Almost every mystery shopper starts in the business with grand ideas about all of the things they will do when the money from their new job starts rolling in. Then, as you wait four, six, or even eight weeks or longer for a measly $10 check to arrive in the mail, reality sets in. You start calculating how much time and effort it will take to earn even $100 in this business, and eventually what started as excitement and enthusiasm for the job dwindles. While you may never get rich as a mystery shopper, there are a few steps you can take to ensure you earn a decent paycheck for your time and efforts.
All Assignments Are Not Created Equal. If you have completed even a handful of mystery shopping assignments, you certainly know that some assignments are much more difficult and time consuming than other assignments. While two assignments may pay the exact same amount, you may exert twice as much effort and get twice as much headache in return for one job as for another. Pay close attention to the assignment requirements before you request a job. All too often, new mystery shoppers or those seasoned mystery shoppers eager to make more money will quickly snatch up an assignment without reading through what they will be required to do to earn the money.
Watch For Hidden Perks. Many assignments offer bonus pay on top of the regular pay, typically when other mystery shoppers have been passing it by for quite awhile. Other assignments offer travel pay or reimbursement for a required purchase, which may also make the assignment more lucrative for you overall. These perks are fairly evident, listed very clearly right next to the shop pay.
Other perks are a little harder to see, such as the tax write-off for mileage expense. It may seem like driving 20 miles out to an assignment is not worth your time. Yet when you consider you can write off approximately $20 in the round trip mileage for this assignment, that might make a $10 assignment a little farther down the road look more appealing to you. In fact, mystery shoppers who regularly shop a little farther outside of the typical travel realm often can show a LOSS on their tax returns for mystery shopping. Meaning, you may end up paying absolutely no taxes on your mystery shopping income, and you may also reduce the taxes you owe on your other sources of income, such as your regular job. Yes, this is entirely possible!
Buy What You Need. It may be fun to walk into a retail store and purchase a new handbag or a pair of trendy new boots for your required purchase on an assignment. But spend a few minutes and think about what you actually need to purchase at that store. Is somebody’s birthday coming up? Or do you need to buy a present for a wedding or baby shower? Do the kids need some new summer clothes? When you apply your expense reimbursement towards purchases you actually need to make, rather than those you simply want to make, you will see your mystery shopping job start to make more of a dent in your personal budget each month.
You probably won’t get rich as a mystery shopper, but you can certainly make your time and efforts at mystery shopping make a financial difference for you each month when you put some forethought into the assignments you choose to spend your time on.
You are sooo right, I have been shopping for years off/ on, and I get really jaded after awhile. I think that these companies require a bit too much info for what they pay out, etc…I have never thought to report the cost to the IRS; if you do that, wouldn’t you have to then pay taxes on what you made shopping? I’m curious.
Thanks, Jacqui
Yes, we are supposed to report all income form our mystery shopping as business income. This was my first year , and I earned a tad under $3000. I didn’t want to go into the entire business itemization of mileage and other expenses, and that was a BIG mistake. I ended up paying over $400 in tax on the little I made. I will definitely take advantage of all the write offs next year. Thanks for pointing out how big a difference it could make.
I am a professional tax preparer who works from January until April 15th for H&R Block. I am retired and my main income is social security and a small government pension. Every time I get in the car to go mystery shopping, I write down the car mileage and set the trip to zero. When I return home I write down the ending mileage and record this in my Daytimer log. Then in January I have more expense for mileage than I actually earned from mystery shopping. Last year gas prices were the highest we’ve ever seen and I planned my grocery shopping, banking, etc. during the same shop as my mystery shop. Get the idea? Take a deduction for the mystery shop mileage even though you do personal shopping along the way.
I made around $3,700 in in MS last year, and with the mileage dection, I came out negative. I don’t work as much this year, but whenever we visit the out of town in-laws, I pick up a shop in their town. The whole trip becomes tax deductible. That means $150 of other income that is not taxed.
What do you do regarding reporting the income if you don’t get a W2 from the shop company
True, all the income must be reported. If no W2 is provided, you may want to collect your check stubs, paypal income statements, etc. as proof of income, which in some cases can be matched to your work invoices. Where I come from, no tax is paid on income from a particular business, if it is under a certain threshold. A day planner, or little note book with a running record of mileage can be given to your accountant at tax time. I record the name of the shop locations/IDs for that day, the date, the odometer reading setting out…then I set it to 0 and mark in the total miles at the end of the day. Each day is on a separate page. If I have a coffee of a snack, while out (working), I ask for a receipt, marking on it the job I was on. Then I let the accountant do his stuff!
I also enjoyed these comments from mystery shoppers like myself who always need to stick together and share whatever info that they find. I almost ended up with a job that demanded way to much feed back for the amounts of money they intended to pay and at the last moment before I hit the click agree on the independent contractor I thought about it once again and declined. I wonder to myself what do they expect one to do for that small amount of money and do that just get off being cheap! Lot’s of Luck~ Shoppers!