Maximising income - Mystery Shopping? Surveys?

Jo4

Becles wrote: »

Jobs like that are not worth it.

I'd never take on a job 20 miles away with no mileage allowance, and I'd be reluctant to take on a job where you have to spend more than the allowance unless it was something I'd buy anyway.

For companies who don't pay mileage, I only do very local jobs or jobs in places where another company is paying my mileage to get there.

What forms do they need to fill in to tell the tax man as they are in receipt of benefits but the way they see it is that it is a free meal and they normally be going that way anyway?

jobbingmusician

If your friend is in receipt of benefits they will need to tell the benefits people. Sounds like the earnings will be a lot less than £5 a week, so won't affect bens.

Your friend should register as self-employed in order to do a tax return. I think that sadly she will probably find at this point that it really is not worthwhile doing this mystery shopping, as (if she is on benefits) she should be paying self-employed NI, which is just over £2 a week. I think I am right in saying that she'll have to pay this if she doesn't have other employment, but would be grateful if someone could confirm this. (People who have full time employment don't have to pay this if their self-employment earns them less than approx £4,000 a year and they complete the relevant form).

Jo4

jobbingmusician wrote: »

If your friend is in receipt of benefits they will need to tell the benefits people. Sounds like the earnings will be a lot less than £5 a week, so won't affect bens.

Your friend should register as self-employed in order to do a tax return. I think that sadly she will probably find at this point that it really is not worthwhile doing this mystery shopping, as (if she is on benefits) she should be paying self-employed NI, which is just over £2 a week. I think I am right in saying that she'll have to pay this if she doesn't have other employment, but would be grateful if someone could confirm this. (People who have full time employment don't have to pay this if their self-employment earns them less than approx £4,000 a year and they complete the relevant form).

The only benefit they receive is Carers Allowance but their other half receives Income Support for them.

Becles

Benefits will have to be told about income from mystery shopping, but I'm not sure how you go about that or how your benefits will be affected.

Any income that is earned on self employed basis, even if it is just an odd £5, will have to be declared to the tax man on a self assessment tax return each year. If you have less than your personal allowance coming in, no tax will be payable, but you must still declare it.

You do need to pay NI, but if you are earning less than approx £4500 a year, you can register for a small earnings exemption certificate. This means you do not have to pay the contributions of £2.10 a week. However paying them does entitle you to claim other benefits in the future, such as me claming maternity allowance from the end of this month.

helping_hubby

jobbingmusician wrote: »

Has anyone seen Gap's new website - alledgedly designed to make life easier for us? What a pile of poo!!!! :mad: THey haven't even sorted out their place names - 'High Street' is still a place :rolleyes:

It's not the best, but I've only just glanced at it. It's definitely an improvement though. At least you can now get a list of all clients for more than one selected town.

Jo4

Becles wrote: »

Benefits will have to be told about income from mystery shopping, but I'm not sure how you go about that or how your benefits will be affected.

Any income that is earned on self employed basis, even if it is just an odd £5, will have to be declared to the tax man on a self assessment tax return each year. If you have less than your personal allowance coming in, no tax will be payable, but you must still declare it.

You do need to pay NI, but if you are earning less than approx £4500 a year, you can register for a small earnings exemption certificate. This means you do not have to pay the contributions of £2.10 a week. However paying them does entitle you to claim other benefits in the future, such as me claming maternity allowance from the end of this month.

They only started in 2007 and the only form I could get stated 2006 to 2007, could you please point me in the right direction of what forms my friend needs? What is the form number or could you please give me a direct link?

comping_cat

jobbingmusician wrote: »

Has anyone seen Gap's new website - alledgedly designed to make life easier for us? What a pile of poo!!!! :mad: THey haven't even sorted out their place names - 'High Street' is still a place :rolleyes:

I agree, not keen on their new layout!!!

Becles

Jo4 wrote: »

They only started in 2007 and the only form I could get stated 2006 to 2007, could you please point me in the right direction of what forms my friend needs? What is the form number or could you please give me a direct link?

Your friend needs to ring the self employment helpline at HMRC on
0845 915 4655. They will be able to register the self employment and small earnings exemption over the phone.

Tetsuko

I've decided to start as I mean to go on (um..hopefully ) and keep a nice neat record of what mystery shopping I do from the start.

I've never had to fill out a tax return before as I've never been self employed before and was wondering if anyone could tell me what is needed on the form.

I'm just trying to figure out if there are any other details I need to keep a record of other than the date worked, company, assignment and how much I was paid and when.

Do I need to keep a separate record for my expenses that come from my own pocket like stationary phone calls etc and do I need to show which proportion of my earnings are payment and which parts are for expenses like travel.

Fro example one company pays me £13.00 and they say £8 of that is payment, £5 is expenses (inc travel) and then they give me £5 off my shopping. How do you record this for the tax man?

I'm starting to think that this could be scarily complicated or am I just thinking too much >.<

redcar_2

I keep a record of fee per job, and expenses ie reimbursement for necessary costs ie minimum food or shopping purchases, travel mileage as per multimap, parking payments, telephone costs, printing costs, stationery, and a cost per photo / receipt scan.

I *think* you could also claim against broadband and some costs for a home office per job but as I'm not too sure on these I haven't got them down. I can easily add these later so am not too worried about missing them off for the moment.