For many mystery shoppers, travel time to and from job assignments is downtime. If the required travel time on an assignment is fifteen minutes, twenty minutes or longer, some mystery shoppers simply pass up the assignment altogether. As a mystery shopper, you can make your miles count in a number of ways that can save you both time and money. So before you pass over that next assignment that’s just outside of your normal travel zone, consider these tips:
Money For Miles. As a mystery shopper, you are permitted by the IRS to write off your mileage traveled for business purposes. For each mile you travel to and from your job assignments, you can write off $0.55 per mile. This may not seem like a lot of money to you. However, when you consider that you often travel fifty or sixty miles per hour, if not more, this can really add up. If you travel fifteen miles to a job site, plus the return trip home, you can deduct a mileage expense of $16.50. This is as much, if not more, than most mystery shopping assignments pay. So what this means is that if you travel even a moderate distance to your job site, you can essentially work as a mystery shopper tax-free, or close to it.
If you aren’t keeping a mileage log of your mystery shopping miles traveled, it’s not too late to start. Simply grab a notebook and a pen, and start getting paid to travel!
Make The Time Count. For most mystery shoppers, traveling to and from a mystery shopping job site is not a non-stop route. Often the route to the job site is dotted with stop lights. Use the stop lights strategically to brush up on your assignment requirements. While you likely can’t read the full requirements in the car on the way to the job site, this is an excellent time to give your mind a refresher. When you know what the requirements are, you will find that you sail through the on-site visit much faster. So not only will you save time by reviewing the requirements en route, but you will also save time at the actual on-site visit.
Then, on your return visit home, use the stop lights strategically to jot down notes to yourself to help you answer the questions on your report much faster and more accurately.
Double Up. You can get the most bang for your travel time by completing two or more assignments on one outing. If you have a mystery shopping assignment scheduled in a large retail center or shopping mall, it’s often fairly easy to find another assignment to complete in that same venue. When it’s not possible to find an assignment in that same venue, consider looking for assignments that are en route to your already scheduled assignment.
As a mystery shopper, travel time may seem like downtime, but it doesn’t have to be. Use these tips to make your travel time more lucrative and efficient!
I’m confused now. I sat in on a conference call about what you can and what you cannot deduct and was told you cannot deduct milage unless you only count milage between two or more shops. They said the IRS won’t let you deduct since they count that milage as the same as going to and from your normal job. I like the $.55 per mile much better, but I quit keeping track of my milage after that. Help?
I’m not sure it’s advisable to read notes while driving – even at a red light.
Have to agree with your noter above, I went through the same tax training program and you cannot deduct your mileage to your first job, or from your last job to home. The IRS considers that to be your commute and is not deductible.
I like to do the revealed audits as well as other shops and one way to make them pay is use a large map. I use push pins to mark where shops are available. Then I try to book them where I can do some on the way and others on the way back on a different route. I get more jobs done and less useless driving.
Does anyone know how much per mile (kilometer) is allowed as a deduction in Canada?
I figue my first and last stop are my home. That’s where I check in, get my paperwork, review my assignments, and return to do my reports. When I pick up my paperwork from my forst stop, and complete my reports from my last stop, the IRS can consider the distance to and from those stops as a commute, but until, and unless that happens, my home is my first and last stop of every route. I include that as my first and last stop whenever I Mapquest a route. My home is my office. It is my dispatch point. Any miles I must travel from my dispatch point become part of my route for the day.
If I am not at my office when I start my workday, I do not count my miles I drive to my office on my taxes. That is my commute.