Are you looking to make a little fast cash in the evening or on weekends? Or are you a kid saving to buy your next gaming system or your first car? If that’s you, an under the table job is an excellent way to make money fast.
These types of jobs are perfect for making extra money, reducing your debt, as well as transitioning from full-time employment to being self-employed.
You can do these jobs once in a while, or turn it into a full-time side hustle.
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Table of Contents
What is an Under the Table Job?
An under the table job is one that is paid without any taxes being withheld.
Typically, a job like that would be paid in cash; however, in today’s world, you may be paid via PayPal or through some other digital transaction.
Either way, you are essentially paid like an independent contractor and are responsible for any potential taxes.
Are Under the Table Jobs Legal?
While there is nothing illegal about being paid cash for jobs, how you report it could be an issue.
Also, who is paying you can make a big difference in its legality.
There is a difference between paying your neighbor’s kid $20 to mow your lawn vs. paying an established lawn care company.
Additionally, there is a difference between a large company paying cash to its full-time web developers vs. a small mom and pop store paying you once to create a website for them.
Disclaimer: We do not endorse doing anything illegal nor promote avoiding the taxman. Everyone’s situation is different, so if you have any questions about the legality or tax requirements around any of your income, you should consult with a lawyer and/or tax professional.
What About Taxes?
If you earn less than the standard deduction, which is $12,400 for single filers in 2020, you are not required to file a tax return.
So, if you are just doing a few of these jobs here or there to make a specific purchase or pay off a little debt, and you’re total earnings aren’t above the standard deduction, you have nothing to worry about.
But again, if you have any questions related to taxes, consult a professional.
Other Legal Considerations with Under the Table Jobs
In addition to tax issues, be aware that some jobs require you to be licensed (e.g., electrician).
Further, many homeowners want anybody working on their property to be covered by workers’ compensation insurance and liability insurance in case any work-related incidents result in injury, illness, or property damage.
Where to Find Under the Table Jobs
Under the table jobs can be found just about anywhere.
However, traditional job boards are not the place to look.
Here are some of the best places to find these types of jobs that pay you cash.
Places to Look for Side Jobs
1. Ask Around
If you are looking to make some extra cash on the side, let people know.
Just about everyone has something they’ve been meaning to do that they’d rather pay someone than do themselves.
And if others know you are available for side jobs, they can let others know as well.
How many times have you been talking to someone and they bring up something they’ve meant to get done, but just haven’t gotten around to it.
Those are the perfect opportunities for finding an under the table job.
2. Nextdoor App
If you haven’t heard of the Nextdoor, it is a neighborhood social media network for neighborhoods.
People recommend services and share information with each other.
Anytime I go on the app, there are numerous requests for work and other tasks to be done.
And, along with asking around above, it is the perfect place for the people you know to recommend you if they see those requests as well.
3. Craigslist
Craigslist is an excellent resource for finding under the table jobs.
The “gigs” section is your best bet. However, you can also advertise your services.
While the jobs section is going to be more for traditional employment, there are often under the table job opportunities there as well.
However, as always with Craigslist (and any job opportunities online), beware of scammers.
4. Facebook
By searching on Facebook for jobs and places hiring now, you’ll typically find Facebook groups with people looking to hire.
You can find local jobs doing just about anything listed below, especially ones that only pay cash.
The Best 50+ Under the Table Jobs
There are so many different types of under the table jobs available.
Whether you like to work outdoors, love to teach, or like being creative, there is something for you.
1. Mowing Lawns
If you don’t mind cutting the grass, this is an excellent under the table job.
And it’s a great way to get some exercise.
When I was a kid, I cut several lawns in my neighborhood and made a decent amount of money for a teenager.
If you see your neighbor out mowing their lawn, you could offer your services.
And if they use a lawn care service, you could offer to mow the lawn for less.
Do a great job, and other neighbors will notice and hire you too.
And your lawn mowing job can be transitioned into cleaning up leaves in the fall.
2. Shoveling Snow
Of course, when winter comes around, your lawn mowing jobs go away.
To fill this void, if you live in the right climate, you can make money shoveling snow.
And if you have a truck with a blade, you can offer to clear long driveways and private lots as well.
Just be aware, shoveling snow is a big job, so you may want to partner up on that one.
3. Landscaping
Landscaping can encompass several activities.
Planting and pruning shrubs and flowers, spreading mulch, creating flower beds, and creating drainage beds are some of the landscaping under the table jobs you may find.
Finding these jobs is similar to finding lawn mowing jobs.
4. Pressure Washing
If you have a pressure washer, cleaning people’s driveways, patios, porches, decks, and home exteriors is an excellent way to make some extra cash fast.
Additionally, window cleaning is another opportunity.
Springtime is an ideal time to find pressure washing jobs.
Similar to offsetting low potential income from lawn mowing by shoveling snow in the winter, pressure washing can offset lower income in the spring that you may see from cleaning up leaves in the fall.
5. Tree Trimming
Larger tree trimming jobs should be handled by tree care professionals.
However, smaller jobs can be handled by others.
But even when I hire tree care professionals, I have always been offered a lower quote if I pay them cash.
Not saying they are trying to avoid taxes or anything like that, but they definitely seem to prefer being paid in cash.
6. Selling Firewood
If you do trim trees, or if you own property with a lot of trees, you could sell firewood for cash.
I often see requests for firewood on the Nextdoor app.
Additionally, you can post on Craigslist, or even put a sign in your car, promoting your sale of firewood.
7. Pool Maintenance
A lot of people love having pools, but many don’t care for the maintenance that goes along with it.
Since homes with pools are easily identified, you can be very targeted with promoting your services.
And it is a perfect service for cash transactions making it an ideal under the table job.
You can offer weekly or monthly cleaning, chemical measurements, and chemical additions.
Additionally, you can provide pool opening and closing services.
And if your client knows you well, you may even be able to use their pool when they’re out of town. Bonus!
8. Holiday Decorator
People love having their homes decorated for the holidays.
Both inside and outside.
However, not everyone likes putting up decorations.
If you have a knack for decorating, you can offer these services around the holidays.
Additionally, you could extend your decorating services to birthday parties, weddings, graduation parties, or any other special occasion you have.
9. Moving
For significant moves, people typically hire professional movers.
But for smaller moves, like a kid moving to their first apartment or people downsizing, people sometimes seek out help on Nextdoor or other social media.
Even smaller tasks like moving a couch, mattress, or appliance are popular under the table jobs.
10. Garage Sales
Having a garage sale is a great way to make some fast cash and clear out the clutter around your house.
Further, going to garage sales and finding bargains for items you can resell is another way to make money from them.
A lot of times, people are just looking to clear out their clutter, and they may undervalue items they have.
These are great opportunities to take advantage of.
11. Junk Removal
Some people just don’t like having garage sales. They’d rather just have someone come and clear their things away.
Home improvement projects are another opportunity for offering to remove their garbage.
On top of being paid to remove their trash, you may find items that you can outright sell or refurbish and sell.
This strategy is effectively a dual under the table job opportunity.
Having a truck is an excellent way to make money hauling stuff and is helpful for several other items on this list.
12. Metal Salvaging
Taking scrap metals to the scrap yard is another way to make additional cash fast.
Along with the previous two methods, when cleaning out for a garage sale or removing other people’s junk, you can find metal items that can be taken to a scrap yard for money and recycled.
Finding a scrap yard near you is a perfect opportunity to turn trash into cash.
And be aware that sometimes the scrap value may exceed what you can sell something for at a garage sale.
13. Antique Selling
If you are good at restoring old furniture, selling antiques could be an excellent opportunity for you.
Additionally, you can often find items at garage sales that are actually antique items.
14. Driving
In addition to driving for a ride service like Uber or Lyft, sometimes people will look for a driver on Craigslist or Nextdoor.
This request could be to get to a medical appointment, pick up groceries, or just about anything.
Also, during the school year a lot of families need help ferrying their kids between school, soccer practice, gymnastics, and many other activities.
These are great opportunities for high school students who have their driver’s license.
15. Running Errands
People that can’t drive due to injury or age often need help getting errands done.
Whether it is getting groceries, taking a package to the post office, or picking up dry cleaning, there is always a need to help others complete their errands.
16. Delivery Service
While services like Uber Eats, DoorDash, GrubHub, and Instacart pay you through their respective apps, you can receive cash tips, in addition to tips in the app, when delivering customer orders.
Providing excellent service can go a long way to receiving better tips.
17. Personal Assistant
You could become a personal assistant for a small business or a self-employed individual.
Personal assistants can do a wide variety of administrative and routine tasks for these people allowing them to focus on more critical parts of their business.
18. Babysitting
Babysitting has always been a great starter job for teenagers.
But anyone can be a babysitter. A site like Care.com you can find babysitting jobs as well as other senior care.
Just like mowing lawns, you can offer your babysitting services to your neighbors with children.
19. Pet Sitting
Similar to babysitting, pet sitting is an excellent under the table job opportunity.
When sitting for a pet, you might make frequent visits to the pet’s home, stay in the owner’s house with the pet, or have the pet stay in your home.
Rover.com is a site where people look for dog sitters. You can offer your services there.
20. Dog Walking
In addition to pet sitting services, you can use Rover.com to find dog walking opportunities.
You can also find people needing pet walking in your neighborhood.
If you are home during the day, and your neighbors work away from their home all day, you could offer to give their dog a midday walk.
21. Photography
Do you have a nice camera and know how to use it for professional results?
You can offer your photography services for weddings, graduations, and other special events.
Additionally, you can sell your photos online on sites like Shutterstock. This can become an excellent source of passive income.
22. Party Planning
People have parties all the time for all kinds of things.
Birthdays, anniversaries, engagements, graduations, retirement, even divorces.
And not everyone is great at party planning, so if you are, there is definitely a demand for your services.
23. Handyman
Are you a handyman around your house?
Often people need little tasks around their house to be completed.
These tasks include replacing rotted wood, cleaning the gutters, assembling furniture, and many other things.
The Nextdoor app is a great place to find under the table gigs like this.
However, word of mouth is another excellent way of being introduced to these opportunities.
24. Tradecraft (Electrical work, plumbing, carpentry, etc.)
If you have electrical, plumbing, or carpentry skills, there are many opportunities to make money with an under the table job.
Performing work for family and friends is one option.
However, having connections with some of the local contractors is another excellent way to pick up work here and there.
If a subcontractor can’t make it or a small job pops up, they can call on you to get the job done.
25. Mechanic
Do you do your own car maintenance? Are you good at it?
If you are, you can offer your service to others.
A lot of people hate going to a car dealership or other shop for fear of being ripped off or up sold on every service.
Instead, they can hire you to keep their auto maintenance up-to-date.
26. Small Engine Repair
Similar to car maintenance, small engines routinely need repair and maintenance.
Lawnmowers, snowblowers, generators, grass trimmers, gas blowers, and many other yard tools have small engines on them.
You can easily set up a little shop in your garage to service these items.
27. Bicycle Repair
As the weather warms up in spring, people start pulling their bikes out of storage.
A lot of these bikes could use a tune-up of their brakes, shifting mechanisms, and more.
But like a lot of other jobs, simple or not, people don’t know how or don’t like to do this type of work, making it perfect for you to make some cash fast.
28. Computer Repair/Training
Many people struggle with computers and setting up smart devices.
If you are tech-savvy, this is an excellent opportunity to make some money helping people out.
People don’t always understand new technology or have created issues that have slowed down their computer.
You can help them with their problems and teach them how to avoid them in the future.
29. Painting
Whether it is on the interior or exterior of your home, painting is long, tedious task.
Because of this, people are looking for reputable painters all the time.
Keeping an eye on the Nextdoor app is a great way to find this under the table opportunity.
30. House Cleaning
There is always a need for people to clean other people’s homes.
Spring cleaning, preparing for guests, prepping for a home sale, or just routine cleaning are opportunities for your services.
This job is one that you can do every once in a while
However, it is something that can be turned into a full-time business if you desire.
31. House Sitter
When people are on vacation or out of town for business, sometimes they prefer to have someone check on their home to make sure everything is ok.
Whether it is staying in the house for a few days or checking the mail and adjusting the lights every other day, this is a simple way to make some extra cash.
However, since you will have access to someone’s home, you are most likely to find this opportunity with someone you know.
32. Cooking
Do you enjoy cooking or baking?
Whether you make desserts to sell for special occasions, or enjoy creating large enough meals to provide catering, there are always people looking for good food for their events.
Additionally, you can bake goods and sell them at craft sales, food markets, or even on the corner.
33. Hairdresser
Hairdressing is the perfect under the table job for individuals with those skills.
While they may work in a hair salon, often, hairdressers perform their work in their home or their customer’s home.
This job is also an excellent side hustle if you have experience but have a different day job.
34. Personal Stylist
A lot of people need help with creating outfits to wear, I know I do.
While there are several services available today, like Stitch Fix, having someone who works with you in person and gets to know you can make you feel much more confident about your choices.
If you have a knack for style, this might be something to look into.
Additionally, this is another opportunity that is perfect for growing by word of mouth.
When someone you style gets complimented, there is always potential for them to share that you helped.
35. Ticket Scalping Reselling
Reselling tickets to sporting events and concerts can actually be a pretty lucrative venture.
While you’ll want to be aware of any scalping laws, some places allow you to sell near the venue.
And there are several options for reselling tickets online.
Depending on the team or artist, you can make a significant amount of money doing this.
36. Interpreter
Do you speak other languages?
If you are bilingual, you can provide your services to visitors, businesses, and more.
While some companies need interpreters for ongoing work, often, they have a meeting with someone from another country and need an interpreter for that one-time event.
These are perfect opportunities to work on your language skills, as well as a way to make some extra money.
37. Tutor
When children are struggling with their school work or preparing for the SATs, many turn to tutors.
While there are professional tutoring services, you can provide a personal connection in your area of expertise.
You could also teach Chinese kids to speak English.
38. Teaching a Class
People love to learn new things.
Whether it is building a birdhouse, painting, cooking, or anything you are good at, you can teach a class on it.
These classes can be held just about anywhere.
I’ve noticed a lot of classes like this are held in neighborhood common areas.
And based on the number of people you have attend a class, the amount of money you can make adds up quickly.
39. Writing/Proofreading
A lot of proofreading jobs and writing jobs can be performed for student essays and theses, among other things.
There are a number of sites devoted to finding these types of jobs, however, they can also be found on sites like Fiverr.
Additionally, there are opportunities for entry-level proofreaders, as well as highly experienced ones.
40. Building Websites
Larger companies typically have an Information Technology (IT) department to handle tasks like building websites.
However, for smaller companies, it isn’t economically feasible to have these resources on full-time staff.
Because of that, you can target your services to small business. Either ones with no website or outdated ones.
This is another under the table job that is easy to scale up to a business of its own if desired.
Fiverr is a great place to promote these types of services as well.
41. Fitness Classes
If you are good at motivating people, teaching a fitness class may be an ideal fit for you.
Whether it is Zumba or spin class, there are opportunities to share your passion for fitness.
Additionally, you could create videos that you post on YouTube that you can monetize. You could even sell them online as well.
Both of those are great examples of generating passive income streams.
42. Personal Trainer
Similar to teaching a fitness class, becoming someone’s personal trainer is an excellent way to make some extra cash.
Whether they are training for a 5K or just looking to get in shape, it can be gratifying to see someone progress towards their goals.
If you are more of a one-on-one person, this may be a better fit than teaching a class to a group of people.
It is also easier to understand the needs of one person, rather than a group of people so that you can target those needs.
43. Yoga Instructor
While teaching yoga could be lumped into fitness classes, the great thing about yoga is that you can do it practically anywhere.
You can meet people to teach yoga at a park, on the roof of your apartment building, or even in a break room at work.
Creating videos and posting them online is an excellent way to make additional money. Further, you can promote affiliate products related to yoga along with your videos.
44. Dance Instructor
There are a lot of dance studios where people can go to learn how to dance.
However, people often seek out private lessons to prepare for an important event like going to the prom or a wedding.
You can teach people how to dance in your own home or their home.
And the great thing is you can get paid while having fun and getting some exercise at the same time.
45. Instrument Instructor
If you know how to play guitar or piano or any instrument for that matter and you enjoy teaching, you should consider sharing your love of music with others.
Piano and guitar lessons are perfect under the table jobs because they are typically done in a home, and cash is the easiest way to pay.
Again, making videos of how to play certain songs and posting them on YouTube is another way to make some extra money.
46. Private Sports Lessons
Youth sports are very competitive.
And a lot of parents are willing to pay for additional instruction for their kids to get ahead.
Private lessons are common for things like golf, batting, pitching, tennis, and much more.
And when players improve from your private sessions, it is a great way to attract additional clients through word of mouth.
47. Gardening
People love being able to go in the back yard and get some fresh vegetables to cook with.
However, a lot of people don’t necessarily like the work involved in establishing a garden.
If you have a green thumb and enjoy this type of work, you can offer your services to establish gardens for people.
Additionally, you can grow your own produce and sell it to others. Either set up a stand somewhere by yourself, or…
48. Selling at a Farmer’s Market
If you have a big garden, you can make money selling your produce at the farmer’s market.
You can rent a booth and sell your fruits, vegetables, and other homemade goods.
Also, you can offer your services to others at the farmer’s market.
People need help setting up their booths, unloading their products, and cleaning up at the end of the day.
49. Crafting
My aunts did a ton of crafting when I was young.
One of them even turned an old barn on their property into a craft store.
But there are so many ways to monetize crafting, and it is a perfect under the table side hustle.
You can sell your stuff at local craft stores, farmer’s market, craft shows, festivals, concerts, and online.
You can also teach others how to craft.
50. Seamstress
Making and altering clothes for money is an excellent opportunity if you have sewing skills.
A lot of new parents love homemade clothes and quilts for their little ones.
And when people gain or lose weight, they don’t always want (or have the ability) to go out and buy a new wardrobe.
51. Music Gigs
Along with giving music lessons, if you are musically talented, why not get a group together and play gigs at night or on the weekend?
Bars will often pay bands to play or give them a cut of a cover charge or even the bar proceeds.
Additionally, patrons will usually tip the musicians performing at bars.
Further, your band could get hired to play at weddings, birthdays, and other events.
52. Disk Jockey
Instead of a band, many people like to have someone in charge of playing original music from many different artists at their event.
You can DJ events like pool parties, student dances, graduation parties, and much more.
53. Street Performer
Whether you are a skilled musician, a mime, a juggler, or maybe a clown, you could be a street performer and make money getting tips from people passing by.
And who knows, you might even be identified by a talent agent and become a star.
Ed Sheeran and B.B. King both started this way before they made it big.
Even Robin Williams would mime in New York City to make some extra cash when he was a student.
54. Tour Guide
If you know your city well and know its history, you could become a tour guide.
Every town has a history to be told, and whether it is sightseeing, an art tour, a ghost walk, or even a pub crawl, there are many different ways to show people around.
Related:
Legitimate Work From Home Jobs
Amazon Work From Home Jobs
How to Make $200 Fast
How to Make Money as a Kid
Summary
As you can see, there are many different under the table jobs to make you some extra cash fast.
Have you tried any of these? Are there other under the table jobs that you have done? What are your experiences with them? Please share in the comments below.
