Tax for mystery shopping

lil_miss_17

Hi all,
I have a normal job but also do mystery shopping for Retail Eyes. Most of the time it's just reimbursement but sometimes you get paid a fee (usually £5 or £10). I'm a bit worried about paying tax etc and have no idea whatsoever how I declare it etc. Can anyone help? Also I'm leaving my job to go back to uni in september so won't be earning at all so am hoping to use the mystery shopping to get my lunches for free!

Mikeyorks

As it's a small sum - the first para of post #4 in this thread appears to best fit? You don't really need / want to have to do an SA Return when, for a lot of the time, the small sums should be amply covered by your personal allowance (when back at Uni) :-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607305

lil_miss_17

Mikeyorks wrote: »

As it's a small sum - the first para of post #4 in this thread appears to best fit? You don't really need / want to have to do an SA Return when, for a lot of the time, the small sums should be amply covered by your personal allowance (when back at Uni) :-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607305

Thanks, I think that's helped a bit., So I just do nothing?

bumpybecky

I'm not convinced by the information given above.

I've been mystery shopping for 7 years now and have always completed a tax return, even when it has been my only paid employment. I've never earnt more by MSing than my personal allowance, but have always declared it and completed a tax return (they're really not that difficult). It's important that you register as self employed within 3 months (I think) or you can be fined.

lil_miss_17

I think I might just ring HMRC and ask!

bumpybecky

good plan they've always been very helpful when I've phoned them

Mikeyorks

lil_miss_17 wrote: »

So I just do nothing?

No. You contact your tax office ...... and you advise them of the taxable sum you expect to make in this tax year. They will code that out in order you pay the tax under PAYE.

As it's relatively small it saves you going the self-employed route and causing unnecessary work for yourself and tying up the SA system needlessly. As the link I provided - it's quite clear it's a viable route for additional earnings up to £2500pa. Just in case you read the wrong bit :-

If you're an employee or receive a company or personal pension you can receive up to £2,500 extra income in a year and still pay tax on it through your tax code. For amounts greater than £2,500 you'll have to complete a tax return and pay tax through Self Assessment.
If you don't want to pay tax on your other income through your tax code you can ask HMRC to stop collecting it this way and pay through Self Assessment instead.

lil_miss_17

Does the money I get as reimbursement count or is it just the fees that I add up?

Mikeyorks

If you're opting for doing it under PAYE (and HMRC agree) it's just your net profit.

If you decide to go into SA then you would normally need to show all incoming + deduct expenses. But if it's under £15k (?) overall - you can normally just simplify to net profit.