MYSTERY SHOPPING THREAD 17 - please don't mention client names or fees on here!!

duchy

The_Pixi wrote: »

Yeah, if you spent as much time reading the posts as you do attacking people you would see that I know that and I have said I will have to go and do it.

Thanks for your help disguised as vitriol:D

I'd sue them if I were you..........................the charm school that is !

duchy

dazza.mk wrote: »

a no fee shop it would be difficult to argue that a'no fee' shop was not done to benefit from the free meal/drinks/petrol , unless you can argue that you were a compulsive report writer.

Or you were trying to establish a relationship with the company to get an "in" to their better jobs.

look_after_the_pennies

proshopper wrote: »

Is it just me, or is there a reason why they mostly suggest omelettes???:rotfl:

:wave: Proshopper! How are you getting on with all your jobs to do before Christmas Eve?!

Snow has come down fairly overnight here. Was hoping we were going to miss the worst of it! Got some MS jobs to do tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday and hoping I can get to them.

dazza.mk

duchy wrote: »

Or you were trying to establish a relationship with the company to get an "in" to their better jobs.

I'd like to see you argue it! - so what you are saying is that you are in effect touting for business from the mystery shopping company in the future.

Other ways of doing so by other Self Employed people (ie Entertaining clients) is specifically disallowed.

The_Pixi

nehpets81 wrote: »

Thanks for this - I guess these tax rules were not drawn up with MS in mind hence all the grey areas.... Actually this does seem to suggest that the eggs for example in the egg jobs shouldn't be taxed as the reason for the expenditure was to obtain the fee but for a pizza job, where there is no fee the reason for the job is really the free pizza, so this SHOULD be subject to tax... Seems to go against what has been said earlier in the thread. Unless you can try and claim these jobs are done to get the more lucrative jobs in future? Not sure that would wash....

I do think that the above really does suggest the eggs (for example) are an incidental benefit...

This is interesting, I tried raising this point before and it seems now there is a chance that the free shopping is not earnings. I was paid to do the shop and the food was (albeit way more expensive) and the MS company said I could do what I liked with it as they had no need for it.

So the shopping is the property of the MS company who gave me the money back for it, and they don't want it.

Am I understanding that right with reference to the above post?

borders

The shops where you buy eggs it's a specified item that you have to buy. So it could be argued that it's a necessary expense. Other shops just give you £x amount to spend on what you want. I would think the taxman would say thats a benefit and is taxable.

nehpets81

The_Pixi wrote: »

This is interesting, I tried raising this point before and it seems now there is a chance that the free shopping is not earnings. I was paid to do the shop and the food was (albeit way more expensive) and the MS company said I could do what I liked with it as they had no need for it.

So the shopping is the property of the MS company who gave me the money back for it, and they don't want it.

Am I understanding that right with reference to the above post?

Like I said it is a grey area and I'm not whether there are any other issues to take into account but my understanding for what it's worth is that technically if you did the job to get free shopping then you would be taxed on it but if you did the job for the fee and you had to get the shopping as it is part of the job then this is an incidental benefit and it shouldn't be taxed. How HMRC work out whether the benefit was incidental or not is slightly beyond me but I would say if there is no fee then they would assume it is not. IF the reimbursement is more than the fee then I would say the waters get very murky so for example if there was a nominal fee that is added to a pizza job when the initial reimbursement doesn't cover the cost of the pizza then the reason for completing the job is still the free pizza...

Please do note that I'm not a tax expert and just basing this on what I have read and heard but would love to hear from someone who is!

leila1

So is everyone in here paying tax for every pizza they order for Gap? Or every sandwich or unhealthy meal? How many of us would choose to pay 50p for one apple at MS shop while they could get 1/2 lb for the same price from the stall? How many will choose to pay £2 for 6 eggs when they can get 15 for £1? How many would "normally" buy 5 lots of lates or 5 lots of stamps in one day? And why do companies separate the fee from the expenses when they can call it all fee? How many were going to that expensive restaurant/ hotel and the MS job just happen to come up at the same time? What you have to pay for MS (and in most case is about 90% of all purchases) is an expense. Unless you want to compare prices and declare the difference between what you would have paid and what you had to pay for the purchase, and I am sure HMRC will not be keeping the ASDA price records.
If I am buying something on an MS shop, it most likely to be something I would not have bought otherwise (even if's an apple at that silly price) so why would I have to pay tax on it. There would be no MS work done if that was the case bad enough the silly fees we are getting these days.

nehpets81

borders wrote: »

The shops where you buy eggs it's a specified item that you have to buy. So it could be argued that it's a necessary expense. Other shops just give you £x amount to spend on what you want. I would think the taxman would say thats a benefit and is taxable.

I did wonder about that, but I'm not sure this is the case. If you are doing a shop for a decent fee, and there is a smaller reimbursement on top, I wouldn't have thought it mattered whether the ms company specified what you had to buy or not but rather perhaps the minimum purchase requirement is more important - Say for example there was a fee of £15, and a minimum spend of £5. You then spent £6 on your shopping in store. I THINK the £5 you spent would not be taxed as it was a requirement to obtain the £15 fee (no matter what you spent it on).

The_Pixi

nehpets81 wrote: »

Like I said it is a grey area and I'm not whether there are any other issues to take into account but my understanding for what it's worth is that technically if you did the job to get free shopping then you would be taxed on it but if you did the job for the fee and you had to get the shopping as it is part of the job then this is an incidental benefit and it shouldn't be taxed. How HMRC work out whether the benefit was incidental or not is slightly beyond me but I would say if there is no fee then they would assume it is not. IF the reimbursement is more than the fee then I would say the waters get very murky so for example if there was a nominal fee that is added to a pizza job when the initial reimbursement doesn't cover the cost of the pizza then the reason for completing the job is still the free pizza...

Please do note that I'm not a tax expert and just basing this on what I have read and heard but would love to hear from someone who is!

Definatley, it is just grey by the sound of it. The products are specified and it's made clear if you don't order the correct items you won't get the fee and refund, so the goods are in my case a requirement in order to get the fee.