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

nearlyheadlessian

serendipity2706 wrote: »

Just cancelled a couple of Secret eatings, Glasgow and Edinburgh if anyone is near enough to get there

Was tempted when the email came through, before concluding I have no desire to go out for dinner on buses that may not get me back home!

Lil_Me_2

This is the way I see it (fees and reimbursements totally fictional and don't relate to anything) -

Example -

Required spend £3
Mileage/printing £2
Fee £10

On one hand the HMRC say -

A business expense is allowable if it:
is wholly and exclusively for business purposes

So in theory if we all use our £3 to buy stuff we personally want to use (and therefore saves us £3 from our normal weekly shop) then it isn't just for business.

However the HMRC also say

You can get some private benefit from the expenditure and still get tax relief for the amount spent for your business, as long as either:

• the private benefit was incidental and not the reason for the expenditure
• you can clearly identify and separate the expenditure between business and private purposes

So in the majority of fee paying assignments any private benefit (shopping) was incidental as the expenditure (buying the shopping) was necessary in order to be paid the fee!

This does however also point out that if you are told you must spend £3 and then you spent £5 you can only claim £3 as an expense (not that we would).

In misssarahleigh's case I would say that if the cheapest item is £5 then you put £5 as if you didn't spend £5 and left with nothing then you wouldn't get paid!

In a non-fee paying assignment you don't get a fee, so the only reason you do the assignment is to get the private benefit (free pizza for example). So you can't really claim this as an expense because it doesn't actually benefit your business. All this means is that you don't get a totally free pizza as you shouldn't really put it down as an expense. So you pay 20% on the reimbursement (minus the usual printing/mileage costs).

However as Duchy says, you could in theory say that by helping out the company by completing the job you are helping your business by showing willing and networking to get more paid work at a later date!


I think a lot of it is down to how comfortable you feel in arguing your case with HMRC should you ever get questioned.

It's clear that some here put everything down as an expense (incl no-fee jobs), some put expenses for fee paying jobs and others don't put any reimbursements down as expenses!

tbw

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.

Somewhere on the 'eggs' paperwork it specifically states that, to comply with tax office regulations, the essential items purchased MUST BE DESTROYED OR DONATED TO A REGISTERED CHARITY! You do not (apparently) have the option of using them yourself thereby gaining a benefit.

Mistic

jen_br wrote: »

Its not grey at all you are missing the point.. let me try to explain this very simply and how (my accountant has been doing my books for the last 6 years)

Ok say you are going to Bubba Gumps (made up names and fees) and the assignment is to eat there and write a report on the food and service... You can have up to 25.00 as your expenses and 20.00 for a fee..

You record 45.00 on income and under expenses you write 25.00 for the meal + travel+ printing+ etc etc. so lets say after that job the fee is 45.00 your expenses were 40.00 you would walk away with 5.00 profit.. the 5.00 is taxable

If your going to Bubba Gumps Burger bar and are told to order combo number 5 which comes to 20.00 and you get a fee of 10.00 you would again record 30.00 income.... minus your expenses lets say they come to 37.00 so you now have a loss of 7.00 this is what the tax man will see. So you don't pay any tax on a loss.

My accountant has always said as long as you are purchasing what is required ie. combo number 5 because you are reporting on the taste etc that is an expense (no different then a restaurant critic) but you still have to record it.

Make sense?

Following that, which makes sense to me and was what I understood to be the case before..

What happens with you have an assignment of 10 spend, 10 reimbursement and 0 fee? Say you spend 10 on some item.. the item was required for the completion of the assignment and you would not have bought it normally.. you have spent 10 made 10 made 0 profit so no tax.. ?

Would the item be taxable and considered payment?

I realise the immediate answer to that is why would you do an assignment with no fee with items you did not want.. but there are reasons, some of which would be for experience when starting, or to build a profile with a company.

dazza.mk

Mistic wrote: »

Following that, which makes sense to me and was what I understood to be the case before..

What happens with you have an assignment of 10 spend, 10 reimbursement and 0 fee? Say you spend 10 on some item.. the item was required for the completion of the assignment and you would not have bought it normally.. you have spent 10 made 10 made 0 profit so no tax.. ?

Would the item be taxable and considered payment?

I realise the immediate answer to that is why would you do an assignment with no fee with items you did not want.. but there are reasons, some of which would be for experience when starting, or to build a profile with a company.

I would imagine the 'default' view by HMRC would be that you are doiing it for the benefit of receiving the goods, you can of course argue that you're doing it to build a profile with the company etc., but you'd need to argue/prove the point more than just say it.

mysterious_girl

tbw wrote: »

Somewhere on the 'eggs' paperwork it specifically states that, to comply with tax office regulations, the essential items purchased MUST BE DESTROYED OR DONATED TO A REGISTERED CHARITY! You do not (apparently) have the option of using them yourself thereby gaining a benefit.

So all you out there asking for omelette recipes - BEWARE!

tbw

Lil_Me wrote: »

TIn a non-fee paying assignment you don't get a fee, so the only reason you do the assignment is to get the private benefit (free pizza for example). So you can't really claim this as an expense because it doesn't actually benefit your business. All this means is that you don't get a totally free pizza as you shouldn't really put it down as an expense. So you pay 20% on the reimbursement (minus the usual printing/mileage costs).


I think a lot of it is down to how comfortable you feel in arguing your case with HMRC should you ever get questioned.

It's clear that some here put everything down as an expense (incl no-fee jobs), some put expenses for fee paying jobs and others don't put any reimbursements down as expenses!

So far as the Tax Office (and anyone else ) is concerned, I don't eat Pizza (or any other of the junk food we have to asssess). I take a bite to assess the quality etc and bin the rest. I would be happy to justify that to the Tax Office on the odd occasion I do a no fee job.

dazza.mk

tbw wrote: »

So far as the Tax Office (and anyone else ) is concerned, I don't eat Pizza (or any other of the junk food we have to asssess). I take a bite to assess the quality etc and bin the rest. I would be happy to justify that to the Tax Office on the odd occasion I do a no fee job.

Sounds a lot like Clinton's smoked Maruijana but didn't inhale excuse! As I said in my last post, you can say it..... but you'll need to argue why you did it

misssarahleigh

dazza.mk wrote: »

Sounds a lot like Clinton's smoked Maruijana but didn't inhale excuse! As I said in my last post, you can say it..... but you'll need to argue why you did it

True. But would they be able to prove you were lying?

E.g. I took a coffee with somebody for refund only.

I had never worked for the company before and wanted to get my foot in the door as well as having never done a coffee before.

Can they prove that i'm lying? (if i am, which i actually aren't)

look_after_the_pennies

proshopper wrote: »

Well, I'm not affected by the weather, pennies (there is still only half an inch of snow here, and fingers crossed it stays that way). I am severely hampered by lack of car, though. A leaking radiator has put me off the road until the local garage can locate a replacement, and that is proving tricky.


So, I'm not making much of an inroad into my huge workload. I keep rescheduling and rescheduling; luckily most of my jobs have flexible dates. Some of the places I need to get to seem to be bordering on the bad weather areas - where are you, pennies?

I'm Ipswich way. Been snowing non stop all day and settling. Luckily I was able to leave early from my "normal" job. Hair raising journey back though as the snow was coming down and settling on the road. Could hardly make out the lane markings on the A14. Everyone was driving sensibly though. Completely different story when I was reaching my home town 15 miles away. Lovely clear roads and no snow falling.