With the sky high price of gas that seems to be venturing to new heights by the week, mystery shoppers have been struggling with their own travel costs for doing a mystery shop assignment. The low shop pay on most assignments often barely covers the cost of gas to get to the shop, leaving little in the way of a profit for a shopper’s time and efforts. To overcome this, mystery shoppers have been considering shop assignments that are closer to home as well as asking for additional travel pay to cover their own costs associated with doing the shop. Shoppers have also been more diligent about keeping track of their mileage with a log book to ensure their cost of travel can be written off on their tax return at the end of the year.
Now, thanks to the IRS, there is good news for mystery shoppers! For the first half of 2008, the mileage rate you could write off on your tax returns as a business expense was 50.5 cents per mile. The IRS has recognized the increased gas price as well as the higher rate for other costs associated with the maintenance of your vehicle, and has increased the mileage rate for the second half of 2008. For any business miles you travel from July 1 through December 31, 2008, you can now write-off 58.5 cents per mile!
The bottom line effect for you means that it may be worthwhile for you to take shops a little farther away. For instance, take a shop that is 15 miles from your house. Traveling to the shop and back home will be 30 total miles, so your write-off will be $17.55. Under the mileage rate for the first half of the year, your write-off would have only been $15.15. So, in effect, you will get the equivalent of $3.40 additional write-off for a 15 mile shop, or just shy of the cost of a gallon of gas. Likewise, a shop that is 30 miles away, or 60 miles round trip, would result in a $6.80 additional write-off.
Shoppers who have more fuel efficient vehicles will enjoy the increased benefit of stretching the higher mileage rate farther. Meaning, that additional 8 cent per mile write-off will be more worthwhile if you have a vehicle that gets 35 miles per gallon than one that gets 12 miles per gallon.
So while an extra gallon of gas may be worthwhile for some shoppers, it may not seem like much for others. For those shoppers who do not see much benefit of the increased mileage rate on the surface, consider the effects of this increased mileage rate over the 6-month period. If you typically do one shop per week, you will see a savings of over $60 in a 6-month period compared to the old mileage rate, which is almost a full tank of gas for most vehicles!
Remember, you have to keep a mileage log and track your miles on each shop to get the most out of this new tax change. So take a little time on your end to do the paperwork now, and you will see increased financial rewards at tax time!
Show me where the PROFIT is in doing these shops? The cost of printing the forms, the cost of time to review the assignments, the cost of transportaion, the cost of time at the assignment and taking notes, the cost of time to complete the evaluation, some of which are well over an hour to complete to a standard high enough to get a good score. Add all that up and you are either working for a loss or barely getting paid for your time. You certainly are not making a profit after depreciation of your assets and supplies used for the compensation.
Show me where the PROFIT is in doing these shops? The cost of printing the forms, the cost of time to review the assignments, the cost of transportation, the cost of time at the assignment and taking notes, the cost of time to complete the evaluation, some of which are well over an hour to complete to a standard high enough to get a good score. Add all that up and you are either working for a loss or barely getting paid for your time. You certainly are not making a profit after depreciation of your assets and supplies used for the compensation.
Has anyone developed a spread sheet to track their expenses and earnings? If so, are you willing to share the template? Have any articles been published regarding the allowable expense deductions? I have kept mileage records and retained receipts for ink cartridges, and paper and postage with the understanding that these can be deducted. I agree that the low pay for so many shops make them economically unfeasible. I only accept them now if I can bundle shops , get free food that I like or go by the location without going out of my way.
When I have run the numbers: print per page, prep time (some shops require you to take a test – 45 minutes – and if you do not get 100%. they do not tell you what questions you missed – I delete those companies from my accept list) , travel time and mileage, shop expense (with some shops taking 60 days to pay for a $150 dinner!!!) bank card interest, internet, ink, camera and phone services, and then the time, the shop experience with reporting and reviewing that all the answers are still cogent . . . you get the idea. When I list all the necessary minutia, it usually is a loss. What I do get is a modicum of monthly income coming in, that I can self direct, and the time is mine to fudge or nudge as I require. In the long run, I do not find it profitable. I find it a way to still have most of my day with a few hundreds of $ coming in. One way I do, however, make every dollar stretch, is work with companies who value our research and time. Yes, I support NO $5 shops. Even online. Those worthy businesses, sadly, are few and far between. But, worth the search until something else comes along.
Per Maggiemay’s question of the spreadsheet, yes, I developed one in Excel to track it all and enter my monthly shops as I have them assigned. I group them by location and time requirements for optimum travel round robin trip planning and fuel savings. I reprinted the top header of that excel sheet to leave in my car to log in start time/mlg/ – arrive time/mlg and continue time/expense/mlg, throughout the day. I do it religiously to see if a nominal “job” would be more lucrative and a better use of my time. Add in amortization for vehicle, home based office expenses and equipment, the tax benefits make it a feasible business at the end of the year. I scan in all receipts and keep them filed by shop customer and toss them in the paper world. I save a pdf file of every report I file for backup and keep everything on an external drive. To make your own spreadsheet, just think how you plan your shop day and write it down. In excel, you can make equations that multiply your miles by .50 or whatever you use. You can make the minutes on the road calculate, the minutes of your shop and the reporting minutes all tally. It takes a while to see how you think and what you want from your report and see if it’s even worth all the effort. I did it for a few months, saw that I was not actually getting ahead if I added in all the variables and still chose to continue because it was just my choice to do so. It’s sort of fun to see where the time really does go at the end of the day and to see how much time you’ve really spent on a shop from opening the email to finalizing that last report and completing your log.
littlebirdie there’s ways to compensate for your loss. I recycle my typing paper and if I’d done the same shop several times I check to see if there are any changes in instructions. If there are no changes I don’t print out the entire instructions. If there is a change I make the changes on the instructions I’ve printed out before. Saves on paper and printer ink. Scanning and saving the receipts is not a problem for me nor is there any cost involved.
I had someone tell me years ago..”I don’t care what you do, as long as it looks good on paper”. 🙂 Same thing goes for mystery shopping. Make it look good on paper and you’ll get plenty of shops with bonus attached to your payment.
And I plan my schedule around a multitude of shops in one area. If I can go to the Mall and do several shops there in one day I come out ahead.
I do try to limit my expenses by not doing a lot of reimbursement shops. I focus on shops where all I need is a pamphlet or a business card and no purchase.
That being said I run my mystery shopping the same way you would run any other type of business. I am shopping for myself not for the companies. And if I learn I’m going in the hole doing a shop the 1st time, I never do the shop again. I will ask for a bonus and I’ve been successful in asking.
If my husband and I want a nice night out at a “fine” dining restaurant that’s fully reimbursed I do the shop. I’ve found the companies who do the “fine” dining will compensate you for an outstanding survey. And they pay quickly. We did a “fine” dining on Friday night and I was paid by Tuesday the following week with a bonus for a “client ready” survey.
I refuse to do $5 fast food shops. Mile long surveys and little pay.
I like audits. All pay, fun and short surveys.
There are a lot of shops you can do that do not require a reimbursement and are relatively easy shops.
Joy (or anybody else that has one) I was wondering if you would share a copy of your spreadsheet. I really need a good organized way to keep track of all of my information at a glance instead of having to go thru a bunch of files?
Let me know if you can help me out & I’ll give you my email address.
Thanks in advance for your help.
I worked for the IRS for 21 years and I always told self employed taxpayers to keep good records. I write the beginning and ending mileage every time I go on a shop or shop related trip. I haven’t created a spread sheet on Excel, but I’ve only been shopping since May 2008, so that shouldn’t take long to do. I have created a spread sheet for the date I do a shop, the name of the company, the name of the shop, the amount of the fee, and the amount of the reimbursement. When I am paid, I write the date of the payment, amount of fee paid, and method of payment…Pay pal, check, or direct deposit. I don’t think any one company will pay me at least $600, therefore, I don’t expect to get any 1099’s. If I keep my own records, I will have more expense than income which will result in a write-off against my income. I am hoping that the longer I do mystery shopping, the better the learning curve will be and it will take me less time to shop and to do those reports.
There is a GREAT spreasheet available for the asking! I found it some months ago and don’t know how I lived without it. Gary is the man who developed it, email him requesting a copy at shopsheet@juno.com.
Does anyone know anything about these survey companies that are clogging my e-mail space. How can you make money at .50 a survey.
Aloha Cheryl,
I’d be glad to share my excel spreadsheet with you. email me at: janaj22@gmail.com.
Thanks and here’s to grace and ease!
Jj
in response to Bob…the survey companies are ok…some pay a lot more than that. Pinecone Research is a great one to get involved with. They pay up to $50 on some longer surveys. I have pulled in mostly $10 surveys but some $2-3 as well. They pay with in a few days normally. Another great one if you are on the web a lot anyway is Inbox or Send Earnings…they pay for looking at emails. it takes a while to add up but it’s worth it if your able to use some free time. You simply open the notice and check the email sent to you. it registers as read and adds into a balance. You have to collect a min of $30 before you can cash out but if you become a GOLD member you add up fast. I have over $90 sitting on my Inbox account and it gets added to everyday…I wait till school starts or xmas and then cash in for extra funds. It takes a while to get the money after cashing in so be sure to plan for that wait time though.
Another good survey one if you can get in is HIPOINTS…they give points for each survey and you are able to browse a prize catalogue for gifts. Harris poll and Ann Parks are 2 good ones…hope this helps.
Just got started in theis business, and I would like to thank everyone for all the great tips and ideals. I was about to start pulling hairs when I came across this site. I have never been so blessed, and I thank you all for all of your tips.
Hello, I am new to this mystery shoppers, looking forward in making extra money.Can anyone lead me in the right direction on how to get started with free,legit companies. I am on total disability, need an extra income. Would someone be so kind in helping me with directions on what to do? Does anyone make money on surveys, do you have to buy a product at the end of the survey? thanks for your help.. Joe S.
Joe S. You can email me at jsoilinc2@yahoo.com if you have any information that would help me out..thanks Joe S.