MYSTERY SHOPPING THREAD 18 - please don't mention client names or fees on here!!

StacFace

winners09 wrote: »

Hello.

I am just wondering if you are 'allowed' for tax purposes to make a large loss on one (or more) of your jobs, which then negates your income from a few of your other jobs. Eg you are reimbursed for a shop up to £10, but you actually spend £50 on the item. Can this, for tax purposes, then count as a £40 loss, offsetting profit from other jobs? You wouldn't have bought the item if it wasn't for the job, but then again you could take the item back if you don't want it... Anyone have an opinion / advice?

Thanks.

Only if you couldn't have bought anything cheaper, you couldn't buy a Nintendo Wii in a games shop with a £10 reimbursement for example, as you could have bought a cheap game instead (unless they had sold out of everything cheaper, which is highly unlikely).

And you have to have a reason for doing it in case they ask, such as it was a new company and you were trying to get onto their good side, or you accepted the job without realising everything would be sold out then went ahead as you had committed to doing the job already.

Lil_Me_2

winners09 wrote: »

Eg you are reimbursed for a shop up to £10, but you actually spend £50 on the item. Can this, for tax purposes, then count as a £40 loss, offsetting profit from other jobs?

The simple answer - No.

The more complex answer - It's a grey area about whether items you buy should be taxable benefits or not, but I think you'd be taking the biscuit if you tried to argue that you HAD to buy a £50 item even though there are £10 items available to buy and then also try and argue that you didn't really want the £50 item anyway and you were only buying it for the job.

I don't think the tax man would look kindly on you.

serendipity2706

winners09 wrote: »

Hello.

I am just wondering if you are 'allowed' for tax purposes to make a large loss on one (or more) of your jobs, which then negates your income from a few of your other jobs. Eg you are reimbursed for a shop up to £10, but you actually spend £50 on the item. Can this, for tax purposes, then count as a £40 loss, offsetting profit from other jobs? You wouldn't have bought the item if it wasn't for the job, but then again you could take the item back if you don't want it... Anyone have an opinion / advice?

Thanks.

No! What you spend over the reimbursement is your choice so not tax deductable
However, If it looks like I might be paying tax, I do a mystery shop in Glasgow or Edinburgh which are over 100 miles round trip, and am allowed mileage at 40 p a mile so this makes the job a big loss.

StacFace

What I don't get is why you would. When you pay tax you are paying a percentage of the extra earnings over the threshold, when you do a job for a loss purposely to avoid paying tax you are paying everything over the extra earnings threshold. Wouldn't it be cheaper for you to just pay tax?

serendipity2706

StacFace wrote: »

What I don't get is why you would. When you pay tax you are paying a percentage of the extra earnings over the threshold, when you do a job for a loss purposely to avoid paying tax you are paying everything over the extra earnings threshold. Wouldn't it be cheaper for you to just pay tax?

But I already have a job on which I pay tax...
So would pay tax on ANY profit, and it may well push me into the higher tax bracket.

boyoboy1986

Ok, own up - who was it?

I've just been into town (Glasgow) and stopped at the RE burger joint at Queen St station where the latest RE report was being discussed. 36%!

Although given the service I experienced (whilst the poor service was being discussed) it is a miracle they achieved 36%

serendipity2706

boyoboy1986 wrote: »

Ok, own up - who was it?

I've just been into town (Glasgow) and stopped at the RE burger joint at Queen St station where the latest RE report was being discussed. 36%!

Although given the service I experienced (whilst the poor service was being discussed) it is a miracle they achieved 36%

Wasnae me:p

winners09

StacFace wrote: »

What I don't get is why you would. When you pay tax you are paying a percentage of the extra earnings over the threshold, when you do a job for a loss purposely to avoid paying tax you are paying everything over the extra earnings threshold. Wouldn't it be cheaper for you to just pay tax?

As I said, I'm assuming you want the item - you could just take it back for a refund if you don't want it.

Many thanks everyone for the advice, I thought that it would be a bit dodgy, but I just wanted to check!

Miss_Qwerty

boyoboy1986 wrote: »

I've just been into town (Glasgow) and stopped at the RE burger joint at Queen St station where the latest RE report was being discussed. 36%!

Whoever it was must now be sacked for giving a low score.

boyoboy1986

Miss_Qwerty wrote: »

Whoever it was must now be sacked for giving a low score.

That's the GYP! With RE the poor sod has probably been bombarded with proofreading queries and with that score there will no doubt be a few.