The Mystery Shopping thread - VII

apcorbett

josie wrote: »

You won't pay tax if you may a loss, only on profit.

No, you can't claim your monthly card if you'd buy it anyway without these jobs.

!

This is not quite true - You can offset a proportion of the monthly ticket on the days on which you do a mystery shop.

So, If your ticket was £365 a year, you could legitimately claim an expense of £1.00 on any day that you did a mystery shop - The justification for this is that if you didn't have the card, then you would have had to pay for the travel to get to the shop, so can offset the £1.00 (1/365 of the ticket cost) against the profit from the shop itself.

IIRC Timne gave this guidance in one of the earlier threads.

bumblebee23

apcorbett wrote: »

This is not quite true - You can offset a proportion of the monthly ticket on the days on which you do a mystery shop.

So, If your ticket was £365 a year, you could legitimately claim an expense of £1.00 on any day that you did a mystery shop - The justification for this is that if you didn't have the card, then you would have had to pay for the travel to get to the shop, so can offset the £1.00 (1/365 of the ticket cost) against the profit from the shop itself.

IIRC Timne gave this guidance in one of the earlier threads.

Ooh excellent as I buy a monthly pass already but I use it to get to mystery shops too... I didn't think I would be able to pass off all of my pass as a tax thing but I will definately try putting a portion of it through!

jobbingmusician

mezer3000 wrote: »

Just submitted my report for a french sanwich place for RE. Have received an email about a proof reading query and that I need to call them, but their offices are shut. I know what it is - they are almost definitely querying the spelling of croissanterie - but when that is a word unique to the french sandwich place and is not in their dictionary I think this is a bit unfair. I spelt it exactly as in the question.

Will they accept this and will I get docked marks?

And when are their offices open? lol

It definitely won't be for the spelling of croissanterie, which is a word you HAVE to use in their reports sometimes (and I agree, it really p*sses me off too that words like this aren't in their dictionary. Sometimes even the client name pops up as an unrecognised word !!!!!!! :mad: )

I wouldn't waste mental energy trying to work out why they are trying to get hold of you - they have NO rationale to their queries except that they employ complete numpties most of the time!

fabsaver

Cherry_pie wrote: »

Re-read the assignment notes. You can buy what you want providing it includes the stipulated items.

I don't think you should take all of the multibuy items to the counter straight away as the assignment is testing whether the assistant offers you an upsell on them. The questionnaire asks about this specifically.

xxvickixx

You could say something like, I was tempted to get the deal but don't know if it is nice? Hopefully this should encourage the assistant to upsell. If they don't upsell after a positive invite to, they deserve to be reported!

Scaredy_Cat_3

Is Timmne around? Or any tax expert?

I am curious, over on the thread titled 'Does she have to declare to tax man?', someone has said they rang up the tax office and was told they weren't earning enough and to ring back if they started to earn more.

I'm just puzzled how this applies to me? I'm not earning much but I expect I'll have to complete a tax return? Incidentally, should I have received this yet, or do they wait until after 6th April to send them out?

lostweekender

Can anyone tell me if I can pick up a GfK Bingo job?
I joined on line a couple of weeks ago for the freebie plays
The brief stipulates you must never have been in a bingo hall ever but it is for a new member
I've never been in a bingo hall, but technically I wouldn't be a new member
I have emailed queries they have not responded on my question only sent me more Bingo jobs
Should I accept and ask questions later??
Thanks for any advise

Timmne

Scaredy_Cat wrote: »

Is Timmne around? Or any tax expert?

I am curious, over on the thread titled 'Does she have to declare to tax man?', someone has said they rang up the tax office and was told they weren't earning enough and to ring back if they started to earn more.

I'm just puzzled how this applies to me? I'm not earning much but I expect I'll have to complete a tax return? Incidentally, should I have received this yet, or do they wait until after 6th April to send them out?

You need to do a tax return whatever you're earning, if you have a business (such as MSing).

Whether you pay tax on that is another matter - if your taxable profit is above £6035 then yes, you will and if it isn't, the only way you'll pay tax is if you have more than one stream of income.

scorgeous

Scaredy_Cat wrote: »

Is Timmne around? Or any tax expert?

I am curious, over on the thread titled 'Does she have to declare to tax man?', someone has said they rang up the tax office and was told they weren't earning enough and to ring back if they started to earn more.

I'm just puzzled how this applies to me? I'm not earning much but I expect I'll have to complete a tax return? Incidentally, should I have received this yet, or do they wait until after 6th April to send them out?

Hi, I'm not a tax expert, but I am an accountant and do complete tax returns for friends and family, but will try and answer your questions.

HMRC can't ask you to complete a self assessment tax return until after the current tax year ends.

You should register with HMRC that you are self employed, even if you are not earning enough to pay tax. You should also apply to be exempt from paying class 2 National insurance contributions if you earn under 4285 (I think) a year. If you don't do this, you will be required to pay £2.30 a week NICs from the date you register to be self employed.

Hope this helps. Timmne, if I've given any wrong advice can you please correct, as I am not a tax expert.

Scaredy_Cat_3

scorgeous wrote: »

Hi, I'm not a tax expert, but I am an accountant and do complete tax returns for friends and family, but will try and answer your questions.

HMRC can't ask you to complete a self assessment tax return until after the current tax year ends.

You should register with HMRC that you are self employed, even if you are not earning enough to pay tax. You should also apply to be exempt from paying class 2 National insurance contributions if you earn under 4285 (I think) a year. If you don't do this, you will be required to pay £2.30 a week NICs from the date you register to be self employed.

Hope this helps. Timmne, if I've given any wrong advice can you please correct, as I am not a tax expert.

Thanks! I have registered as self employed (some time ago) and also applied for exemption from paying NI, so no worries there.

I know I can't fill in the tax return until after 6th April, but wondered if they sent them out early? I just wanted to get it sorted and out of the way asap!

Thanks!