BBC News Online: UK

Living in the black

• Cigarettes and alcohol - The high cost of duty at home on cigarettes and alcohol coupled with a relaxation of laws on importing duty-paid goods for personal consumption has led to an explosion in the bootleggers' trade.
  
  A recent treasury select committee report found tobacco and alcohol smuggling cost Britain £1.2bn in lost tax alone. Trade is not necessarily conducted from the back of a van. Many licensed pubs and shops are complicit in the business.
  
  
• Domestic staff - While nannies, cleaners, au pairs, gardeners and other domestic staff are often in the employ of well-off and "well-to-do" families, cash is the most common form of payment.
  
  Only 23,000 people are on the Inland Revenue's Simplified Deduction Scheme for paying domestics, even though 50% of mothers of pre-school children go out to work.
  
  
• Travel - Next time you are walking home from the pub and are stopped by a willing mini-cab driver, don't try to pay by cheque. Often it's another face of the hidden economy, just like ticket touts who, by re-selling Travelcards on the London Underground, contribute to the £30m lost annually in fraudulent travel.
  
  
• Counterfeit goods - The crafty street trader with a suitcase full of perfumes "for the Missus" and many established market traders will accept cash only.
  
  Consumer Affairs Minister Kim Howells says the fake clothes and jewellery market is worth about £3bn a year. The same price is put on the bogus computer software market.
  
  
• Tipping - Waitresses, hairdressers and cloakroom attendants are all supposed to declare gratuities. But cash tips are often pocketed immediately.
  
  
• Kids' stuff - The bob-a-job spirit loses its sheen when you consider that, according to children's charities, about 1.5 million British youngsters are employed illegally in jobs like delivery, baby sitting and car washing.