2012 taxes

I stopped working at my job this Jan. I was on disability for six weeks before retiring in April. I started mystery shopping and merchandising in May. I earned less than $600 working for several different companies. Do I just include the income I earned on my assignments as additional income or do I file a separate business return as an "independant contractor"?

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More About Mystery Shopping Taxes

I suggest that you look under "Mystery shopping and taxes" under the New Shopper section. It is very helpful.

Little lady shopping Southern Louisiana & Mississippi.

Ahines, I file a Schedule C for my mystery shopping business and attach it to the 1040. I don't file a separate return for the business. Filing the Schedule C will let you deduct your business expenses, such as mileage. You received good advice above to look in the New Shopper section and read up.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

We have only a few days left this year to make beneficial adjustments for our tax returns. Take a look, if your numbers, if you haven't. I added up my fees and subtracted mileage and other expenses, and find that my shopping business is at a profit. What does my business need? Some obvious choices are a flash drive, external backup, computer, printer, shredder, DVR, camera, Costco membership for shops, office supplies.

I'm going shopping!

@ahines2016;
You might want to peruse the contents of the IRS Publication 334 (Tax Guide for Small Businesses) which is available here -> [www.irs.gov]

Shopping South Texas where there are miles and miles between each of the miles to every shop.

Thanks everyone for all the good information. A fellow retiree asked me about mystery shopping and I'm trying to convince her to try it. She says she's on a very tight fixed budget. I told her, that's the beauty of the business; doing only the jobs you want. In her case, not doing jobs that require a purchase. I started as a shopper this May and began an excel spread sheet for mileage and expenses in September. I just wish I had found out about mystery shopping earlier.. .I'm loving it.

HELLO, WE ARE HAVING A DEBATE. ARE MEALS TAXABLE?

My tax professional told me that meals (not reimbursed) are tax deductible at 50% deduction IF you are on business 25 miles or more away from home. This was for the tax year 2011, anyway. I did a lot of traveling for a different business that year.
You may want to check with your own tax preparer.

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Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.

Meals you are required to purchase to do the shop are not taxable as income. You report the money you got for the meal and deduct what you paid for it so it washes out. Keep all receipts in case you are audited. (The same is true for anything else you are required to purchase that you get reimbursed for.)

Meals you buy with your own money while traveling out of town on business that are NOT reimbursed are deductible at 50%, but you may be better off taking the per diem deduction.

Talk to your tax preparer, who will be more familiar with your personal situation.

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I pray it does not occur that the last thing I did before I died was vacuum the house or eat broccoli.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2013 01:32PM by lucky7s.

don't believe everything you hear from H&R Block either. Many of their people have little experience and don't know how to do anything but fill out the form. They are NOT tax advisers -- they are tax preparers and rely solely on the information YOU bring them.

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I pray it does not occur that the last thing I did before I died was vacuum the house or eat broccoli.

Please, go to the New Soppers Area and read, read, read, about MS and taxes there!!!

Your tax adviser may not understand this very well!

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

How I wish someone would take advantage of this situation and start up a tax preparation service specifically geared towards our needs as mystery shoppers!

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"Between stimulus and response, there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
~Viktor Frankl

From a tax standpoint, mystery shopping really is little different than my petsitting service, where I go to people's homes to do things for them and they pay me for it. If I go buy pet food or have to pay a vet bill (cockatoo broke a nail once and was bleeding all over the place) and they include that in the check they write, my tax preparer declares the whole amount as income and then deducts what I paid for the food, same way reimbursements work for mystery shopping.

Except I go through a LOT more office supplies with mystery shopping, with all the paperwork I print out to review just before the shop. Trying to shift some of that onto my smart phone -- or -- come to think of it, I think I can put files on my Kindle, which would be easier to read on and I wouldn't lose track of where I was if I got a phone call in the middle of it. I need to look into that. I think there's a way to put Word or PDF files on there but I'm not sure how. Maybe that's just on the Fire, which I don't have.

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I pray it does not occur that the last thing I did before I died was vacuum the house or eat broccoli.

ItsASecret, I have a Kinde that I have just started putting my mystery shopping documents on in PDF format. It's an older version, and not a Fire model. I email them to the Kindle address that corresponds to my device to upload them. Pretty handy.

Thanks. I'll have to find that, I think it is probably somewhere in the settings. I vaguely remember loading a draft of one of my manuscripts onto it when I first got it but haven't tried to put anything else on there that way since then. I've had it over a year and a half so I no longer remember what I did back then. I barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning.

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I pray it does not occur that the last thing I did before I died was vacuum the house or eat broccoli.

If you still have your original Kindle document with info on different features and settings and stuff on your device, the instructions about uploading you docs are in that. Love being able to use gizmos in new and unexpected ways!

lucky7s Wrote:
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> I do not believe everything I read on a frum..I
> ask H & R Block. They do my taxes...not people
> here. Just my 2 cents....

If your questions are written-in-crayon, kindergarten level basic, sure. I have a feeling that my tax return, along with several others on this board, would cause panic attacks, brain aneurysms and possibly even spontaneous combustion to most H&R Block employees. Some H&R Block employees have nothing more than a crash course in tax prep.

When I have an issue, my first step is to look up the code/regulation from the IRS's website. All tax-related laws are published and can be accessed free of charge. Then, if I have further questions, I can contact one of a few CPAs that I know and provide them with my scenario, as well as a reference to the code or statute that I am questioning.

We had our taxes done at H&R Block this year, specifically chose a preparer that was a CPA and paid the "premium service" fees associated. He made over $4K in errors on our federal and $2K in errors on our state returns. We returned to H&R Block with the letters from the IRS and state and they were pretty useless. We called the IRS and state ourselves & resolved in minutes. If you have anything besides a 1099 EZ (and even then, just do it online), I would hesitate to go to H&R Block! We paid almost $500 in fees - definitely could have found a true tax advisor for that amount or not much more.

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2012 taxes

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