Mystery Shopping Thread 23 *PLEASE READ THE OP FIRST**PLEASE NO CLIENT NAMES OR FEES

DPJames

Strangely, that's easier to understand, mi melon pequeño

sparklysaver

whitelabel wrote: »

The link ive given is what HMRC refer people to on their own website

Yeah, but you edited that and the other information into your post AFTER I'd posted. So now it looks like I'm waffling on about something you've already comprehensively answered.

PeteW

Hi, couple tax questions…

According to the section on the front page you work out your profit/loss by deducting your costs from your reimbursement/fee. I'm just wondering what happens when the fee doesn't cover your spend? Ie some of the RE jobs say 'This fee contributes towards your costs but may not cover them entirely'. So if the fee was £10 towards a meal where you ended up spending £25, does this go down in your records as a £15 loss?

Also, just to check - if I drive to work and then walk into town on my lunch to do an assignment, I can't claim mileage can I?

Thanks

HappyMJ

PeteW wrote: »

Hi, couple tax questions…

According to the section on the front page you work out your profit/loss by deducting your costs from your reimbursement/fee. I'm just wondering what happens when the fee doesn't cover your spend? Ie some of the RE jobs say 'This fee contributes towards your costs but may not cover them entirely'. So if the fee was £10 towards a meal where you ended up spending £25, does this go down in your records as a £15 loss?

Also, just to check - if I drive to work and then walk into town on my lunch to do an assignment, I can't claim mileage can I?

Thanks

That would be too much. Normally for burger jobs as the difference is only about 19 or 29 pence then I'll put the receipt through and it's accepted. If the difference is £15 (or more than about 10%) then I'll just claim the amount of the reimbursement as an expense and the difference comes out of my pocket.

You can't claim mileage for walking.

whitelabel

sparklysaver wrote: »

Yeah, but you edited that and the other information into your post AFTER I'd posted. So now it looks like I'm waffling on about something you've already comprehensively answered.

I think there was some cross posting. I posted a vague answer first then annoyed myself that couldn't recall all details so pulled up my saved link and edited my post without seeing yours till after. My last post above was only to save a phonecall and waiting on hold not a critism of your post

Big_Graeme

PeteW wrote: »

Hi, couple tax questions…

According to the section on the front page you work out your profit/loss by deducting your costs from your reimbursement/fee. I'm just wondering what happens when the fee doesn't cover your spend? Ie some of the RE jobs say 'This fee contributes towards your costs but may not cover them entirely'. So if the fee was £10 towards a meal where you ended up spending £25, does this go down in your records as a £15 loss?

Hence the way my sheet is set up...

You choose to spend more than the allowance so you can't write it off against tax, if you could what is to stop me taking the whole family out and writing that off against tax, as I understand it HMRC won't query the odd amount over unless you get a real PITA auditor. Since speaking to a tax advisor I decided that it really wasn't worth the hassle to argue about any overages.

These considerations should be taken into account when you accept a job with a tight spend allowance, same with reimbursement only jobs.

PeteW wrote: »

Also, just to check - if I drive to work and then walk into town on my lunch to do an assignment, I can't claim mileage can I?

Thanks

No. You can only claim mileage if you travel for that job, say you drove into work then drove to lunch the portion on the tip that was you driving from work to the job and back again is what you record.

PeteW

Big_Graeme wrote: »

You choose to spend more than the allowance so you can't write it off against tax, if you could what is to stop me taking the whole family out and writing that off against tax.

Thanks Graeme, that's rather what I thought, but unless I'm missing something the spreadsheet seems to work the other way? I.e, if I put in Spending allowance £10, Actual spend £15 the Profit comes up as -£15.

DevilsAdvocate1

samtastic7 wrote: »

It's a quiet month so far. May was manic for me, But it can change

Its scarily quiet. I need a certain amount to pay my bills and I'm way below at the minute. It doesn't help that I've lost a few regular jobs over the last few months. I might have to get a proper job at this rate :eek:

whitelabel

Sounds like entry error or formula using wrong fields

Big_Graeme

PeteW wrote: »

Thanks Graeme, that's rather what I thought, but unless I'm missing something the spreadsheet seems to work the other way? I.e, if I put in Spending allowance £10, Actual spend £15 the Profit comes up as -£15.

Ah, you have spotted a bug that I thought I'd sorted.