax bureaucracy that for us occurs during the tax filing process, get shifted to the invoicing process. In these countries, invoices are not produced for the customer, but for the government. The government writes all the invoicing standards. Additionally companies are not even allowed to produce their own invoices. Instead they are produced by government approved third party vendors. If you want to make a simple change to an invoice format etc., expect to pay several hundred thousand dollars to these corrupt vendors. This prevents companies from innovating and improving processes.

Most VAT's are, as we measure taxes here, in the 40% range. Of course VAT's are not added on top of revenue, but TAKEN OUT of revenue, so it gets hidden in the prices, but the taxes are so large, everyone knows they are there. Consequently for similar products in LATAM we have to charge multiple of what we charge in North America.

Of course under your system, this effect would be multiplied across vendors. If the manufacturer pays a 30% tax, and the wholesaler pays a 30% tax, and the retails establishment pays that same 30% revenue tax, an original $100 in manufactured goods reaches the consumer at a prices of $219.70, before we allow for any profit margin or expenses of the whole seller or retailer.

As a result, most whole seller would go out of business, and retail would turn to a "company owned" model, where about all that would be left is outlet stores. The parts store you currently work for would go out of business and be replaces with direct outlets of the Chinese and Mexican manufacturers who actually make the parts. Any surviving wholesale operations would move overseas, outside the U.S tax jurisdiction to escape the manufacturer to wholesale tax.

Your plan would collapse the U.S. economy and turn us into a socialist nightmare.

So providing tax loopholes and bogus deductions keeps us free?
I understand all taxes are paid by the end user. I wish there were no taxes!! I just know that the system is flawed when a working person pays taxes and businesses and corporations pay near nothing at all.

Mark of the beast...

The hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel, construction materials I pay shouldn't be deducted but the money collected to pay for it should be taxed???

That's not what I said at all. I made no comments on "loopholes" nor invalid deductions. I just asserted that your proposed solution make make things worse, much worse. Additionally, you acquaintance selling King Camo needs to talk to a real accountant. In order to write off a business as a business expense, it's "primary purpose" must be business. Even if Camo guy had sold a few pieces, business was not him primary purpose, so it's not a valid expense. We can also imagine the other end of this spectrum where he packs a U haul full of stuff to sell it at a gun show in the next state. even if doesn't sell a single item, he can still write off his travel expense because is primary purpose was selling stuff.

As for the tax burden's that cause you to throw parts away, I have to wonder from where you sourced them?

As I mentioned before Mexico, along with virtually all of Latin America has VAT taxes. Another effect of there taxes is NO ONE WILL GIVE YOU A REFUND. The reason being, the seller has already paid taxes on the sale, and if you they take the parts back, it's about impossible for them to get their taxes back from the government. Consequently commercial differences are typically settled with credits and seldom with an exchange of funds. It's likely you had to throw those parts away not because of intricacies of the U.S. tax code, but due to the consequences of a system like the one for which you are advocating.

If the fuel somehow ends up in your personal truck or the family boat then no. If you are truly honest about your expenses, then kudos to you. I hope you are very successful.
All I tried to say is that cash enables some people to skirt the system which places more burden on those of us who can't or won't cheat.
I also know many businesses pay for travel, property, vehicles etc which are used almost entirely for personal use and then used as a deduction to avoid legitimate taxes.
I'm not anti small business or for big government. Our government takes too much from the doers and spends too much overall. But you gotta admit there is some unfairness in the system.
Hell, I love Trump. I think I know why they want his taxes, and he doesn't want them to see them. I'd bet he paid very little or no taxes. He might even have gotten money back. But I do not blame him one bit. If my hunch is correct, it's the system in place that allowed it.

Pat,

Under proposed Scott's system, how long before you are out of business?

There are so many holes in this that it must have come out of a Swiss cheese package.

Now come on guys. When you figure a job, you expense each item. Adding 3 percent for your tax burden wouldn't be that hard to figure in. When you get a final bid expense figured, don't you add a percentage for profit. Imagine if every competitor played by the same rules.

But every competitor wouldn't play by the same rules. The big players would vertically integrate, avoiding all the intermediary taxes, putting all the little guys out of business.

Your plan would result in more mega corporations, not fewer.

I guess we are just going to learn to live off of the grid.!! Cheers NC

It's obvious I struck a nerve and many of you must own your own business. Congratulations for your hard work and doing something I have never done.
But, will any one of you tell me that you've never used a company vehicle for personal reasons? Pick the kids up after school. Stop for milk. Used a company facility to store personal items, take the company truck or car on vacation? Used a company cell phone for personal calls, if you haven't, then I applaud your honesty.

Kinda like the companies who hire illegal workers for cash off the books? No taxes for or from them? No FICA. Cheating the system......

You want to collapse our economy because too many people stop for milk in a company car?

Are you trying to create a more equal system where everyone's equally covered in [s]hit?

Or maybe p*ss poor planning to start with. Just saying .Cheers NC

We already have laws against that.

You damn sure sound like one.

There is an all around better root cause fix for that than eliminating cash.

I can just imagine all the drooling entities waiting to tax the proceeds of your garage sale or when you post an ad on craigslist to sell the old washing machine. Gotta pay your fair share. Also, .gov and big bother need to know your every single purchase habit, location and items complete with timestamp too.

This thread could get very long.
My only thought for the moment is the envy I detect in the post.
It sounds like half the guys I run into every day that beseech
me for owning my own business. I have to run though to finish before
dark, for I work seven days a week and double the hrs sometimes to make my business run , unlike those guys that rib me — they are all off playing today.....

I've never had cash hacked by a scimmer yet. Been hacked close to $10,000 with plastic during my lifetime. Got it back every time, but a royal pain in the as$ every time.

I have run into places that don’t take plastic either. They say we got an atm though.

No envy GBob, sorry you have to work so much to make ends meet. Hope things improve for you. I just feel having cash money around any longer is unnecessary and brings tax fraud, illegal activities such as drugs, and other issues into play.
The business deductions and tax liability was just another thought and I shouldn't have mixed the two.

The first year. Wont get very far on a 5-7% profit margin.

You didn't strike a nerve, run in to people like you quite a bit who never had to make payroll every week, having how much money self employed people make all figured out. LOL!!!

There is a move to eliminate cash.
When there is no cash-- all transactions can be traced.
I refuse to deal with anyone who will not accept cash!

What a novel concept! A computer chip in the hand or forehead. Never mind, I believe that was referred to as the “mark of the beast”! memtb

I bank with Wells Fargo. The few issue's I've had were taken care of within 2 days and never cost me a dime. Same with Schwab.

Once or twice they've sent me a new card for reasons related to attempted fraud, but every time they've intercepted it before I've ever seen a charge.

The last time was with Capital One card. Great people to deal with. Taken care of promptly and with the customer in mind. First couple of times was with small bank card. They did what they could, just didn't have the horses the bigger Card people did.

Just as electronic money has created a whole new industry
of illegal activities screwing people out of their money.
And if you think the b bank letting you off the hook keeps you
from being a victim, think it through.


Cash for me.

Cash isn't necessary. Hunting isn't necessary. Guns aren't necessary. Heck, push up bras aren't necessary.

Since when is this about needs?

I use quite a bit of cash. Matter of fact, almost all my discretionary local spending is done in cash. I spend more wisely when I pat ole Benjamin on the head as I lay him on the counter and bid him farewell...... Somehow, $280 at Costco on a card is not as big a deal as it is when counting out the bills on the counter.

Color me strange, but I don't want anyone to know I spent $300 at the titty bar, or $200 at the liquor store, or $75 at the nail salon..... How long after that before the 'Fire starts serving me ads for more titties, liquor and nail polish? Not that that wouldn't be an improvement.

I had to go to the bank the other day to reset the pins on my debit card. I'd forgotten it. Then again, hasn't been hacked either.....

And I bet you would just love for the government and whatever swingin dick bureaucrats to know your every move and exactly what you have and don't have?? So when the types like Warren come to power, they can "show up on your doorstep", figuratively, to take what they deem they need to do the public good.

F that.

Your "green envy" slip is showing.

When I was married, I liked to keep cash around. That way it never knew how much I spent on a gun.

I'm in your camp Dutch.


My wife is forced to get direct deposit, I'm not (go union, I get choices).
Our only bills are utility type, and all get charged to one rewards card.
She writes one check per month to pay the bills.

I cash my check, and we pay cash for everything else.
Other than the big brother tracking by the grocery stores through
their loyalty cards, nobody can find where we spend our money.
And nobody is given access to our bank account.


Cameras, scanners, skimmers....
You "safe" plastic money new age heterosexuals can deal
with all of that. If my bill is $20, I pay $20. Close my wallet and done.
Pretty easy.

Another thing that bites those who run accounts low, using
bank cards. Gas stations have no idea how much you will
Pump when you scan that card. So, they typically take $100
out of your account when you swipe. If you get $20, they still
hold the $80 until midnight when the systems allow the refund.
So, you suddenly have $80 less in your account.
So write a check, and it bounces. Come midnight, you get your money
back, but you are in for bounced check fees.
Your bank may wave them, the other one won't.

My wife sees this happen frequently in the c-store business.
Both from the bad checks she gets, and the card users that
come in mad because they bounced somewhere else.

True dat... Even THEN I ain't gettin' one....

My son worked for an outfit that puts "cards" into airports that don't allow any cash transactions. You have to go to a computerized kiosk and buy a "card" and put cash on it. It's for any payment inside the airport property. Bars, fast food joints, gift shops, etc. You literally can't use cash, except for to buy the card.