Underground Economy
Economic activity not observed by tax collectors and government statisticians.
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UNDERGROUND ECONOMY: Illegal and unreported market transactions and productive activity that escape the watchful eyes of official record keepers.
Underground economy workers can be found on community bulletin boards. Theirs will be the handwritten 3x5 cards, or the business cards that do not list a license number when needed.
Offshore banking has often been associated with the underground economy and organized crime, via tax evasion and money laundering; however, legally, offshore banking does not prevent assets from being subject to personal income tax on interest.
If you pay your cleaner or builder in cash, or for some reason neglect to tell the taxman that you were paid for a service rendered, you participate in the black or underground economy.
It could even take the entire income of low-income people. And even a head tax would distort people's choices somewhat, by giving them an incentive to have fewer children, to live and work in the underground economy, or even to emigrate.
regulations on otherwise potentially legal business transactions (working off the books, unauthorized import/export trade, "moonshine" production of liquor, etc.). Economists' unofficial estimates of the size of the American "underground economy" in ...
 See also: Expense, Job, Population, Saving, Administration
  
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