I am new at this so help me understand how Reimbursements work. I received an offer for a job with reimbursement up to $31.00. Its a dinner shop. I go to this restaurant, pay for the meal, do the observation, make the report and only get reimbursed for the money I spent. Nothing more....

What is the advantage of doing this....Im trying to make money, not go out to dinner to a restaurant that I normally wouldn't go to. Help me to understand this concept.....

gwind1920 Wrote:
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> I am new at this so help me understand how
> Reimbursements work. I received an offer for a
> job with reimbursement up to $31.00. Its a dinner
> shop. I go to this restaurant, pay for the meal,
> do the observation, make the report and only get
> reimbursed for the money I spent. Nothing
> more....
>
> What is the advantage of doing this....Im trying
> to make money, not go out to dinner to a
> restaurant that I normally wouldn't go to. Help
> me to understand this concept.....



The benefit is that you got to eat out for free

Under the circumstances it is of no benefit to you. Some love reimbursement only shops and they are great if it's a restaurant you like or would want to try. If your goal, as mine, is to make money then they are a real time waster.

My wife and I have full time jobs. We love to eat out. We enjoy doing these types of shops to get free dinners. We are willing to spend the extra time inputting the surveys.

There's a little more to it. For one thing, the $31 is a deductible business expense, which would not be true if you simply decided to go out to have dinner somewhere. For another, since you are reimbursed, that's one meal's worth of groceries you didn't have to buy.

I personally prefer getting paid on top of all that. But I would be happy to get a free meal and a free income-tax deduction if I had nothing better scheduled.

Do you report the $31 as income and a deduction?

To Me it wouldn't be either. I was my money originally...I "loaned" it to them and thei "paid it back"....maybe Im viewing it wrong but I'm not earning any money from this deal....correct???



LisaSTL Wrote:
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> Do you report the $31 as income and a deduction?

The question was for Dagosto. But you're right. I was wondering how it could be a deduction when it has been reimbursed. Flash is the resident expert on this. I just had some vague recollection that if the "expense" was taken as a deduction then the reimbursement would have to be income.

Back to the original question, as you can see there are many shoppers who do find this of value and enjoy them tremendously. It really is a to each his own. If mystery shopping was more of a hobby for me then I could have fun with them. Right now extra time spent on a report like that just takes it away from the other jobs I need to focus on



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2012 10:44PM by LisaSTL.

Thank you all for your responses. I am finding this forum to be very valuable. My daughter wants to get into mystery shopping. I think I will refer her to this forum first so she can get a background.

LisaSTL Wrote:
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> Do you report the $31 as income and a deduction?


Yes, it would be both, and they would cancel each other out, essentially. Except that you would also get to deduct travel costs and whatever other expenses you incurred while doing this zero-profit shop.

Mind you, I'm neither a tax attorney nor an accountant. But my own personal policy is, if I've got a receipt to back it up, I'm gonna claim it.

K, mileage didn't cross my mind. Told ya I never do reimbursement only shops!

Counting every penny received as income allows you to deduct the reimbursements whether they are on a fee + reimbursement or a reimbursement only. I find that indeed the mileage and the occasional time when either the required purchases do not cover the entire expense do help reduce the overall taxable income without causing me grief. There are some restaurants out there that we have tried that we were curious about but would not darken their doorway again even on a full reimbursement. It makes us even more happy to have tried it on someone else's dime.

Nice to know my brain is still functioning since I thought you had said that before! My greed always keeps me from taking a reimbursement only shop

Greed is good, as Michael Douglas pointed out. But there's penny-wise and there's pound-foolish, too. After all, ya gotta eat. Might as well do it for free.

And then of course there comes the night when the food at a normally quite good place is poor and the report takes somewhere close to forever to write up because of answering all the 'No's. Overall, though, I feel very lucky because the ones I do usually are right on target and I guess it is the off nights that they buy me dinner to occasionally uncover. And of course don't forget that many restaurant shop requirements call for more food than a normal person should eat so the take home boxes provide a second round of meals.

If I don't get a 1099 from the MSC then I don't even list it on my tax's. If I do then I can take the reimbursemenmt offf leaving the rest for milage, etc.

I have been doing a few dine in and bar audit shops that pay a decent fee for an hours work, but they do not reimburse. Instead, they give a gift card for the place the shop was done (about the same as the meal price) So I realized, DUH! I pretty much just ate for free, because I had to "pay" for the meal and drinks required and then I get a gift card to go back...The cash fee offered just pays for the meal!

Learning, learning, learning ;>

LisaSTL Wrote:
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> Do you report the $31 as income and a deduction?


Yes, it would be both, and they would cancel each other out, essentially. Except that you would also get to deduct travel costs and whatever other expenses you incurred while doing this zero-profit shop.
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When doing my taxes my accountant indicated that If I spent $40 on dinner, was reimbursed $30, and had a $5 shop fee I would claim the $5 shop fee as income and then could claim the $10 that was not reimbursed as an expense. Not sure if that is right but that's how we did it this year.

shllbll1, here is my concern about that. If I go into a restaurant shop where I am given a $30 reimbursement for two people plus a $5 fee and am required to order '2 beverages (not water), 1 appetizer to share and 2 different entrees', those are the purchases I am required to make. If those purchases can be made within the $30 reimbursement, then I COULD have performed the shop on a reimbursement basis with the small fee and if I spend more, it is a personal preference item, not a shop expense. Sort of the same thing as if I have a $2 reimbursement for gas on a gas shop, filling my tank to the tune of $75 does not make the extra $73 an unreimbursed shop expense.

On the other hand, some companies/clients are so cheap that your reimbursement amounts to nothing but a discount on your meal. I have done some (once only each once I realized what a rip off they were) where the mandatory bar visit (we got a draft beer as that is generally cheapest), the cheapest appetizer to share, iced teas as the cheapest non-water beverage, and the cheapest two different entrees produced a bill that the reimbursement only partially covered. When that has happened I have no problem with claiming the excess bill and mandatory 15% tip as an unreimbursed business expense and not performed the shop in the future because it is 'unbusinesslike'.

I suspect that 'reasonableness' needs to be your key here. Most restaurant shops do not generate taxable income anyway because the mileage offsets any fee or bonus profit in the deal. Doing restaurants with a substantial loss (either by food choices made by the shopper/guest or because it under reimbursed in the first place) on a regular basis would raise eyebrows of most any auditor as to whether this was business or pleasure.

I do reimbursement lunchs going out to eat for writing a report.....I always bring food home, so, there is dinner as well. I like to mix it up, fee only jobs + restaurants, although I have been out less lately, I still think it's a good thing especially when you like the restaurant, and it improves my
lifestyle...I eat for a report, make a little $$ and take a vacation now and then, but I'm super select on jobs I do, and won't do FF or wings because it's a "free" meal.