Mystery Shopping Thread 25 *PLEASE READ THE OP FIRST**PLEASE NO CLIENT NAMES OR FEES

supersaverkerry

supersaverkerry wrote: »

Hi Everyone

I am new to this and just wanted to check a few things, I have read the first post info but I just want to make sure I am getting it right because i don't want to end up in trouble!

Ok I am a student nurse so limited income due to placement etc... getting a job that fits is difficult, I am on a healthcare agency so do that when I have full days free but really its only 3-4 shifts per month so I make max £200 per month from that.

Mystery shopping is something I could fit in when I have a half day for example.

Am I right in saying I need to register self-employed and then do a low earnings application because I doubt I will get more than 1 or 2 mystery shops per month right?

Then I just sign up with the sites ( am already on one and have been booked to do a dine in on Friday).

So then keeping track of income etc is where I am a little confused.

I get £50 allowance for this meal no fee, but I know I can't claim that all as expenses right, so is it reasonable to say my hourly rate is say £10.50 which is what I would get paid if I did an evening shift, plus expenses of getting there such as a bus ticket of petrol, a small amount each month for phone, internet, printing etc... Say I only did that 1 mystery shop in a month it would work out like this -
£21 (2 hour visit)
Bus ticket £2.80
Printing 6 x 6p - 36p
phone - say a fiver?
internet -again a fiver

expenses = £34.46
Thats a profit of only £15.54 and also the visit is for me and a guest, so that £50 covers a meal for a quest as well so how does that fit into things?

I guess I just don't see how this will add up to more than a few pounds profit each month and surely that will look suspicious that you are self-employed but do not make profit.

Also I wondered do you have to open a separate bank account for self-employed earnings to go into?

Sorry for all the questions and if I sound like I am being dumb here!

Sorry just looking at this again and wondered is my hourly rate actually the profit? And could part of the meal be classed as expenses? Sorry I am a bit confused by this all.

So it would look more like

Profit £21.00 ( my hourly rate x 2 hours)

Expenses -
Bus ticket £2.80
Printing 6 x 6p - 36p
phone - say a fiver?
internet -again a fiver
The meal £15.54

In which case is it reasonable to give myself a lower hourly rate? Because £10.50 per hour is a pretty good rate isn't it.

Thanks

Workie_Ticket

As it is reimbursement only your profit would be £50 less your expenses only, as it would be viewed as benefit in kind.

It would also be unreasonable to allocate £5 to both internet and phone, for one job. If you use these then you would need to justify the amount you allocate, ie x% of your monthly bill for personal use and y% for work use based on how much mystery shopping work you do.

ms_night_ryder

Yes £5 for internet for 1 job is igh, also why phone for £5? Who are you calling? Australia?

I doubt you will make any profit to be honest, you have taken a job on that gives you a free meal in exchange for a report, that is all.

Lil_Me_2

supersaverkerry wrote: »

Hi Everyone

I am new to this and just wanted to check a few things, I have read the first post info but I just want to make sure I am getting it right because i don't want to end up in trouble!

Ok I am a student nurse so limited income due to placement etc... getting a job that fits is difficult, I am on a healthcare agency so do that when I have full days free but really its only 3-4 shifts per month so I make max £200 per month from that.

Mystery shopping is something I could fit in when I have a half day for example.

Am I right in saying I need to register self-employed and then do a low earnings application because I doubt I will get more than 1 or 2 mystery shops per month right?

You can do as many visits as you want. It's very easy to do much more than 1 or 2 a month.

supersaverkerry wrote: »

Then I just sign up with the sites ( am already on one and have been booked to do a dine in on Friday).

So then keeping track of income etc is where I am a little confused.

I get £50 allowance for this meal no fee, but I know I can't claim that all as expenses right, so is it reasonable to say my hourly rate is say £10.50 which is what I would get paid if I did an evening shift, plus expenses of getting there such as a bus ticket of petrol, a small amount each month for phone, internet, printing etc... Say I only did that 1 mystery shop in a month it would work out like this -
£21 (2 hour visit)
Bus ticket £2.80
Printing 6 x 6p - 36p
phone - say a fiver?
internet -again a fiver

expenses = £34.46
Thats a profit of only £15.54 and also the visit is for me and a guest, so that £50 covers a meal for a quest as well so how does that fit into things?

As there is no fee you can't claim any of the £50 as an expense. There is no profit to be made by doing this job and getting a free meal out is not considered to be an incidental benefit. You've mentioned below about HRMC not being happy if you never make a profit and if you were to report on your tax return like this than you could easily expect them to look into your tax return in more detail.

For this job you could report it in two ways -

1.
£50 income
-£50 expenses (for the meal)
Profit = £0
Tax payable = £0, but you're out of pocket on the travel and printing.


2.
£50 income
-£2.60 travel
-£0.36 printing
Profit = £47.04
Tax payable (at 20%) = 9.40

I would be cautious of claiming anything toward your phone/internet if you only do 1 or 2 visits a month (more detail below)

The key thing here is that at the moment you don't necessarily pay tax because you're under the tax free limit. Once you graduate and hopefully get a job and if you wanted to continue MSing then the numbers on the tax return comes into play a little more. This year you could make loads of profit on your work and it would't make any difference to how much tax you pay.

A few other points

1. You can't claim an hourly rate when you're self employed, if the job pays a set amount that is what you receive whether it takes you 10 minutes or 10 hours, you soon learn what is worth your time or not lol. In my case if it doesn't have a fee then it's not worth my time.

2. You can only claim a small percentage of your phone/internet as a business expense in accordance with how much is necessary to run your business, considering you don't expect your business to make any profit and the little work that you expect to do you cannot justify £5 on each phone and internet. That would suggest that if you have a £20 a month phone contract 25% of the costs associated with your contract are down to mystery shopping.

supersaverkerry wrote: »

I guess I just don't see how this will add up to more than a few pounds profit each month and surely that will look suspicious that you are self-employed but do not make profit.

supersaverkerry wrote: »

Also I wondered do you have to open a separate bank account for self-employed earnings to go into?

Sorry for all the questions and if I sound like I am being dumb here!

No need to open a separate account, although I did to make things simpler. My MSing income is my "fun" account, the money left over in there is extra to my budget.

mskitten2904

That was brill thanks lil me, I've learnt stuff I never knew and I've been shopping 3 years! Xx

supersaverkerry

Workie_Ticket wrote: »

As it is reimbursement only your profit would be £50 less your expenses only, as it would be viewed as benefit in kind.

It would also be unreasonable to allocate £5 to both internet and phone, for one job. If you use these then you would need to justify the amount you allocate, ie x% of your monthly bill for personal use and y% for work use based on how much mystery shopping work you do.

No, I don't mean I would allocate £5 based on this one job, I mean if it were to become a more regular thing, especially the phone part eg. for this I have to call up and make an enquiry, but I see other tasks are all telephone based so of course the telephone expenses might add up more if I started to do this more often.

JohnnyG

mskitten2904 wrote: »

Can anyone with a mystic bank account see TNS pending tomorrow please?

Sorry kitten, whilst I have a mystic bank account, I'm not due any TNS payment so can't help you.:(

supersaverkerry

Lil_Me wrote: »

You can do as many visits as you want. It's very easy to do much more than 1 or 2 a month.



As there is no fee you can't claim any of the £50 as an expense. There is no profit to be made by doing this job and getting a free meal out is not considered to be an incidental benefit. You've mentioned below about HRMC not being happy if you never make a profit and if you were to report on your tax return like this than you could easily expect them to look into your tax return in more detail.

For this job you could report it in two ways -

1.
£50 income
-£50 expenses (for the meal)
Profit = £0
Tax payable = £0, but you're out of pocket on the travel and printing.


2.
£50 income
-£2.60 travel
-£0.36 printing
Profit = £47.04
Tax payable (at 20%) = 9.40

I would be cautious of claiming anything toward your phone/internet if you only do 1 or 2 visits a month (more detail below)

The key thing here is that at the moment you don't necessarily pay tax because you're under the tax free limit. Once you graduate and hopefully get a job and if you wanted to continue MSing then the numbers on the tax return comes into play a little more. This year you could make loads of profit on your work and it would't make any difference to how much tax you pay.

A few other points

1. You can't claim an hourly rate when you're self employed, if the job pays a set amount that is what you receive whether it takes you 10 minutes or 10 hours, you soon learn what is worth your time or not lol. In my case if it doesn't have a fee then it's not worth my time.

2. You can only claim a small percentage of your phone/internet as a business expense in accordance with how much is necessary to run your business, considering you don't expect your business to make any profit and the little work that you expect to do you cannot justify £5 on each phone and internet. That would suggest that if you have a £20 a month phone contract 25% of the costs associated with your contract are down to mystery shopping.





No need to open a separate account, although I did to make things simpler. My MSing income is my "fun" account, the money left over in there is extra to my budget.

Thanks for your reply, yes hopefully I could do more than 1 or 2 a month depending on what my workload is for uni and what is available in my area, I guess Im just being cautious and keeping in mind it is not something I am going to make much money from.

Ok so I have no issue with making a loss on my expenses as I could just walk there and I won't really notice the printing from a few pages etc... I'd be happy to do it the first way you suggested and of course this makes much more sense given that it means paying no tax!

As this is just a little treat kind of thing for me I am happy just to get free meals out rather than a fee as it means I get to do nice things without worrying about the cost.

Thanks for clarifying there is no hourly rate, that is helpful to know.

Could I ask, if it were a different case such as I got paid a fee plus a free meal how would that be reported?

eg. £10 fee plus £5 expenses for a meal or to buy a small item in a store or some grocerys?

And in that case would you include any type of expenses such as the phone internet or travel?

It sounds so complicated, hopefully just because I am new to it, it just sounded like a nice little way to either earn a little bit of treat money or get to do some nice things since the next 3 years are going to be rather tight!

Thank you for your advice :beer:

Big_Graeme

Lil_Me wrote: »

For this job you could report it in two ways -

1.
£50 income
-£50 expenses (for the meal)
Profit = £0
Tax payable = £0, but you're out of pocket on the travel and printing.


2.
£50 income
-£2.60 travel
-£0.36 printing
Profit = £47.04
Tax payable (at 20%) = 9.40


2. You can only claim a small percentage of your phone/internet as a business expense in accordance with how much is necessary to run your business, considering you don't expect your business to make any profit and the little work that you expect to do you cannot justify £5 on each phone and internet. That would suggest that if you have a £20 a month phone contract 25% of the costs associated with your contract are down to mystery shopping.

You can not use method one for a benefit in kind, you have still received £50 in the form of a meal.

HMRC has now simplified the claiming of expenses when using your home and the things in your home.

https://www.gov.uk/simpler-income-tax-simplified-expenses

You can choose to ignore them and claim more, you'll just have to justify wheat you claim if asked. They do make life easy if you are unsure though.

Tolteca87

I popped into the bank on the way to do two jobs and the Pyschic Pendings show TNS and MF payments in the bank account tomorrow