Maximising income - Mystery Shopping? Surveys?

jobbingmusician

wantmorejobs wrote: »

Hi,
JUst on the topic of Tax, I Started MS in November, but have no other form of employment as i'm a student. I am with TNS and Gfk and so pay tax for me but also with retail eyes, gapbuster etc so am registered self-employed. I have just read about doing the tax return for this year which i would prefer cos i know i won't have to pay any tax (or at least i hope not). On the HMRC website it says you need a unique reference number to register which should be on any self-employment letters i have had, but i don't think i';ve had any, most of the problems have come about national insurance. anybody got any ideas of when i should get this (or will this be sent to me) or do i need to do out?
thanks

You need to apply on the HMRC site for your unique reference number.

KatieKins wrote:

This is prob a dumb question but do we have to fill out any tax forms for April 1st!? Any help appreciated as I think Im getting into a bit of a muddle with this tax/NI stuff!!

Everything Becles has said is right, but I can see it might also be misleading - you actually have until next January 31st to file your accounts for the period ending 31st March. But DON'T do what I did this year and leave it until the last minute

bargain888

Hi, yesterday Gapbuster emailed me at 6.69pm because they wanted further info on an assignment that I did recently because the retailer received a bad score. Gapbuster wanted me to email them back before 12pm today i.e Thursday with the info or else I don't get paid.

Now it is just as well that I logged on to the internet last night or I wouldn't have know about this email.

The point I am trying to make is that Gapbuster or even other Ms companies do allow enough time for you to respond to their emal. What if I didn't log on to my computer last night or even today, all my effort for the assignment would have been wasted because I missed the 12pm deadline to respond. Surely, they should allow at least 3 or 4 days to respond. Surely they can't expect us MShoppers to be at the computer every single second of the day so that we can supply them with further info at such a short notice.

I just want to know what other fellow mystery shoppers think of this.


Thanks.:mad:

helping_hubby

bargain888 wrote: »

Hi, yesterday Gapbuster emailed me at 6.69pm because they wanted further info on an assignment that I did recently because the retailer received a bad score. Gapbuster wanted me to email them back before 12pm today i.e Thursday with the info or else I don't get paid.

Now it is just as well that I logged on to the internet last night or I wouldn't have know about this email.

The point I am trying to make is that Gapbuster or even other Ms companies do allow enough time for you to respond to their emal. What if I didn't log on to my computer last night or even today, all my effort for the assignment would have been wasted because I missed the 12pm deadline to respond. Surely, they should allow at least 3 or 4 days to respond. Surely they can't expect us MShoppers to be at the computer every single second of the day so that we can supply them with further info at such a short notice.

I just want to know what other fellow mystery shoppers think of this.


Thanks.:mad:

I personally think this is too short notice, although maybe 3 or 4 days is a bit long. I would say 48 hours is fair, as it is generally specified that you need to have internet access and be contactable. I think for that short notice a phonecall would have been more appropriate. Gap seem to have a lot of "if you dont do this you won't get paid" policies. I've only ever had queries from Retaileyes...I don't know why I seem to mess up their forms.

Taggie

Mrs_E_Shopper wrote: »

I have never used a chat forum before so I may do something wrong here but just a quick query - did everybody else get petrol assignments posted in their Neighbourhood Watch, not mentioned on their available assignments then retracted on their noticeboard - or was it just me?

When using forums, you are not allowed to post client names, this is part of your confidential agreement that you have with the companies that you work for.
You will need to edit your post, it's at the bottom of page 82 :beer:

With regard to those assignments, there is a message on their web page saying they shouldn't have put them in the email as they have not been released yet. HTH

Becles

bargain888 wrote: »

The point I am trying to make is that Gapbuster or even other Ms companies do allow enough time for you to respond to their emal. What if I didn't log on to my computer last night or even today,

The clients usually want the results back ASAP. Gap and other MS companies will have their hands tied by how quick the client wants to know the result, and will follow their wishes as ultimately it's the client who pay the bills.

I've just done some work where the company said I must key on my results before 9am the following day. They come into work, collate the results and send them directly to the client so the data is a fresh as possible.

You must check your e-mails on a regular basis during the day, as any problems usually need to be dealt with very quickly. It's part of the job I'm afraid, so it's up to you to decide if this is suitable for you or not.

Genie75

hathor wrote: »

When it comes to dates, and deciding what's in the current (about to end) tax year, and what's to be held over for 2007/08, is it the date you earned the money, ie when you did the "shop", or the date you received the payment, ie when it appears in your bank statement/Paypal or whatever, that counts?

At least at MS rates, few of us will be concerned with VAT registration, at any event!

According to the Inland Revenue - you declare any self-employed earning for the tax year you do the work - even if you are not paid until the following year. So, if you do a job today, but don't get paid until the end of April you still declare it for this year. With PAYE, you use the figures on your P60. These will only show what you have been paid this year, not what work you have done. It can be very confusing the first time around, but if you've kept good records and kept them up to date you should have no problems.

I always wait until I have been paid by everyone and had all my P60's before submitting my form. (You have until the end of September for the paper version if you want them to calculate your tax, or until the end of January otherwise).

jobbingmusician

bargain888 wrote: »

Hi, yesterday Gapbuster emailed me at 6.69pm because they wanted further info on an assignment that I did recently because the retailer received a bad score. Gapbuster wanted me to email them back before 12pm today i.e Thursday with the info or else I don't get paid.

Now it is just as well that I logged on to the internet last night or I wouldn't have know about this email.

The point I am trying to make is that Gapbuster or even other Ms companies do allow enough time for you to respond to their emal. What if I didn't log on to my computer last night or even today, all my effort for the assignment would have been wasted because I missed the 12pm deadline to respond. Surely, they should allow at least 3 or 4 days to respond. Surely they can't expect us MShoppers to be at the computer every single second of the day so that we can supply them with further info at such a short notice.

I just want to know what other fellow mystery shoppers think of this.


Thanks.:mad:

I agree this is unacceptably short notice (although personally I suspect it is sabre rattling and they would have made further attempts to contact you). Gap have contacted me a few times about visits and queries and they usually ring me - make sure they have a phone number for you (they have my mobile, which can be embarrassing if I am in a business meeting but is useful when they need me at short notice, usually to offer me yet another undesirable fast food visit! )

charlies_mum

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I can't troll through 165 pages - how do I updated my bank details on gapbuster - I have checked their website, but can't find anything about my account

Ignore me, found it now, thanks

redcar_2

helping_hubby wrote: »

I've only ever had queries from Retaileyes...I don't know why I seem to mess up their forms.

I've only ever had queries from RE and in particular only ever one client! Does anyone have this problem with the chemist jobs?

Its made me paranoid about accepting any more jobs for this client or else making me feel uneasy about recording anything as less than perfect as I know on past record there is a 50/50 chance I will get asked about it again. In the past I have tended to do these jobs in clutches and so I feel one can merge into another and it makes me less confident when a few days have passed - and before you ask yes I do write it down and am sure at the time.

bargain888

The reason why Gapbuster asked me to submit more info to them was because when went to do the Mystery shopping, I wrote down exactly what I saw and thus the retailer ended up having a low score. Hence, Gapbuster was straight on the case and wanted more details. For example, I was to inspect the toilet. I asked the staff at the shop if there was a toilet available. Their reply was "you don't want to use the toilet, it is rather dirty, you are better off else where".

Now as I didn't get the chance to inspect the toilet, surely I have to be honest in the report. There were other bits and pieces that was substandard with that retailers which I had to put down. Somehow, I kind of feel awful about it cos I know that retailer is going be in trouble with headquarter.