The Mystery Shopping thread - VII

mharzuk

skywalker83 wrote: »

what???????? really!!!! an afternoon in the cell for MSing!!!!!!!!

If that happended to me and I included the time spent 'at her maj's pleasure' it would bring my hourly rate down even further....... they could just keep me in because at least I would get free bed and food, gotta be desperate to see that as a way of saving money

Scaredy_Cat_3

mharzuk wrote: »

I've been getting my paperwork up to date this morning with the Tax year just around the corner and I come out with just less than half profit to total income.
The scary bit for me is that I need to work out my hours worked so I can claim working family tax credit (I need 4 hours per week to make up for the 12 hour seasonal job I have over the summer) and my hourly rate on profit alone is £2.56!!!!! Has anyone else done this calculation?

Can I report myself for paying me less than the national minimum wage? :rolleyes:

I hadn't even thought about this side of things. Can anyone advise me please? I already claim but they still have the old info so they pay on the basis of hubby's earnings and me being a housewife. I was planning on telling them my income when I do the tax return, and assume it won't change anything because I earn so little... but I never thought about number of hours worked. Will this have any impact on the amount we receive?

Hang on, I'm thinking of child tax credit... is that the same thing?????

mharzuk

Scaredy_Cat wrote: »

I hadn't even thought about this side of things. Can anyone advise me please? I already claim but they still have the old info so they pay on the basis of hubby's earnings and me being a housewife. I was planning on telling them my income when I do the tax return, and assume it won't change anything because I earn so little... but I never thought about number of hours worked. Will this have any impact on the amount we receive?

Hang on, I'm thinking of child tax credit... is that the same thing?????

I still need to declare earnings for Child Tax Credit and this is combined with wages from paid employment.
The hours thing for me is to try and get me up to 16 hours per week during the summer when I have my seasonal job. I can't do 16 hours per week MSing in my area but I have calulated an average of 5 hours per week over the last year so I'm hoping that they will accept this. I have included time for preparation, visiting, report writing and travel. Is anybody else in this situation?
I had thought of including job search e.g. going into each MS website every hour or so thoughout the day which must add up to at least another hour per day when there are 14 sites I check.

Scaredy_Cat_3

Would it make any difference to me if I worked more than 16 hours? I reckon I probably do because of all the extras like travel and preparation and writing up the report... but does it matter?

I don't really understand all these benefits and things. Is there any advantage in me working more than 16 hours when hubby already works full time?

mharzuk

Scaredy_Cat wrote: »

Would it make any difference to me if I worked more than 16 hours? I reckon I probably do because of all the extras like travel and preparation and writing up the report... but does it matter?

I don't really understand all these benefits and things. Is there any advantage in me working more than 16 hours when hubby already works full time?

My situation is a bit different because I am a single parent so I don't know what it means for couples. Presumably when you re-apply for child tax credit and working tax credit and you declare your earning from self employment you will need to state the number of hours this income takes. Have you tried the benefits checker website? This is how I saw that by doing 16 hours per week over the summer I got an extra £350 per month through working tax credit but if I only did 12 hours I got nothing...... go figure!

Scaredy_Cat_3

mharzuk wrote: »

My situation is a bit different because I am a single parent so I don't know what it means for couples. Presumably when you re-apply for child tax credit and working tax credit and you declare your earning from self employment you will need to state the number of hours this income takes. Have you tried the benefits checker website? This is how I saw that by doing 16 hours per week over the summer I got an extra £350 per month through working tax credit but if I only did 12 hours I got nothing...... go figure!

Thanks - it never even occurred to me that they would want to know the number of hours worked, just the income. I have no idea how many hours I put into this, but I suspect it's a lot.

Can you give me a link to this benefits checker website please?

EDIT: For the record, I think you should include the time spent checking for work. It's not really any different to any self employed person putting time into advertising for work - I assume a gardener could claim time spent putting leaflets through doors as working time. If you don't put the time into checking the websites you won't get the work, so it's a necessary part of the 'job'. That's my view anyway!

mharzuk

If you go to the 'protect your pocket' tab there is loads of great information about this kind of stuff. The link Martin has put on there is
http://entitledto.co.uk/
and that's the one I used, takes a bit of time but well worth doing.

jobbingmusician

mezer3000 wrote: »

yeah I have - but thats not what my query is about.

Went and got the form from the tax office. The lady said that as I would have missed the deadline for the tax returns to be generated and sent, that i shouldnt worry about anything I earnt last tax year, and I should just register myself as self employed from the new tax year. Does that sound right?

May I make a cautious suggestion, much as I hate to disagree with Timne?

It's well into March. You won't be paid until April, I assume. If you do your accounts on the basis of when you are paid, there is no reason why you shouldn't register as SE from April, the new tax year. I would guess this is what the HMRC employee meant.....

Discuss, writing on only one side of the computer.

Timmne

jobbingmusician wrote: »

May I make a cautious suggestion, much as I hate to disagree with Timne?

It's well into March. You won't be paid until April, I assume. If you do your accounts on the basis of when you are paid, there is no reason why you shouldn't register as SE from April, the new tax year. I would guess this is what the HMRC employee meant.....

Discuss, writing on only one side of the computer.

Ha!

I don't disagree with this actually - what I disagree with is HMRC staff essentially saying "don't bother, you won't get found out" - tax evasion is surely their number one concern?! (not that I'm accusing anyone of that here!)

blindman

NADS

(You seem to like large RED letters)

What is your problem with the genuine work available post made by Qdos
in the Work Available thread

And who the hell made you head of the Alert Thread police
BTW your post was "chatty" and not Work Available