MYSTERY SHOPPING THREAD XII - ** New people please read posts 1 & 2 **

Chocforever

I read the recent comments on tax with interest. I don’t work for HMRC, but tax is relevant to my job and I would be embarrassed if my tax calculation was successfully challenged by HMRC. I spent some time looking at the appropriate tax rules when I started MSing last year. I just wanted to add my views to the discussion.

Many areas of tax have “grey areas” where there is no single right or wrong answer and some interpretation is required.

There are vast amounts of guidance and case law on how to apply the wholly and exclusively test to different trades because it is difficult to apply a general rule to different circumstances. I can’t find anything specific or closely relevant to MS.

It seems to me that the main issue is the one lots of people have pointed out. What do you do when you have to make a purchase for a job, but there may also be a personal benefit gained from having that item. This is called duality of purpose in taxspeak and normally you have take a view one way or the other rather than allowing part of the expense as deductible and part of it non-deductible. In general, I think this means that most of our required purchases are non-tax deductible (eg. books, CDs, clothing, supermarket shopping etc).

However, where the main purpose of the expense is for the trade and any personal benefit is incidental, the cost is tax deductible. You will not be surprised to find that the term “incidental” has been open to much interpretation. The view I have taken is that food on the go is tax deductible because the personal benefit, because humans have to eat, is incidental. This sort of argument has been seen in relevant case law. So taking the pizza example that came up, I would say you had to order the pizza to do the job. The fact that it meant you then did not need to make your own dinner is an incidental benefit. Similarly, I would deduct food and drink at pub and restaurants visits where the items were part of the MS. There are some services I would also put in this category, like beauty treatments (if I was ever allocated these jobs).

The person that spoke to the tax office seems to have got to a similar answer which is encouraging. I can also see that using the same principles, a MS with a very specific product purchase requirement could be deductible.
I think that’s enough tax for now.

rachelandgromit

TessieP wrote: »

Same here, jobs sat for nearly week now but find they usually get done before next pay date which is 25th

I have four jobs pending, one was backpackers so a lot of this is reimbursement too. Hope this clears so we get payment on 25th as you say.

nehpets81

Can anyone else see any RE music stores or underground sandwiches in London? I haven't seen any this week despite seeing alerts and would be a bit annoyed if there is some abstract reason RE have stopped me seeing them....

kman

nehpets81 wrote: »

Can anyone else see any RE music stores or underground sandwiches in London? I haven't seen any this week despite seeing alerts and would be a bit annoyed if there is some abstract reason RE have stopped me seeing them....

I can't see any either...

cte1111

maverick2307 wrote: »

Hello all, is it just me or are RE shops for pubs,i can see 55 of them at the moment and no other kind of shop even though ive ticked the shop boxes etc or do they just have the one client.
Just another point I did a shop for Bare yesterday in a bank but couldnt get past the greeter to where I was meant to go she said that the staff in that department were all busy,do you think they will pay up as I did what was asked but couldnt get to that department,this lady was the ultimate secretary from hell,hehe.
Finally the catalogue shops which I believe are ABA run,ive applied but heard nothing from them about being accepted as a shopper,do they take ages to approve you.

thanks for your help.

RE do have other shops, but you might not see them whilst you are Probationary. Once you've done your first shop and they've approved it, then you will be changed to Active status, which means that you can pick up more than one shop at a time and should see more available.

The catalogue shops are done by Abai, it's so long since I signed up with them I can't remember exactly but I think it was pretty much straightaway after signing up that you can log on. You need to sign up for each client individually. See first posts for further details.

rachelandgromit

I know there must be people who are allocated jobs with ESA however I am wondering if there is a knack to being allocated jobs. I must have literally applied for hundreds of jobs with them, and always list them on the alerts thread too. In my application I state when I can do the job, or I am specific as saying 'I work very close to this store'. I have written a couple of lines in my application and also a paragraph but can't seem to be allocated any.

Any help apprechiated.

Rachel

nearlyheadlessian

Gosh, RE is behaving like it's been hit by a train right now.

loulou_1984

nehpets81 wrote: »

Can anyone else see any RE music stores or underground sandwiches in London? I haven't seen any this week despite seeing alerts and would be a bit annoyed if there is some abstract reason RE have stopped me seeing them....

I can see one sandwich and several music stores. I often feel like their filters have no rhyme or reason to what they display!

HZA

Yay! I got the egg job assigned! :j I can't see any briefing on the website though. Can anybody tell me where I can find it? When I saw the egg jobs last month, I could open the briefing file from the summary but can't find it anywhere this time. I can only see the questionnaire.

nehpets81

Chocforever wrote: »

There are vast amounts of guidance and case law on how to apply the wholly and exclusively test to different trades because it is difficult to apply a general rule to different circumstances. I can’t find anything specific or closely relevant to MS.

It seems to me that the main issue is the one lots of people have pointed out. What do you do when you have to make a purchase for a job, but there may also be a personal benefit gained from having that item. This is called duality of purpose in taxspeak and normally you have take a view one way or the other rather than allowing part of the expense as deductible and part of it non-deductible. In general, I think this means that most of our required purchases are non-tax deductible (eg. books, CDs, clothing, supermarket shopping etc).

However, where the main purpose of the expense is for the trade and any personal benefit is incidental, the cost is tax deductible. You will not be surprised to find that the term “incidental” has been open to much interpretation. The view I have taken is that food on the go is tax deductible because the personal benefit, because humans have to eat, is incidental. This sort of argument has been seen in relevant case law. So taking the pizza example that came up, I would say you had to order the pizza to do the job. The fact that it meant you then did not need to make your own dinner is an incidental benefit. Similarly, I would deduct food and drink at pub and restaurants visits where the items were part of the MS. There are some services I would also put in this category, like beauty treatments (if I was ever allocated these jobs).

Thanks for that - it seems very well explained and I think as you point out I think a lot of the confusion arises because there doesn't seem to be anything specific to cover MS. So, from the above where you say you would not pay tax on the pizza reimbursement as it is a requirement ot order the pizza to do the job. Now, the thing I don't quite get is if there is no fee to do the job, and the "fee" was the pizza reimbursement itself does the fact that the person doing the job for the pizza not prevent it from being an incidental benefit as the person is doing the job to get the free pizza? Of course one could argue (as mentioned by someone earlier) that the reason for the job was for experience or to get more better paid work from the company. If someone had a lot of these kind of jobs, would not HM customs see through that?