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Cash-in-hand payments to builders, window cleaners, plumbers and other trades people should be discouraged through a technology revolution to collect up to £6 billion more in tax, a Government-commissioned review urged today.

It called for the Government to accredit new payment platforms to encourage millions more cashless payments for services.

The proposal in the 116-page Taylor Review Of Modern Work Practices also outlined a series of changes for Britain to adapt to the growing “gig economy”, redressing the imbalance between bosses and workers and collecting more tax from the self-employed.

Matthew Taylor, lead author and head of the Royal Society of Arts, said: “Technology can make life easier and what we are suggesting is, as we move more to a cashless economy, then when, for example, your window cleaner charges, you can pay cashlessly.

“At the same time, their tax can be paid as we as employees pay through PAYE, which makes their life easier. They might at the same time be making a contribution to their pension or to insure themselves for sickness.”

Other proposals include:

A category of gig economy worker called a “dependent contractor”, who should be given extra protections by firms such as Uber and Deliveroo.

Rates of National Insurance for employed and self-employed people should be brought closer. However, No 10 ruled out revisiting Chancellor Philip Hammond’s failed attempt to raise NI on self-employed people.

Public bodies should design jobs offering “genuine flexibility”, allowing workers to choose hours that suit them and managers to meet peaks and troughs in demand.

Employees need clear chances for promotion, higher earnings and career development: “There are too many people at work who are treated like cogs in a machine rather than being human beings,” said Mr Taylor.

Downing Street said it would not ban cash-in-hand payments, but backed the idea of digital systems that could be linked to pensions and other benefits. However, Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, said corporate giants were “ripping off the country” by paying “little or no tax” rather than tradespeople, while Labour, unions and employment lawyers said the report did little to help gig economy workers.

Mr Taylor set out seven “principles for fair and decent work”, including additional protections for workers suffering one-sided flexibility and stronger incentives for firms to treat workers fairly.

Neil Carberry, CBI managing director for people and infrastructure, said: “Firms of all shapes and sizes will find much to agree with.”