<prompt> Human: Ive been depositing the earnings into my bank to pay bills with and such, but my SO recently pointed out how much of a problem this could cause for us since we are wanting to purchase a home soon. How can I get around this? Should I ask the family to pay me in cash? Then how do I handle getting that money onto my account to pay bills with?  <response>: I think people laid out most of this, but in short:Under the table is generally code for illegal - both the employer and you are skirting tax and employment laws. And of course, lots of people do this in all sorts of industries all the time.Ignoring ethics for a moment - keep in mind that some of those laws actually protect and benefit you. For instance - you arent building towards any social security benefits that you really might want later in life. You have no protections on overtime, discrimination, abuse, liability, getting injured at work, harassment, illegal termination etc. What happens if the baby gets injured on your watch?And when buying a house - a bank will require proof of income. Its fine to get paid in cash, but if you havent been reporting that on your taxes for at least 2-3 years - then the bank wont recognize that. Which means you wont qualify for a mortgage, or your debt-to-income ratio will show you as being quite broke, and then your SOs income better be high enough to qualify you for what you want.So again, ethics and legality aside - you are likely better off getting legitimate on this income for all sorts of reasons, especially if its your primary source of income. 