The Mystery Shopping thread - VIII

kitchpoo

jasonwatkins wrote: »

1) is a car essential ? i'm not allowed to drive for medical reasons. which also makes going out in the evening nigh on impossible.

2) would £80 a month be easily achievable ?

if it seems like something i could jump in to then i'm certainly up for it

1) Depends where you live.... I'm in a rural area but travel 60 miles away for my main work - so I can pick up 2-3 jobs a week (variable) over a 80 mile radius from home. In my home county - Public transport to do these would be cost and time prohibitive.

2) where you live will also determine your ability to hit £80/pcm. Also - how much time you have to commit to this will effect it. Bear in mind a 30 minute in the store assignment, plus 30 minutes (sometimes more) to write it up. A day with 4 assignments could be 4 hours, plus your travel time.

kitchpoo

skywalker83 wrote: »

i had a question about tax with the abai posh stores. if i spend £335 for a purchase and they give me £10 as fee. Can I say I am at a loss of £325... what happens if I later want to return the item? thank you so much.

I dont think you can offset the purchase for tax, as you are benefitting from the purchase. If, for example it is a perscriptive purchase ie - MS Co. says "You must go in and buy x", then you can argue that it is not your choice and of no benefit to you - so is a rquirement of work and deductable for tax purposes. If you return it within the tax year - you have had no benefit, you cant produce the reciept for taxman to see (It will say item returned) and then there is no tax gain/loss at all.

ukmonkey

skywalker83 wrote: »

i had a question about tax with the abai posh stores. if i spend £335 for a purchase and they give me £10 as fee. Can I say I am at a loss of £325... what happens if I later want to return the item? thank you so much.

Here's how I see it:

1. If they say you must spend a minimum of £335 and they reimburse you £10, then the other £325 is a loss as you were forced to spend that amount.

2. If they say you must spend £10 and they reimburse £10 then the remaining £325 you must stand yourself as it was your choice to spend this amount.

skywalker83

i visited a department in the posh store and the cheapest item was £335! And since a purchase was necessary I had to buy it. Do i need to submit receipts to the tax man?

ukmonkey

skywalker83 wrote: »

i visited a department in the posh store and the cheapest item was £335! And since a purchase was necessary I had to buy it. Do i need to submit receipts to the tax man?

Can't you take it back?

skywalker83

the thing is that it had to be returned with 14 days and i was away so could not take it back. can i show it as a loss? also, do we need to submit receipts to the tax man please?

ukmonkey

skywalker83 wrote: »

the thing is that it had to be returned with 14 days and i was away so could not take it back. can i show it as a loss? also, do we need to submit receipts to the tax man please?

This sound dubious to say the least...

IF this was the cheapest item, and you can prove it (difficult) then arguably you could class it as a loss as long as you can provide receipts upon request (and I'd say this will greatly increase the chances of them investigating you, so be sure that you have all your receipts).

kitchpoo

skywalker83 wrote: »

do we need to submit receipts to the tax man please?

My situation maybe different.... I'm a Ltd Co. so my business can be asked to provide reciepts. I've kept everything or a copy of everything if I've had to send receipts off for my payment.

skywalker83

great! that sounds about it. ifi keep the receipts i shud be sorted in that case.. infact it was the cheapest (and that too after it had a 30% discount on!!!!!!)
to anyone considering the designer bridge and say stay well clear of it if you dont really buy designer stuff!

Timmne

This all sounds crazily like tax evasion to me - here are my thoughts:

1) You can't claim an expense if you've taken the goods back for a refund
2) You can't make a £325 loss on something unless the MSing company MADE you buy them (but see (3))
3) You would never, in a month of Sundays, make a cash loss of £325 on any MSing job - it's a ridiculous scenario - especially when only in a pretty good month, would your profits be about this much.
4) If you keep the goods, they can't be a taxable deduction

You have to apply logic in these scenarios - thinking you could have a deduction from your taxable income of >£300 is too good to be true!