Nobody likes paying taxes, but when you pay sales tax -- at least you know that a lot of the money is going to schools.

That is unless the sales tax is stolen and pocketed by a crook, leaving the schools without a dime of your money.

Police protection, education and firefighters -- these are all services that we pay for through sales tax.

Yet each year the state loses tens of millions of dollars from tax bandits, which in turn leave people like teachers out of luck.

MORE INFO Labor and Industries Fraud Line Department of Revenue Fraud Information www.suspectfraud.com Call: 1-800-647-7706

Des Moines Elementary School teacher Katie Postlewait said her sixth year of teaching has been by far the most difficult.

"It's always a struggle, but more so now," Postlewait said.

This year more than $700 million is expected to be cut from Washington schools, making it increasingly difficult for teachers like Katie to affectively run their classrooms.

“Kids are coming to us with more and more needs. We all feel it, but I worry about the kids," she said.

Each year Washington schools receive billions of dollars in funding through states taxes- the bulk of it comes from sales tax. Yet there are countless businesses in Washington that pocket your money that you assume is going to schools.

We took our hidden camera into different local stores and shops to see whether businesses were recording their sales and sales taxes.

Most of the time, the clerk behind the counter would ring up the sale in the register and give us a receipt.

But at one Seattle sandwich shop – as we hand the merchant cash, he hands us our change without ever punching anything into the cash register.

“Cash transactions are tough to track if there are no receipts," said Mike Gowrylow of the with the Washington State Department of Revenue.

Gowrylow said each year the state loses $100 million in sales tax revenue. That's money used to provide public services, chiefly education.

"The consumer who purchases something and pays that sales tax has an expectation that the revenue is to be used to provide them services," Gowrylow said.

Time and time again we found store clerks who make a sale without ringing us up and not producing a receipt.

At one Seattle restaurant, for example, the staff took our money, but never ended up punching the sale into the register. The state said this is a good indicator of consumer fraud.

"It's hard for me to believe that businesses don't know if they're collecting sales tax. That it's their money and that they somehow can keep it. That makes no sense to me at all," Gowrylow said.

The Department of Revenue has only 300 hundred auditors and they inspect an average of 8,000 Washington businesses each year. That's only 10 percent of the 800,000 registered businesses in the state.

The Department of Revenue relies on consumers to call and report anytime they suspect fraud. If the state finds a problem, they could prosecute.

Last month, a Marysville dry-waller pleaded guilty to tax fraud for collecting more than $850,000 in sales tax and not giving it back to the state.

In May, a Tacoma plumbing contractor pleaded guilty to stealing sales tax and was ordered to pay back $23,000 dollars.

And in Everett, this year a yacht broker was sentenced to four years in prison for felony theft of sales tax for not reporting boat sales.

While many of us have different opinions as to how our tax dollars should be spent, the Des Moines teacher knows of a few good ways.

Postelwait will get by this school year and probably the next, but with more pending cutbacks, every dollar the state collects can certainly go a long way.

"What it comes down to is how these cuts are affecting our kids. I'll do what I can, but it's harder and harder without resources from them," Postelwait.

Washington state said nearly 98 percent of registered business pay their taxes and it's the smaller and new businesses that most often slip under the radar.

If you want to do your part, the state sais always ask for a receipt and if you suspect fraud report it.