Ther is always a way around because now days a cash register is a computer so it can be hacked governments can put in check and laws but people are always going too get around them if they can save money on it
Martinā¦ I am wondering where in France you have found so many supposedly illegal placesā¦ ???
After travelling widely through France over the past 50 years, I would be hard-pressed to name more than a handful of places where things might have b een a little ādodgyā. Other than that, everything has been above boardā¦ as it should be. 
I would add that the ādodgyā places did not get our return businessā¦ or onward recommendationsā¦ 
Sounds like so much extra time and skill and hassle involved in running these scams safely, what with hacking your own till without leaving a trace (which means being more of a geek than the person who designed it), nd calculating exactly the right ratio of purchases to turnover you have to hide and how to do that, plus looking at the potential fines if you slip up, wouldnāt most people take the easy route and cough up most of the time!
Thing is, when you start doing all that itās not just squirrelling away a few euros, itās fraud.
This summer I was driving from Spanish Border up the cost to Bordeaux it can be that allot of them are only open in the summer season to so they whant to make the most money from a short season maybe Iām not saying that day do it too every people coming in for a lunch that whold be really stupid for them the rule when I was working in the industry was every tree tables whole go in to the cash registers the rest on the black
Ah well yes, the summer businesses are well known for playing cat and mouse with the inspectors.
The owners count on getting away with it long enough so that before the inspectors have put a case together, they will be back in Morocco or wherever. Then they come back the following season and play the same game again.
The locals donāt usually have anything to do with them but they get rich off of the tourists.
I wasnāt disputing Veroās point ; but to believe that folks are always absolutely within the law is just not the case.
Iāve related my experiencesā¦thatās all. There will always be those that shoot the messenger (not necessarily Vero in this case) but they are always there.
Swearing is my way means of expressionā¦not a (necessarily) violent or aggressive reaction to comments made. If you, personally, find it difficult, then I apologise for any offence causedā¦but it will remain a part of my language regardless.
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Not everyone is as dishonest as you seem to be. I am French and I donāt think it is OK.
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I agree in principle with this. I very rarely swear but there are times when it breaks the tension in a conversation, and can convey that kindly intention with skill and humour.
If as you suggest Bob I know the speakerās usual style and tone it doesnāt jar or offend me, it adds meaning.
On the other hand, a spoken fuck fades very quickly like steam on the breath. A written fuck persists āforeverā in the page, and can, for some maybe, become a stain.
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I am French and I donāt think it is OK.
So being French gives one the moral high ground, a lot of your country men & women wouldnāt agree with you 
Mmmā¦ the dual-personality member who reopened this thread has vanished from the sceneā¦ light blue touchpaper and stand well backā¦ 
I feel it is highly irresponsible and downright rude for anyone to give the impression (even obliquely) that " working on the black" is in any way ānormalā ā¦ be that when talking about French or whoever.
The majority of folk work hard, declare and pay their dues.
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Well there seem to be an awful lot of English who think being a native gives you the moral high ground in England - itās OK for them to fiddle THEIR benefit system but they get all agitated at the least suspicion (usually unfounded) that an incomer from another EU country might be doing the same 
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Sadly, there are always bad folkā¦ the trick is not to let them outstrip the good folkā¦(that is not easy).
I am amazed at how some UK folk get all sorts of help nowadays (so I believe) yet, years ago when we asked for just a littleā¦ no way. Ah well, we sold some of our possessions and got ourselves out of the hole.
Might have to resort to a āSaleā here if the pensions keep going down in valueā¦ but at least we are in Franceā¦ we are Winners !!
Actually, thinking about it, I do think itās arguably more excusable for the French to bend their own system, on the basis that everyone has to live, and if youāre born in a country then short of moving abroad you have to find a way of living under that countryās rules. Which has its challenges.
But itās a different kettle of fish when you actually choose to move to a country, ie you actively choose to make yourself subject to that countryās rules, and then you break them because they donāt happen to suit you. If overall you prefer UK rules to French rules, stay in the UK, donāt try to cherrypick.
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No. Not claiming the moral high ground at all (unless saying you disapprove of fraudsters is taking the moral high ground).
Let me explain: this was said
Thus making a generalisation about French people with which I, as a French person, donāt agree.
I canāt really put it any more simply than that.
Incidentally, it is not a good idea (in my view) for anyone to admit on a public forum that they have either behaved in an illegal manner and/or aided & abetted others to do soā¦
Christmas starts tomorrow in our Communeā¦ so perhaps we can draw the curtain on this argumentative thread and concentrate on happier/crazier thingsā¦
Up to youā¦ of courseā¦
but I intend to concentrate on some Ho, Ho, Ho and get the carol sheets sortedā¦ only 3 weeks to go before we start warblingā¦ 
I newer said that all French citizens are tax dodgers is the same all over Europe countryās with high taxes you are always going too have people doing things on the side
I am sure you may well be right; and I donāt have to approve of them.
If you arenāt willing, if in a position to do so, to put something into a system along with everyone else, so that all benefit at some stage, then you donāt deserve to get anything out of that system at all.
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If we are going to throw national stereotypes around Iād suggest that a Brit (any Brit, not specifically anyone on SF) complaining about a French artisan occasionally taking a āback handerā is very much a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
If there is any country where the idea that itās OK to shirk oneās responsibility to society and āpull a fast oneā where taxes are concerned is endemic to the point of being generally accepted, surely it is the UK.
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I think there might be a generational thing at play as well, in that what a person gets out isnāt what theyāve paid in themselves, itās what the previous generation paid in. If youāre a first generation immigrant, your antecedents paid nothing in. If you in your turn pay nothing in for the next generation, you are freeloading. Freeloaders arenāt good for a country. That person might not care because itās not their country that theyāre abusing, but itās only natural for those with a stake there to care.
What a person gets out is what others are paying in right now - the past has nothing to do with it.