In recent years, a trend has emerged, particularly on social media, constantly bringing barbers into the spotlight and creating a general perception that they are involved in money laundering. So why are these barbers targeted, and why are new barbershops opening every day on almost every high street?
Is money laundering really happening in these barbershops?
Especially in recent years, barbershops have been opening one after another. A large portion of these are run by immigrants of Turkish origin. In recent years, immigrants from Northern Iraq have also started opening barbershops… So why are barbershops constantly opening? Do people have a lot of money and are they laundering it in barbershops, and how?
Barbershops aren’t places where large sums of money are involved in money laundering. You can easily open a barbershop with £10,000. You can start making money with just 5 chairs and a mirror. You can even take a three-month course and get a certificate to open a barbershop. After obtaining this certificate, you can open a barbershop, especially in small, low-rent locations on high streets… These shops have only one cost: electricity. They have no other bills besides electricity and water. This reduces both startup costs and sustainability costs to almost nothing. The only money you’ll pay is for the people working in the shop. These shops have no other expenses. That’s why opening a barbershop is so easy.
There’s only one point to criticize about these barbershops, actually. Their constant demand for cash from customers. The reason is to pay less tax, to evade taxes. Therefore, barbershop owners who try this method can be criticized, but there are tens of thousands of wealthy white people doing the same thing. Nigel Farage is one of them. We don’t know if there’s a single established business like this in the country.
The likelihood of money laundering in these shops is close to 0% because the probability of such large sums of money circulating is zero. Even if 100 customers came in a day and each got a shave for £20, that would only amount to £2,000, but the number of barbers who could reach that figure is impossible.
Another factor might be the employment of undocumented workers. Many businesses do this, but it’s not accurate to generalize this. It’s not just barbers who employ undocumented workers; businesses in almost every sector do. As these are identified, penalties are imposed, but only barber shops are demonized, and barbershops, where small capital circulates and balance sheets are visible, are presented as the cause of the economy’s downturn.
So why do barbershops ask, “Will you pay in cash or with profit?” Because less tax means more profit. In a place where money laundering is rampant, would people really need this?