What do you risk if you hire someone for work on your home and pay cash-in-hand?

Reader Question: Someone came to my house offering to do gardening work on a cash-in-hand basis. I did not accept, but what would happen if I did?

Working cash-in-hand (au noir or travail dissimulé in French) is strictly forbidden in France. 

A recent report by French social security agency Urssaf showed it took action in 2025 against more than 7,000 employers and self-employed workers breaching the rule, leading to around €1.5 billion in missed social security payments.

An incoming bill on social security fraud will also seek to address undeclared work, with Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou hoping to include stricter measures against companies caught using cash-in-hand employment, particularly in the logistics sector.

Article L8221-3 of France’s Labour Code (Code du Travail) outlines cash-in-hand work as the intentional carrying out of a profit-making activity without fulfilling legal obligations, such as business registration and declarations to social charges and tax authorities.

There are two possible ways the law is broken by cash-in-hand work (with both sometimes taking place):

• Concealment of activity by failure to register with the trade register or the commercial register, or to file social security or tax declarations.

• Concealment of employment by failure to file a prior declaration of hiring, payslips, wages, and/or related social security contributions.

What are the penalties?

Following an increase in social security fraud – and figures that show cash-in-hand work costs France billions of euros annually – Urssaf frequently carries out checks on all types of employers to ensure they are not paying workers on the black.

Note the in this sense 'employer' does not only refer to businesses, but also members of the public paying individuals to work for them, such as for tasks in the home.

In principle, a worker cannot be directly prosecuted outright for working cash-in-hand, the labour ministry's website states.

However if an employee is found to have colluded with their employer to willfully omit details (such as not being given a payslip and accepting any accompanying social security payments for not ‘officially’ being at work), the information is passed on to the relevant authorities who can penalise them both.

Workers who are caught taking cash-in-hand payments are at risk of having to pay back social benefits such as jobseeker’s allowances, and are also at risk of being penalised for benefit fraud (up to €30,000 in fines and a two-year prison sentence as outlined in Article 441-6 of France’s Penal Code).

For employers all work must be correctly declared as well as carried out by those legally able to work (eg. French or EU citizens or residents with the appropriate visa/right to work). This includes listing hours worked and salaries paid.

If found to be hiring workers on a cash-in-hand basis, employers may be made to pay back any public subsidies and be ordered to close their establishment (if hiring an employee for a company). 

Contributions to Urssaf may be recalculated, with a potential surcharge added to account for missed payments. A full list of potential penalties for employers is listed here on the Labour Ministry website.

Finally, a €45,000 fine and three-year prison sentence is possible. 

The rules apply not only to employers at a larger business but also those in your position: employing domestic help, whether as your example, a gardener but also other workers, cleaner, builder etc.

If you are hiring a worker it is therefore important to ensure the rules are met, typically  by using the CESU system.

Note also you may be eligible for tax credits in such circumstances. 

Do not be persuaded by anyone who offers to work cash-in-hand, even if they are willing to accept a lower rate.

Note that the above rules do not relate to where you are paying someone who is properly set up as self-employed to do work in a certain sector (including registration to pay social charges), but where you are paying an ordinary member of the public.

If in doubt as to whether someone has a correctly set up business, you can ask them what their Siret (business registration) number is and check it at infogreffe.fr.