i used to work at a locally owned boba shop at a mall. when i had first started, the business had been open for less than a year and i started primarily working with the owner. the first thing that struck me as odd is they would have a “training period” where you weren’t technically hired, but would be paid minimum wage, untaxed and not through the pay period with deductions. i remember when the owner would be working, he would turn off the security cameras, purposely take the register, and would turn on “test transactions” for cash payments. the “test transactions” mode was set up for training and would not actually count towards adding money to the till. if the payment was with card, he would turn off the “test transaction” mode. like i said, he would purposely turn the cameras off (which faced the register) when present and doing this. for the 3 years i worked there, i noticed him doing this every shift i worked with him, and i would have to get him to turn off transaction mode as there was a set password for turning it on and off.
one of the main reasons i believe he did this is because at the mall in my area, the rent of your space is dependent on the income your business is making. this business is the only one in the area that strictly serves boba tea, and the drinks are pretty good, so as a whole the business was bringing in tons of income- but not accurately reporting it.
i will be honest in saying that this business burnt me in many ways- it showed on the payroll app how many shifts you had worked total, and after i did the math, i had spent 80% of my college years working at this business. they emphasized work-lifestyle balance, but would schedule me for 9-11 hour shifts 5-6 times a week, with my days off being due to my school schedule. conditions were incredibly unsanitary- we would be required to move things for health inspections, then move them back once the inspection was over. i developed eczema because we used bleach to sanitize everything. i was also required to bring inventory from one location to another- which consisted of packing my car with 12+ 40lb boxes of boba and purees, dragging them on a cart into the mall, and putting them away (even on my days off) which took an extreme toll on my body. i was too comfortable to leave until a repetitive incident brought me to my tipping point. the day after my last day, he texted me basically saying it is a trend to “cancel” busineses after working there and asked me not to publicly expose them.
when me and my old coworker were talking about our experience working there is when we made the realization that he was practicing tax evasion. i feel somewhat unethical sitting with this information. is there any sort of action i can take regarding his failure to report accurate sales?