Cash or barter as if they pay you by check they can claim it is your fault if anything goes wrong.
I’m sure the neighbor planned on paying me something, or he never would have asked me to do it. I’m not signing my name to anything, and if they don’t like it, they can pay a professional.
I did returns for a friend for several years and told him that there was only so much I could do without receipts. Sure enough, IRS audited and he owed about $5000 in taxes. it took several years to pay that bill... I told him it was his own fault because he didn’t listen to me; I refused to sign my name on any of them.
How are things with you? Did you ever move? And are you still doing homemade soaps and scents? I’m reading the Percy Jackson books again. I’m in the middle of the third one. Good stories, but oh, my, I get so breathless at all the challenges, one after another!!!