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

Tudorc1

Max

As you are here. I had applied for a job on your board which was already in it's work timeframe. The day I had suggested came and went, and the job was still pending. Won't be in that town again within timeframe so had to release. Firstly, is it possible to speed up allocations so that this doesn't happen and we can plan ahead, and secondly, does you system hold a released job against us for future work?

Boredupnorth

HappyMJ wrote: »

The HMRC threat is a monetary penalty. I am not concerned. The penalty for benefit fraud from the council is much higher potentially prison especially as you think I can't deduct expenses and have been doing that for 6 years. That's about £54,000 of benefit over the 6 years and only about £5,000 of potential unpaid tax.

Last thing I am going to say on this as I really don’t think you get it. I dont mean to sound harsh but if you think the penalty for tax evasion (put whatever spin on that you like) is simply monetary you’re very wrong. As for the council, if your found to have evaded paying tax the council will come after you too as you will have under declared your income so in effect you will have fraudulently claimed benefits so you get the double whammy. Do not get the councils interpretation of it confused with HMRC.

Quite a few people on here have offered up good advice on what is legal and what is illegal, take the advice or don’t, the choice is yours its no skin off anyone else’s noses when you get caught out.

dazza.mk

HappyMJ wrote: »

The HMRC threat is a monetary penalty. I am not concerned. The penalty for benefit fraud from the council is much higher potentially prison especially as you think I can't deduct expenses and have been doing that for 6 years. That's about £54,000 of benefit over the 6 years and only about £5,000 of potential unpaid tax.

HappyMJ , my comment re: expenses was a throw away comment, but if you say "I mystery shop for free stuff" there is a risk that could be taken literally and all mystery shopping expenses seen as a benefit in kind (see the thread I mentioned)

dazza.mk

MaxAben wrote: »

HI Dazza.mk,

Its still in our plans but not possible as of yet. We hope to get it up as soon as we can as it will benefit us as well. We will keep you updated.

Thanks
Max

Thanks, thought that would be the case just wondered if it had moved closer on the feasibility stakes!

Lil_Me_2

The bottom line is whatever you do and put on your tax return you need to be able to argue why you did it that way with the HMRC should it ever be questioned.

The trigger in the case we've said was that their expenses were so high compared to their income, which is the same in your case. They queried their 06/07 tax return in 2009 and it took 11 months to get it resolved. The end result was that because they could prove that they only bought stuff when there was a fee involved then it was an incidental benefit. It's honestly a really interesting read and it's a case I would refer to (hopefully with permission) if I ever get questioned.

clippy_girl

re the name of the thread, i am pretty sure that it used to say in the title to read the first few posts and we still had all the same questions. also, it clealy says not to mention clients or fees and people still do anyway.

i know everyone is complaining etc... at the moment with regards to posts about 'which co is best' and the replies about reading the first post but the truth is, directing ppl to the first post is the most useful reply! this is because-

1. if i say 'gap are great, definitely sign up to them', newbie has to go to first post to get link to sign up to gap
2. newbie will see just how many co's there are rather than the few that are recommended. also if newbie doesnt really like the company recommended that they signed up to, they are aware there are lots more out there
3. there is lots of useful info about the co's such as paydate, some info on type of job etc... which might be important when deciding who to choose (eg if you dont want to be out of pocket for lots of money for a long time dont choose bare!!!!!!) although not sure it does say that about bare
4. there are other tips on there about stuff newbies may not even know about and therefore will not ask questions about
5. actually there is no answer about what is best company anyway as is always mentione everytime its asked.

some co's only do cities, you may not live in a city. lots of ppl in your area can be signed up to one co so you will not get much but they might not be signed up to the others, some jobs are very complicated and not everyones cup of tea, some people do it to make a living so reimb jobs not really ideal whereas others do it for 'free' clothes, meals, theme parks etc.. (with tax paid on your reimb obviously :A)

misssarahleigh

Ok, interesting question as I cannot work it out.

As it's coming up to xmas I normally get gifts on jobs. Some of these are reinbursment only jobs. e.g. Perfume Stores

As I understand it, I cannot claim to get a benifit from the gift as I will be giving it away (Normally get my gran something).

But then again, i'm not doing it to get the fee

How should I classify this?

Monkeynut

It benefits you as it saves you the money in buying said present (even if you would not have bought that particular thing, you still would have had to spend out on something). Maybe that's the way to look at it?
Unless you say that obviously you gave it to your gran etc for them to destroy obviously, not as any sort of gift!! The red and gold wrapping paper was purely a coincidence!!

(I am joking about that last part by the way before I get jumped on for encouraging any sort of tax fraud!!)

Lil_Me_2

misssarahleigh wrote: »

Ok, interesting question as I cannot work it out.

As it's coming up to xmas I normally get gifts on jobs. Some of these are reinbursment only jobs. e.g. Perfume Stores

As I understand it, I cannot claim to get a benifit from the gift as I will be giving it away (Normally get my gran something).

But then again, i'm not doing it to get the fee

How should I classify this?

Technically you class the reimbursement as an income, so you'll liable to pay tax on that amount minus any mileage etc. So you need to think of the jobs as buying something with 80% off. So not that bad really.

dazza.mk

misssarahleigh wrote: »

Ok, interesting question as I cannot work it out.

As it's coming up to xmas I normally get gifts on jobs. Some of these are reinbursment only jobs. e.g. Perfume Stores

As I understand it, I cannot claim to get a benifit from the gift as I will be giving it away (Normally get my gran something).

But then again, i'm not doing it to get the fee

How should I classify this?

I'd say anything that is reimbursement only the starting position wouldbe that it is disallowable (as otherwise why would you do the job) and you'd have to argue that it was otherwise, in your case the economic benefit is not having to actually purchase a present for your gran.

I suppose people 'might' do the job and give it away to charity, but probably unlikely (as rather than do a reimbursement only job surely most people are more likely to give money directly).