There are two different types of payments as we know a fee which is a flat payment for doing the job and a reimbursement which is just that a reimbursement of what a shopper had to pay normally it would be the cost of the food which is reimbursed. The fee is taxed and the reimbursement is not. I would say over 95% of mystery shopping I have done report the food reimbursement as a reimbursement and thus it is not reportable to the IRS as a taxable item. Some restaurants however for reason unknown to me make it hard on the shopper and insist on calling the reimbursement a fee thus making that a reportable cost to the IRS. Don't know why they have such an attitude towards shoppers that they feel they must assign this cost in the most arduous way rather than the more friendly way of reporting taxes and calling the reimbursement for food what it is a reimbursement. Yes yes I have been school that I can save my paperwork and prove to the IRS that it was in fact a non-taxable reimbursement but why go through that extra step if the restaurant has the capacity to simply categorize it correctly from the beginning? It's a very unfriendly attitude toward the shopper. Please don't call a food reimbursement a fee but in fact it is a reimbursement that the IRS has no interest in and it leaves me to later explain to the IRS what the charge is when the company could have made it easy and just call it a reimbursement and be done with it. PLEASE PROPERLY CLASSIFY FOOD REIMBURSEMENTS AS A REIMBURSEMENT AND NOT A FEE. I'm done with doing any more shops where the restaurant called the food reimbursement a fee. They are just driving up my paperwork load and not making it easier on shoppers!!! I just did two shops recently where the only compensation was the food and they found it necessary to classify it as a fee. No more I'm done with that.

I have not really thought of that.

I am not sure if the restaurants (clients) decide that, or the mystery shopping service providers decide that. But in any case, it sounds like it would help if you use total cash accounting. That way regardless it's a fee or a reimbursement, you always report them the same way. For example if the job offers $10 and you paid $10 for the required purchase. You would report $10 in proceeds, and $10 in required purchases (expenses), and your net profit is $0. However the purchase must be required by the job specifications. Hope that helps. A lot of great restaurants I do are fee-based and I would not miss out on them. :)

I agree. Some restaurants you want to shop just because you enjoy eating at them.

for some reason i cant get the resteraunt on down right My very first one, i didnt see the time and went to a dinner and it was supposed to be a lunch then i wemnt to a lunch and i sat on my card and snapped so i coultnt pay, the next one i showed my date didnt but i bought all the required food but since i didnt have a gues i got denied