From: "Simon Finnigan" 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: Re: Mystery shopping - Self employed, or self assessment?
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:20:08 +0100

 wrote in message 
news:1bds63d48p0o7prjqeclsppelkl4q0e4fo@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:26:07 +0100, "Simon Finnigan"
>  wrote:
>
>>Hi all,
>>I`m doing some work as a mystery shopped.  As it stands I get paid a 
>>certain
>>fee for doing a job.  Sometimes I can claim certain expenses (such as the
>>cost of a meal which is being bought as part of a mystery shop), and
>>sometimes these are included as part of the fee being paid.
>>
>>As it stands I`m keeping records of the jobs (where, when, for who, fee,
>>expenses claimed, other costs incurred like parking or public transport).
>>Is this sufficient, and what do I do for the tax man?  Am I self employed,
>>or not?  I`ve never done this before you see :-)  Will it be enough to 
>>fill
>>in a self assessment form at the end of the year, or do I need to contact
>>the tax man now to get the ball rolling?  My main employment is PAYE.
>>
>>I`ve done my calculations on expenses etc at 40p a mile, but I`m not sure
>>what I can claim for printing an A4 page on a laser printer - the job
>>involves a lot of printing (well over 500 sheets of A4 to date this 
>>month).
>>
>>Thanks for your help!
>>
> Interesting Simon - I am in the same situation and was going to ask a
> similar question.
>
> One of the firms I am considering has said:
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Based on advice from the Inland Revenue regarding the specific nature
> and regularity of the work that we have available, all assessors are
> deemed to be of a self employed status.
> Whilst not therefore required to provide a formal contract of
> employment, we are required to produce a statement that stipulates the
> terms of the agreement under which you operate when undertaking
> assignments for optimum contact. This particularly relates to the
> upholding of confidentiality.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Do your "fees" vary with the assignment - can you give indication of
> size of fee?

Fees vary from £5 to £15, seldom anything outside of those ranges.  I need 
to try and figure this out so I don`t make that big a profit, by accounting 
for the digital camera that is required for the job, internet access that is 
essential, driving, printing etc :-)