Maximising income - Mystery Shopping? Surveys? (Part Two)

wax

jobbingmusician wrote: »

I think you can apply by replying to emails as well - but safer to do it via website. I am doing one for them tonight

Thanks to you both, I have noticed most are London also.

Lillibet_2

jobbingmusician wrote: »

Lillibet, if you post who your assignment is with (in disguised terms, of course) someone on here might be able to send you through some paperwork

Thanks, but I did another assingment for a differnt branch of the same earlier this month so I am just going to assume this assignment is the same & go through the same motions. I just have to track down the address as it's a branch I haven't been to before!

TractorGirl327

The Gap site is back now!

Still only greasy burger & pizza assignments though!!!!!

A_little_stressed!!

I would love a burger/pizza! All I get is chicken! I've done 3 already and NOTHING else comes on! I got all excited because my county was on the list, expecting loads of new jobs, but no....just CHICKEN!!!

laughing_cow

I've got a tax/expenses question.

I've done a few mystery shop flights for one of the ms companies, which as many of you will be aware are not paid - just the free flight and expenses for getting to the airport, and catering if applicable. I've normally used my airmiles for a hotel and had a weekend away. However, last month I did a long haul flight and stayed away for a week, paying for the accommodation myself. I'm happy because I got a very cheap holiday somewhere exotic, but I wondered what the tax position is? Can I claim any of the accommodation costs as business expenses and offset it against my tax?

ta.

laughing_cow

Sarahsaver wrote: »

I have still never been accepted for a job by Bare. Could I be doing something wrong?

I applied continuously for about a year before I got a job with them. When you do get a job it's worth doing well - they mark your reports out of 10 and I'm pretty sure they use these grades when allocating work. I've got high grades (ooh, get me! ), and I get quite a lot of the jobs I apply for.

Timmne

laughing_cow wrote: »

I've got a tax/expenses question.

I've done a few mystery shop flights for one of the ms companies, which as many of you will be aware are not paid - just the free flight and expenses for getting to the airport, and catering if applicable. I've normally used my airmiles for a hotel and had a weekend away. However, last month I did a long haul flight and stayed away for a week, paying for the accommodation myself. I'm happy because I got a very cheap holiday somewhere exotic, but I wondered what the tax position is? Can I claim any of the accommodation costs as business expenses and offset it against my tax?

ta.

Nope - sadly not. It's the usual case of you could try and argue that you had to stay in a hotel but the general rule is that if you're not paying for something wholly, necessarily and exclusively for the purpose of carrying out a trade (MSing in your case) then it's not an allowable expense.

As BARE offer you return flights within hours of the outbound one then you're not really in the realms of reclaiming hotel expenses - if there were no possibilities of you returning straight away and you had to stay away then of course the hotel can be claimed....

If you need any more help, pls ask!

laughing_cow

Timmne wrote: »

As BARE offer you return flights within hours of the outbound one then you're not really in the realms of reclaiming hotel expenses - if there were no possibilities of you returning straight away and you had to stay away then of course the hotel can be claimed....

Do you think it might be possible to claim for one night's accommodation on the basis that flying for 8-9 hours and then flying back another 8-9 hours on the same day is unreasonable? I know it sounds a bit cheeky, but I pay quite a lot of tax in my main job and every little bit helps to chip away at the credit card debt - hey, if you don't ask, you don't get!

As you know about accountancy/tax, I'd be interested to know your opinion on my friend. She does some work for BAI and another co (can't remember which) - both are based overseas. She hasn't registered with the tax office on the basis that she won't get found out because these companies do their accounting in another country and thus our tax office cannot check their records and 'prove' anything. To be fair to her, she has done very little so far, but I'm worried that if she carries on she could be in trouble. I'd appreciate your comments on this.

Many thanks

A_little_stressed!!

LOADS of jobs on GAPBUSTER right now! Enough in my area to eat chicken everyday for a month! Missed all the buckets & can't be bothered to dine-in again for a bit, but good luck to you lot!

Timmne

As always with self employment, you can always claim something but you have to be able to answer the wholly, necessarily and exclusively question confidently - if you can't, you shouldn't claim it.... It's generally easier to just take the hit and suffer the tax on not claiming the hotel on the basis that once a tax investigator finds one thing, it'll only encourage them to look harder for more!

As far as your friend goes, yeah she'll probably end up being in trouble - the money coming in to her account is the first giveaway on the investigation front - the companies she works for is also just as likely to give our tax office her name as any in the UK!

I just don't understand people that evade tax - not paying tax is just as bad as benefit fraud IMO; they both cost the law-abiding tax payer in the end!

Hope this helps!