Let's hear it for the cash economy!

Just because you ask to be paid in cash doesn't mean you're a tax dodger.

Remember, there are hundreds of thousands of businesses, perhaps even more, which don't have to charge VAT. Their income doesn't breach the threshold of £77,000 a year.

And there are plenty of people who do one-off jobs - babysitters, dog walkers and small traders - for whom it's convenient to be paid in cash.

Many of them don't have to pay tax at all because their income doesn't breach the annual tax-free allowance of £8,105.

And you don't have to feel guilty for paying cash to people like this - or that it's "morally wrong", as the Treasury minister, David Gauke put it.

In fact we need cash moving around the economy, the faster the better.

Just to be clear about the rights and wrongs, this warning about paying in cash, along with a form to report suspect tax dodgers, sets out the view of the tax people at HMRC.