> Your government could say it's illegal to receive money under these circumstances, and they basically do. But think about what that means.

That you're committing tax fraud and will probably spend a non-trivial amount of time in prison for tax avoidance as well as having a significant portion of property seized to pay back taxes?

If you report the income and pay the tax, there isn't tax fraud afaict. Eligibility verification if the work is in the US might be a different matter.

> For the purposes of anything official, you are unemployed. You would not get any retirement options. Your earnings would not be reported to the IRS.

That's called "job fraud," and it's a crime in most countries.

Really? If I were living in the US and I pay a guy to pull the weeds in my garden it's "job fraud"? I'm not a lawyer, but that's not a crime in any country I've lived in. Which countries is that a crime in?

Yes, it is. Tax authorities don’t really care about petty versions of it (like your example of a gardener), but they do care if you’re effectively a FTE being paid under the table.

(The gardener might also be filing 1099s or the equivalent without you knowing, but that doesn’t seem likely.)

woodruffw is right, you have to come to terms with the fact that a gov by default is made up of lowlifes. It actually gets worse, legally if you do not pay the guy who pulled weeds, you have to pay the tax on what his services would have been worth in the market. Well - it's true of Canada also :). Bonjour!