🚀 go-pugleaf

After calling around to many shops for a new 486/DX33 system, I bought
one from a shop that had very competitive prices and was close to home.
When I went in to order the system, they told me the cash price was X
dollars, but if I wanted to use a credit card they would have to charge
a little extra for going through the credit card company.  This seemed
reasonable to me, however I told them I wasn't going to walk around with
a lot of cash and that I would write a personal check.  They said that was
fine and the system would be ready to pick up in 3 days.

When I went in to pick up the system, I pulled my checkbook out, and as I
was about to write out the check, the salesperson reminded me that I had
gotten the cash price, so I should make my check out to "cash".  I was a
little surprised, and asked if they were sure they didn't wan't me to make
it out to the store.  They said no, payable to "cash" was what they wanted.

I've talked to some friends since then, and the only reason anyone can come
up with for making payments that way is to avoid reporting it to the IRS.

Does anyone know of any other reason for doing business this way?  They
haven't actually done anything illegal yet (as far as I know), by requesting
the payment to "cash".  Is this sort of thing commonplace, or is there some
sort of agency I should report this to?

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David Hastie                                  Cadence Design Systems
email: hastie@cadence.com                     555 River Oaks Parkway, M.S. 7B1
phone: (408) 428-5677                         San Jose, CA 95134