Do I need to pay anything to do this

Hi melyus. No you don't have to pay to mystery shop. Don't know if you've mystery shopped before, but welcome to this forum.

Hi melyus. As Mert said, you should NEVER have to pay to do mystery shopping for a company. I recently had one tell me it cost $1.95 to sign up as a shopper with them and when I said I have never paid to shop for a company they backed down and said I could just go onto their website and fill out the form. I was answering an ad in a local newspaper - mostly out of curiousity.

Reputable companies will not charge you. You are only out the money you spend on the shop which is generally reimbursed.

Good luck - and have fun.

Do you have to claim everything you earn from an assignment even if it's as little as $15.00???

Lora

Lora, I assume you are talking about on your taxes. The answer is a definitive "YES". Shopping income is claimed as a business using a Schedule C to report it. The advantages of being a "business" is that you can deduct your expenses for mileage and other reasonable expenses for your business such as your office supplies, the equipment you use for your business (to the extent that they are used for your business) and a limited amount of other expenses. If you have only one landline telephone in your home you can not deduct that, though you can deduct long distance calls you must make (if any) in connection with your business. If you are responsible for your own health insurance, that can be deducted from the net profit of your business in most cases. To be considered a business rather than a hobby, IRS expects to see a profit from your business more than half the time (I think it is 3 years out of 5 or some such). But the vast majority of shoppers can keep that profit to a minimum with the allowable deductions.

While the companies you work for will only send 1099s to IRS and you if you earn over a certain amount with them, they will be deducting from their taxes the cost of your services. Should they be audited, it would not be outrageously hard to cross check with you about fees they indicated were paid to you.

Your fees are taxable, your reimbursements are not.

Flash, I read on another forum that you can't clain all your mileage unless you have a home office. Do you if that is true?

If you ONLY work out of your home you can claim the round trip because your home is your ONLY place of business. If you have another job elsewhere, then that is considered your primary place of business and mileage to and from that is not deductible as it is considered "commuting expense". So if you go to work at your 9-5 job and do shops on your lunch hour, chances are good that IRS would question that. Certainly jobs on the way to or from work would be subject to exclusion. If this situation applies to you it is necessary for you to read the IRS requirements to claim mileage. I understand some CPAs just indicate to take 50% of that mileage, but I would be super cautious about that.

If I were in that situation I would very very carefully document the mileage that was EXCLUSIVELY for my self-employment business. I do my own taxes and would be willing to argue it with IRS that work I did on weekends or leaving from home for a series of evening shops that began well after my "commute" was over, was valid mileage for my self-employment business. I similarly would argue that if my "commute" was 24.3 miles each day, that those days I went directly from work to perform shops and my mileage for the day was 34.9, then 10.6 of those miles could reasonably be claimed. But I am not a CPA or a professional tax preparer, rather a private citizen and 'small business owner' who would be willing to go to the wall with IRS with proper documentation to back it up.

As I am sure you are aware, not all professional tax preparers read the rules the same way or exercise the same diligence. Many of them appear to work on the statistical acceptability of certain deductions that appear not to trigger audits. The only time I ever had my taxes professionally prepared I threw out the return and filed my own because there were claims I could not justify and claims I could justify that the pro told me I dared not claim as they would trigger an audit. They didn't, but if they had, I had the documentation to back up my claims.

Edited to add: IRS has a reasonably easily searchable website at IRS.gov. Several things to note there. First for those with an AGI (adjusted gross income) of under $56,000 software for electronically filing your tax return for free is available from various providers in various areas of the country. I have no idea how user friendly any of it is, but you can't beat the price.

For more information about business mileage, type in 'business mileage'. This will give you such information as the current deduction being allowed per mile (50.5 cents per mile). As a shopper you are operating a "Schedule C business" and if you type that in as a search you will find links to the forms and instructions for such a business. Currently the information is only up to 2008 returns, but stay tuned for the 2009 information. Whether you use IRS provided software, TurboTax or a professional tax preparer it is important for you to know what is and is not allowed, so I would strongly recommend downloading and printing the 2009 information when it is available and spending some time with a highlighter with the deductions and limitations relevant to you. When you sign the return, you are stating that it is true and correct.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/2009 10:02PM by Flash.