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

wensie

Young_saver22 wrote: »

I'm starting to wonder whether this mystery shopping lark is worth my time as a way of making money...:( - I was so optimistic about this too!

Once you have proven to the MSCs that you are reliable you get the better jobs offered. I am at the moment dead busy for one company for which I did the lower paid mystery shops initially. Now I hardly do mystery shops for them but rather audits which are better paid and I just love them. They just rang me for the 2nd time within 14 hours to see if I could squeeze extra jobs in and I even had to turn them down. :dance:

Young_saver22

Lol wensie!:T

The shop went well surprisingly! I think I'll stick with it now - thanks for that!

Although you get more money, I assume audits are much longer, complicated and more time consuming than regular assignments, does this make them more challenging??

wensie

They are quite daunting at first ... but once you've done the first one they are quite easy. Yes, they do take longer but the brief is usually the same (if not the changes are announced properly), the reports are done within minutes and I would have to squeeze a number of mystery shops into the hour to get the same money.

But then again - no, don't try them if you get the chance. It would leave less jobs for me!!

Zazen999

Tractor girl
I nevver eat meat and was sick of trawling through the more 'meaty' shops - so I did the qualifying test and deliberately put incorrect answers in - which was dead easy as one asked if you were a vege...then it stops them coming up on the screen so you bypass it completely. Obviously if you ever do want to do those shops you are cut out of the loop - but as I didn't, it wasn't a problem.

mimi1234

That's what I do too Zazen, I do it for all the other ones I don't like doing, like nightclubs, phone shops etc. Saves a lot of time and hassle.

I cancelled my GR account yesterday as it is a bit pointless logging in millions of times a day and never finding anything on.

GFK are getting a bit like that, lots of emails, and no visits online.

Finally, anyone with BARE? If anyone has done a train one, please contact me. I have one next week and I am struggling a bit.

PS. How do I get paragraphs in my postings? They always seem to disappear.

redcar_2

Hoping one of the tax bods 'Timne? or others can help with this one. I was chatting to my boyfriend about one of the petrol jobs and he said why is the petrol you buy not counted as a benefit in kind? I thinkI know the answer in that you have to buy it to do the job but then he said that company cars which you have to have get taxed as a benefit in kind and also meals out on company time count this way too. Its not as if we then throw the pterol away after the shop so can we say it is wholly bought for this purpose? I guess the MS company must see it as a benefit as they offer no pay only expenses. Any thoughts anyone - I 'm a bit confused now?

sec79

Hi

I am registered with the usual firms, and have done loads of mystery shopping assignments. I would like to do more of the auditing ones as I find these more enjoyable, but not sure how these jobs are allocated.

If anyone knows would you please pm me? I have sent emails enquiring, but not had any responses back.

Thanks

Timmne

redcar wrote: »

Hoping one of the tax bods 'Timne? or others can help with this one. I was chatting to my boyfriend about one of the petrol jobs and he said why is the petrol you buy not counted as a benefit in kind? I thinkI know the answer in that you have to buy it to do the job but then he said that company cars which you have to have get taxed as a benefit in kind and also meals out on company time count this way too. Its not as if we then throw the pterol away after the shop so can we say it is wholly bought for this purpose? I guess the MS company must see it as a benefit as they offer no pay only expenses. Any thoughts anyone - I 'm a bit confused now?

Hello!

This is something myself and my accountant buddies (:rolleyes: ) have discussed in length, funnily enough...

The deal as far as we can conclude is that the cost of the meals/petrol etc are deductible against the income as they are wholly and exclusively bought for the purpose of carrying out a trade (in this case, mystery shopping).

If you think about it another way, you...
a) wouldn't have bought those particular goods (in most cases) if you weren't being paid to do so (I'm thinking cheap restaurants, awful corner shops etc!), and
b) you wouldn't be paid for the work if you hadn't spent the money. The expenses are a requirement of doing the job.

Benefits in kind are not relevant as it's a sole trader business we're talking about, unless you've set yourself up Redcar Mystery Shopping Ltd! (BIKs are only relevant if you're an employee or director)

Meals out and company cars in employment are generally a perk to the job, not a necessity. Being given a company car is essentially the employer giving the employee a payrise, in the shape of a car instead of the actual money. This is therefore taxable as a BIK.

Hope this helps!

A_little_stressed!!

Am i right that MS for 1 petrol company reimburse you for £2 LESS than the minimum amount you have to purchase??!!

TAG

:mad: :mad: :mad: Sorry got to have a rant. I hate this new assignment system GR have got.
Since it started I've managed to bag 4 yes 4 assignments. But I have missed over 50 of the bliming things.

In fact just logged on now and there was 1 assignment available, which got bagged by someone else just as I was accepting it :mad: :mad: :mad:

Wish I could sit in front of the PC all day pressing the refresh button - don't these people have MSing to do? :rolleyes: