Mystery Shopping Thread 20 **PLEASE DO NOT MENTION CLIENT NAMES OR FEES ON HERE**

Lil_Me_2

rocki_rhod wrote: »

Hey guys I’m just about to sign up to do this but I have a few questions before I do


If you have to apply as self employed and have a certificate of small earning AND providing you earn less than £5,075 I take it there is nothing to pay in either tax or NI.

Is this correct? So we are basically fill in the forms so everything is ‘legal’ but don’t actually have to pay tax or NI????



And my second question is…….
Can I use 2 accounts, one to buy the products, and one to receive payments from the company?

I ask because I have 2 accounts 1 I have a debit card for, the other is just an ATM card. I will be using the debt card to make the purchases and get paid into the account into the account which just has an ATM cared.

(it’s just an ATM account so I can’t use it on the internet, bit like a ‘rainy day fund’ )

Is this ok? Or do the payments have to come from the same account as they go in because I know on a receipt it will say I have paid with my card.

As a side note to this, I presume that things HAVE to be paid for by card to verify that it is us that bought the products as cash has no paper trail.


Thanks in advance
) :beer:

To answer question 1 - if this is your only income then yes that is correct. If you have another job then you might have to pay tax but NI is quite often covered by any PAYE work. Basically the tax free allowance is per person, per tax year not per employment.

To answer your second question - you can pay with whatever you want. I vary my payment out of different accounts depending on which one has money in and if none of them do it goes on the credit card! I've never had any problems

serendipity2706

iwonder wrote: »

Ah, thanks Serendipity, that will be it. It wouldn't have caught me because from previous business experience, I never send money anywhere until I know a cheque has cleared, but I expect there would have been a lot of pressure to send it quickly etc. If something sounds too good to be true....
This guy has literally hundreds of ads out there though. Something should be done!! Thank you for your help.

I think the cheque comes from somewhere abroad and it DOES appear to have cleared, and the refund is made, then it bounces afterwards and the Western Union person can't be traced.
You can report him to trading standards,
I almost was caught by something similar on Gumtree when I advertised an antique sideboard for sale and someone offered a ridiculously high sum for it.

rocki_rhod

thanks so much for the quick reply Lil_Me

kst101 wrote: »

If the only money you earn is through Mystery Shopping (ie you aren't employed as well) then you will pay no tax up to £7,475 I think the personal allowance is now.

Isn’t that JUST for tax though, I thought the level for payment of NI (£2.50 a week) was lower, as Tax and NI are calculated differently.

On the directgov website it says
‘If your profits are expected to be less than £5,315 you may not have to pay Class 2 National Insurance contributions.’
Though I guess this answers my question. I was just wondering if this is what everyone experiences (paying no tax) because I don’t want to be hit with a tax bill or anything

kst101 wrote: »

If you have to buy products as part of the mystery shop then it is up to you how you pay. I have two bank accounts and use either interchangeably. Or I pay with cash. You will often need to submit a receipt, but it doesn't matter how you pay for it.

Thanks that’s answered that one ):j

OOPS I’VE GOT MIXED UP WHO SAID WHAT HERE…. BUT THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPLYS! )

rocki_rhod

Thanks so much guys! Got the answers I wanted )... going to register with GFK now to test the waters… no doubt you’ll probably be getting more messages from me as I’m new to all this.


Happy days!

Lil_Me_2

rocki_rhod wrote: »

Thanks so much guys! Got the answers I wanted )... going to register with GFK now to test the waters… no doubt you’ll probably be getting more messages from me as I’m new to all this.


Happy days!

Glad we could help! Please do stick around, we need fresh blood or we start to go a little mad

kst101

Not sure quite what the NI limit is, but that is considered separately for self employed and employed income. If your SE turnover is more than around £5k (must check the figures) then you need to pay class 2 at about £2 a week. If your profit is more than a certain amount (again need to check the figures) then you need to pay Class 4 on the profit (or at least on the difference between the limit and what you've made as profit).

It is unlikely you will make enough Mystery shopping to pay NI on it, even if you do have other empoyed work as that is class 1 NI. I need to check the limits as I have other SE work which is now building up (good ) but will mean I need to pay additional NI contributions (not quite so good).

rocki_rhod

Lil_Me wrote: »

Glad we could help! Please do stick around, we need fresh blood or we start to go a little mad

LOL will do :beer:

kst101 wrote: »

Not sure quite what the NI limit is, but that is considered separately for self employed and employed income. If your SE turnover is more than around £5k (must check the figures) then you need to pay class 2 at about £2 a week. If your profit is more than a certain amount (again need to check the figures) then you need to pay Class 4 on the profit (or at least on the difference between the limit and what you've made as profit).

It is unlikely you will make enough Mystery shopping to pay NI on it, even if you do have other empoyed work as that is class 1 NI. I need to check the limits as I have other SE work which is now building up (good ) but will mean I need to pay additional NI contributions (not quite so good).

Thanks, you are right
i've been going by this 'hmrc. gov. uk/rates/nic.htm' (sorry i cant post links) under the 'Class 2 small earnings exception' but it took me a while to get my head around it LOL

thanks

spender

Has anybody been paid by JKS recently or able to contact them.

I have emailed several times and left messages on the answerphone to no avail. I am very disappointed and think that this is morally so wrong, if my day job did not pay on time there would be an uproar but because it is "only" mystery shopping we are expected to wait to way pass the pay date. What happens to the interest the company is getting by having the money sitting in their account. Despite Gaps faults (and I no longer work for them) at least they would advise that payment would be late. A simple reply to one of my emails from JKS explaining that there is a delay would go a long way. I am more cross at the fact that you can not get a reply to an email than the money. However on another point, many years ago after separating from my first husband I had no money not a bean, I had two children to feed and would sometimes feed them and not myself. (and yes I chose to work to provide for the children but what with rent etc we were broke!) What if someone else was waiting on JKS money to feed their kids?

Anyway that is the rant over!

misssarahleigh

spender wrote: »

Has anybody been paid by JKS recently or able to contact them.

I have emailed several times and left messages on the answerphone to no avail. I am very disappointed and think that this is morally so wrong, if my day job did not pay on time there would be an uproar but because it is "only" mystery shopping we are expected to wait to way pass the pay date. What happens to the interest the company is getting by having the money sitting in their account. Despite Gaps faults (and I no longer work for them) at least they would advise that payment would be late. A simple reply to one of my emails from JKS explaining that there is a delay would go a long way. I am more cross at the fact that you can not get a reply to an email than the money. However on another point, many years ago after separating from my first husband I had no money not a bean, I had two children to feed and would sometimes feed them and not myself. (and yes I chose to work to provide for the children but what with rent etc we were broke!) What if someone else was waiting on JKS money to feed their kids?

Anyway that is the rant over!

I do know that the two main people are on holiday at JKS i think. Not sure how many are there but got an email about work and it stated would be allocated when they get back.

No excusing them, not sure how the company is set up, so that may be an issue in getting a reply.

duchy

Lil_Me wrote: »

To answer question 1 - if this is your only income then yes that is correct. If you have another job then you might have to pay tax but NI is quite often covered by any PAYE work. Basically the tax free allowance is per person, per tax year not per employment.

To answer your second question - you can pay with whatever you want. I vary my payment out of different accounts depending on which one has money in and if none of them do it goes on the credit card! I've never had any problems

Not strictly true as some jobs specify card payment or cash although I know what you mean

As for the tax question -if the OP reads back to the beginning of the thread -that question is answered there (Yeah yeah I know-No-one actually bothers reading page 1 )