Off the books
Establishment: Not to be named caterer
Location: Portland
How is it that caterers employing multiple people and doing business in such a way that it would be obviously not possible for one person to do all the work - buying, prepping, cooking, delivering, serving, etc. manage to not get caught? No payroll or social security taxes, unemployment withholding, workers comp, etc. I have not worked for any of these places but friends have. So unless the owner is fudging total income how do they not get caught? And no one wants to tattle because they are afraid it would limit their chances for other jobs in the future.
Since there are so very many caterers that really ARE just one or two people, even some of the slightly bigger outfits are still pretty much off the government’s radar. Especially if by multiple you mean fewer than 10 or 15 employees, then really, the IRS isn’t going to be looking too closely (and when all is said and done, the business might well still operate at a loss).
That said, it IS, of course completley illegal. However, most employees who DO work off the books, do so happily, because while they are ineligible for UI, don’t have anything going into social security and can’t file for workman’s comp, they also aren’t paying taxes.
And it’s also possible that the owners just pay service staff off the books, with gratuity $$$, which are really easy to hide (as in deny they charge a service charge, but really do and pay their off the books employees with that).