Hello Shoppers,

Can anybody from Canada (more specifically Ontario) help me with this? I am trying to prepare for my taxes. What expenses are deductable for mystery shopping?

Is the a necessary purchase that is not reimbursed a deductable?

If so, if a shop requires me to buy any item above, say, $5, but will only reimburse that $5, is the rest tax deductable?

The amount you will be making here , I wouldn't bother with income tax

Hi David,

I suggest giving the CRA 1-800 number a try for those questions. This is my first year for mystery shopping taxes too.

Marianne

Hi

I now need to charge HST (13%) and I am living in Ontario Canada. Where do we register our tax number so that the tax gets added to the automatic submitted invoice.

Thx

Legally speaking ANY income you make with Mystery shopping has to be declared to Revenu Canada. This also includes paid benefits for example you do a shop where you have to buy 10$ of gas and the shopper fee is 5$: the total amount that has to be declared is 15$

Another example, the shop is a burger one and you have lunch plus a 5$ fee: This one I would only declare 5$ since the lunch is not a pure direct benefit.

Trust me as soon as you declare your self as an independent contractor and you start to take deductions they will ask for everything and trust me they do, I have been in 2018 through a full blown audit and it went well. and

Be also aware that MSP companies using or paying by Paypal do have an obligation to declare who gets how much to Revenu Canada and this is used more and more as a verification tool. It is like ebay sending the names and total business of all Canadian sellers to Rev Can.

When you are paid in USD, you need to apply a conversion rate at payment date.