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

invalid_username_2

misssarahleigh wrote: »

Are you Welsh?

No sweety, it's just the way i walk

invalid_username_2

Okie dokie, i give up. who are GR and RM? And your alerting thread is going to take somme decyphering too. Posh chicken, country walks??

And thanks for the welcomes by the way

superliss

invalid_username wrote: »

Okie dokie, i give up. who are GR and RM? And your alerting thread is going to take somme decyphering too. Posh chicken, country walks??

And thanks for the welcomes by the way

If you look at the first page you should be able to make sense of the acronyms, also the 'posh chicken' etc you will figure out if your already signed up to that company.

So soon you will know your RM's from your GR's from your BVSMP's (made the last one up.)

PavlosEgg

Hi all

Sorry if the answer is already here. Hard to search this forum sometimes. Nice to meet you all.

I've been MSing for a month now, and mainly using it to cover cost of lunches in the City. My question is what do people generally count as expenses from the total payments received? If I get a £5 fee and a £5 reimbursement, but my expense receipt was £6, should I class the whole £6 as expenses? Does this depend on what the assignment told me to buy, against any extras I purchased? Do people also add on printing costs etc?

Thanks!

Boredupnorth

PavlosEgg wrote: »

Hi all

Sorry if the answer is already here. Hard to search this forum sometimes. Nice to meet you all.

I've been MSing for a month now, and mainly using it to cover cost of lunches in the City. My question is what do people generally count as expenses from the total payments received? If I get a £5 fee and a £5 reimbursement, but my expense receipt was £6, should I class the whole £6 as expenses? Does this depend on what the assignment told me to buy, against any extras I purchased? Do people also add on printing costs etc?

Thanks!

I take it you mean for tax purposes?
If so then your fee plus your reimbursement is what you would declare as income as the reimbursement is classed as benefits in kind.
So you’re theoretical £5 plus your £5 reimbursement (not the additional you spent) gives you an income of £10. You would be wrong to think of the reimbursement as an expense, it is part of your fee no matter how you look at it.
Your expenses would be printing at 6 ppp plus any travel, either car at 43 ppm or public transport, telephone costs, car parking, contribution towards use of your internet and a token annual rent for the area you need in your house to do the reports etc.
If you work in the city and shop in the city I am not sure you would get away with any travel costs as you would already need to be there anyway, unless of course you need to take a bus to get from work to wherever it is you would have lunch.
Hope this helps.

MSRyan

Monkeynut wrote: »

But we are a friendly bunch really!

Lol, Just don't ask 'What companies are best to sign up to?'

Boredupnorth

MSRyan wrote: »

Lol, Just don't ask 'What companies are best to sign up to?'

Strangely in a round about sort of way this person did and did not receive the usual backlash from some people!
Maybe some people have decided its best to just say nothing rather than point out what is obvious to some and not others.
I have to say it makes for a far better forum when smug people are nice to newbies rather than taking great delight in pointing out their failings. Long may it live, and welcome on board invalid username

invalid_username_2

I must say, reading back it seems quite afew new comers have been unfairly ridiculed. I've had a lovly welcome and i hope it continues but others havent faired so well. One in particular who stood up for him/herself then got put on everyones ignored list.:(

Maybe this could be a new beginning for everyone? where no one is picked on and we all try to support each other, even the new people.:D

And i promise to do a search first before asking anyhting.:j

Now what the heck are fast supermarket jobs and egg jobs:o

Have a nice day everyone

misssarahleigh

invalid_username wrote: »

No sweety, it's just the way i walk

It was the "looksee.". My boyfriends mother says it all the time and she's Welsh. I've never seen it typed before though. It tickled me

weeg

Boredupnorth wrote: »

I take it you mean for tax purposes?
If so then your fee plus your reimbursement is what you would declare as income as the reimbursement is classed as benefits in kind.
So you’re theoretical £5 plus your £5 reimbursement (not the additional you spent) gives you an income of £10. You would be wrong to think of the reimbursement as an expense, it is part of your fee no matter how you look at it.
Your expenses would be printing at 6 ppp plus any travel, either car at 43 ppm or public transport, telephone costs, car parking, contribution towards use of your internet and a token annual rent for the area you need in your house to do the reports etc.
If you work in the city and shop in the city I am not sure you would get away with any travel costs as you would already need to be there anyway, unless of course you need to take a bus to get from work to wherever it is you would have lunch.
Hope this helps.

I'm going to disagree with this. There has been a lot of discussion on these threads over the years about this, and various people (including one who worked for HMRC, as I recall) have concluded something slightly different.

If the report specifically asks about the taste, quality, freshness etc of the food item, then it can be classed as a deductible expense. The logic being you needed to eat the food to earn the fee - you can therefore claim anything you must buy to assess as an expense. (For example, there is no way I would eat 3 fast food burgers in one day without being paid).

If, however, there is no fee, then you are only doing the work in exchange for the food and the food is a 'benefit in kind' and the re-imbursement is taxable.

Complicated, I know, but this has been discussed and tested over the years and HMRC accepts this.