Maximising income - Mystery Shopping? Surveys?

gzil

Becles wrote:

Re-imbursements are not taxable. You have to buy the item as part of job so it's an essential work expense that you are being refunded for.

Often you might not have bought that item anyway. Some of the meals I've gone out for are to places I wouldn't have normally eaten. Sometimes I have to buy things that are of no use to me, like cat toys (no cat!) and baby food (no baby!), so I've given them away to friends who can use them.

Thanks Becles :T I've got another couple of questions about tax - if you don't mind.

When deducting your expenses is it the total amount you spent or the max amount that the company will reimburse you you use. e.g. You're sent to a shop & told you can have Fee + £5.00 spend refunded, however you spend £15 on an item. For tax purposes do you claim the £5 or the £15 (I know what i think the answer will be but I'm ever hopeful )

Also does anyone have any idea how much to claim for printing. I keep a note of how many pages I've printed but I've no idea what the cost would be i.e. how much per page.

Hope you don't mind me asking, I did read the thread but couldn't find this information, so hopefully it'll help other people too.

izoomzoom

okay, that is an idea. Thanks

Welshlassie

I just had a call to do a circuit of garages, 11 in total (luckily all our garages are on the same road or just off, so no major long journeys) Quite nervous, but I've just bought a new (for me) car so just need to slip back into the patter myself.

leebarton

Just come back from a pub shop for RE. The pub was grimy, didn't sell food and was not at all nice. How do I put this constructively on my report!

More to the point - we went a long way - do I still claim the full allowance or just what we spent on drinks?

Becles

gzil wrote:

When deducting your expenses is it the total amount you spent or the max amount that the company will reimburse you you use. e.g. You're sent to a shop & told you can have Fee + £5.00 spend refunded, however you spend £15 on an item. For tax purposes do you claim the £5 or the £15 (I know what i think the answer will be but I'm ever hopeful )

You can only claim the max spend amount, otherwise you could really abuse it! Eg - say you were given a £2 spend for a home furnishings store (enough to cover buying something small like a mug or tea towels), it wouldn't be right to spend £2K on a new three piece and claim tax on it!

Also does anyone have any idea how much to claim for printing. I keep a note of how many pages I've printed but I've no idea what the cost would be i.e. how much per page.

One company reimburses you 6p a page if that is any help.

I bought a cheap laser printer (a Samsung one for about £50) which I use for all work related paperwork, and I buy cheap copier paper. As it's used for business only I claim the full costs of paper and toner. I also have an inkjet and nicer paper that I use for personal letters.

Hope you don't mind me asking,

No I don't mind at all. Fire away if you have anymore questions, however silly or trivial they may seem. It's a lonely job and it's hard when you haven't got real life colleagues to help you, so this is the next best thing!

leebarton

Sorry to ask again, but when it says receipt amount - if I put £3.00 I will only get that back. Do I put the max spend as they didn't serve food?

mossy

Hi lee

If it were me I would only claim what I had spent. Thats one of the down sides to RE that they only pay you what you spent rather than give you all the spend allowance.

Rachie_B

Welshlassie wrote:

I just had a call to do a circuit of garages, 11 in total (luckily all our garages are on the same road or just off, so no major long journeys) Quite nervous, but I've just bought a new (for me) car so just need to slip back into the patter myself.

im doing 11 tomorrow too :beer: in cardiff ..................... and theres rugby on :mad: traffic is gonna be a mare ,oh well :rotfl:

its my 2nd circuit and have to say its really not as bad as i expected

good luck with them :beer:

ahai1

Can you tell me how do I find out about and register for jobs with TNS and Retail Eyes? I have been approved by them.

mossy

ahai1 if you have been approved by them then they should have sent you a password for the website. Both these sites are fff (fastest finger first) so you need to log on to them and see if there are any jobs in your area. If you are a member of a mystery shopping forum then sign up to their work available threads as these will tell you when the companies have released work.

I would put the link on here but I'm not sure I'm allowed to do that??!? Its a completely free site and neither I nor any one else in the admin team or the forum itself has anything to gain from you joining apart from being able to help you that is. Its on the referalls section of the site though. Here is a link to that thread (although mods please feel free to delete if it you don't want it on here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=289083)