Self Employed people are allowed to right off most expenses off there taxes! Its written in the tax code!
I didn't say, or mean, that they take advantage of legal write-offs. They cheat. They don't report accurately what their actual income is. Most of them deal in a lot of cash transactions and some are reported, some aren't. Their personal vehicles are always claimed as a business expense whether being used for business or not, etc. A simple review of their lifestyles would show that they don't report enough income to live like they do. The unreported, so called underground economy is huge.