I don't really ask. They advertise it on the window though, so it's not like the IRS would be all that fooled.

Potentially, although do remember that card processing fees are rather high for small businesses, and every transaction that they don’t have to lose 3% or 5% of or whatever is extra money they can keep.

Unless jedberg is referring to a 3% discount as a big discount, then I think it's quite obvious that it's due to tax evasion, which would allow the merchant to provide deeper discounts. This is common in cash businesses.

Well it's $12 instead of $15, so 20% off. But keep in mind that for a small merchant, besides the 3% processing fee, there is also a base fee, and when you talk about a haircut for $15, the base fee eats up a whole lot of the profit.

The standard maximum rate is 2.9% + 30 cents. Looks like they're losing over $2 per transaction for doing business in cash, unless, they make us for this cough somehow.

20+% business/personal tax vs 5% CC fee. Which do you think is the bigger motivator there?