Mystery shopper with full time job (tax)

silkyuk9

ive read the thread regarding MS but i may have missed the point i was looking for.

I have a full time job, and so does my wife. I do the occasional 'job' but to be honest i may only do 2 or 3 a year as in my town there does not seem to be the retail outlets that need MS-ers.

this year ive done 2 jobs to date and the fee was £5 for each job and I had to spend £2 in one shop and up to £6 in another, which i did and was refunded that ammount.

So basically i have 'earned' £10 this year.

with this being anothe income do i need to tell the tax office?? do i infact need to pay tax on this extra earnings.

I can get more jobs further afield when we do the weekly 'big shop' but im not sure about declaring what i earn.

whats are the 'rules' on this with paying tax.

sassyblue

If you have another job and you're earning over your tax threshold there then you should pay tax on this job too. BUT when you take into account your expenses for this job like petrol, you're not going to have much if any tax to pay anyway.

Best just to keep notes of when you do a job and your expenses 'just in case' HTH, but you should register as having this extra job like it advises in the MS thread.

dave4545454

ooo yes make sure you declare this £10 fortune to the taxman and pay some tax on it!

only joking, keep it for yourself, you deserve it. most people don't bother declaring money they earn on ebay, carboots, surveys, mystery shopping...etc

angel13

if you do any mystery shopping work you have to keep books. BUT you can claim 40p per mile and 6p per sheet you print. Also you can claim a percentage of your electricity bill and broadband/phone as without these you cannot work. You can also claim the using your house for work as an expense which I cannot remember for sure but I think it is £2.50 per week. So add this in and you have not made any money this year. All the details are in the mystery shopping thread somewhere

mtem74

angel13 wrote: »

if you do any mystery shopping work you have to keep books. BUT you can claim 40p per mile and 6p per sheet you print. Also you can claim a percentage of your electricity bill and broadband/phone as without these you cannot work. You can also claim the using your house for work as an expense which I cannot remember for sure but I think it is £2.50 per week. So add this in and you have not made any money this year. All the details are in the mystery shopping thread somewhere

If you are wanting to claim the £3pw working from home you can not claim for electricity, phone, broadband etc... as the £3 is deemed to cover these items.
The mileage and paper for your comp etc.. are seperate

xannus

dave4545454 wrote: »

ooo yes make sure you declare this £10 fortune to the taxman and pay some tax on it!

only joking, keep it for yourself, you deserve it. most people don't bother declaring money they earn on ebay, carboots, surveys, mystery shopping...etc

I agree with you but MS companies are required to give their client info to the tax people so they will probably find out if you do MS and can fine you if you don't declare it within 3 months of your first MS job

BexInLondon

Eeek would this apply to mystery dining too? We don't get any fees, only reimbursement of actual spend.

fengirl_2

First of all, the grace period for registering as self employed has been abolished. The rule now is that you have to inform HMRC as soon as you start to trade.
However, with very small amounts of income such as those described here, I would not consider that you are trading, ie you are not advertising a service and taking on loads of work. You are just earning casual fees which are way below the NIC limit (£5435 this year). You do not therefore need to register as self employed, but you should ask for a self assessment on which you can declare the income as 'other untaxed income' at the end of each tax year.
In reality, HMRC would not persue you for tax of less than £100 pa - its not worth it.
Any occupation where you just get reimbursed expenses is called volunteering and is not taxable.