Time to go short on eBay stock?

If somebody was already reporting their eBay income at tax time, would that change have any particular impact on them?

 

Adding sales tax was way worse than this... Most sellers are already aligned with PayPal's reporting services: Press Release: New U.S. Tax Reporting Requirements: Your Questions Answered

 

Are you suggesting that the majority of eBay's customers are cheating on their taxes? Or are you intimating that it will be a strain on eBay's resources to generate that many 1099s?

I don't know the answer to the first, but I can assure you that printing up 1099s will not be a problem. A simple database query will create a list for them, and printing 1099s are simple.

 

Meh....

According to fake news, only billionaires cheat on their taxes, so I'm sure that this will be much adoo about nothing.
I'm sure that other than having to pay for some geeks to manage the automated 1099s for the sellers, this will not be much of a burden for the eBay sellers.

More fees for the sellers...more admin costs....it will all trickle down to those who pay all of the taxes anyway:

The consumer.

AMMV

 

Um, ebay sellers were suppose to be reporting their sales income before this. How is this going to ruin things?

 

Ebay will do fine. Sure it was great online when no one charged sales tax and a seller's revenue (not profit) was not reported. It was a massive online garage sale. But the deals are still on ebay even with taxes and its about the only easy way to access Chinese goods at wholesale prices. The thing that amazes me is how Chinese sellers can sell goods with free shipping (delivered by USPS) for less than it costs me to send the same item 100 miles.

 

Only bought and paid-for politicians, some Hollywood types, and most NBA athletes really have trouble figuring that out, actually.....

 

The answer to the puzzle is an international treaty that says, in essence:
1) The money charged for postage will go to the originating country's postal service. The costs of delivering the mail in a foreign country will be bourne by the country of the destination.
2) International mail will be delivered as if it were local mail.

This made sense in 1874 when the Universal Postal Union was established. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Postal_Union ). International mail was not a high volume enterprise 150 years ago. In general, mail correspondence was usually bilatteral. The two-way nature thus ensured that both the sending and receiving countries would get their portion of the postage.

Fast forward to 1999. Today we can place an order for goods directly with a foreign dealer without paying a stipend to either the post office nor the telephone company. That dealer can drop off a small package at the local post office which then throws the package, unsorted, into a shipping container destined for the USA. The only costs incurred are the use of the shipping container. A 40 ft shipping container has a 3000 sq foot inside, so if you are shipping padded envelopes you might get 10,000 envelopes in one container. The cost of shipping that container is about $4,000 from china to the west coast. That's the retail cost to you or I and includes fees charged by the customs department in China. I'm sure that the post office in Hong Kong does not pay those fees.

So there you have a situation where a 5 pound package from Hong Kong will get here in a few weeks and cost the seller 40 cents or so.

 

Funny. If I sell a double eagle that I purchased for $1,900 (& I have plenty of them), and on eBay I only clear $1,400 dollars - (even though I bought many of them for under $1,000) ... I'll get a capital loss .... because all of my high & low receipts are in order comma & they lack certain specificity that would intimate anything otherwise.
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According to the tax code, we all should be filing those garage sales revenue and costs. The fact that virtually nobody does so doesn't negate the law.

As mention, because of a treaty that is over a hundred years old. Don't know the current state of them, by negotiations are in process to update that treaty.

 

One might imagine that most stuff (maybe 60% ??), weather excess business inventory - or a seller cleaning out their garage, is eBay selling at a loss, simply because it is used / Surplus or old? Now we have to hire more IRS guys to sift through the accuracy of all these new 1099 entries? plus more home offices? Capital depreciation? God forbid we ever just have a flat 10% income tax, whether state or federal or both. heck - why not 1099 Facebook marketplace and all the other seller websites.
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You might imagine it, but that does not make it true. Note that eBay is not selling any of that, and none is at a loss to eBay. It may be a loss to the seller, but that's a different thing altogether.

As for the flat tax... I don't want it. In my 45 year career I've paid up to 50% of my yearly income in taxes. Those were extraordinary years, but it was honest wages and tax that was owed and paid. Now I'm retired and living off social security. Last year I paid NO taxes because my income was low. I do NOT want to have to pay 10% tax on the money that I paid into social security as well as the money invested in a 401K.

My situation is sort of like being the new guy in a union job. The old timers have seniority and get preferential treatment. It's really unfair, right up till the time that you get enough seniority to get some of those perks. I've paid my way, now it's time for you to pay your way.