IRS will seek out big sellers

[GRM-REPR]

(Sorry if re post)Yes, the IRS has been seeking out sellers on eBay. They are trying to "seek" people who appear to be making about $20k+ and have been very merciless on some sellers already. This goes for craigslist too. Is this just because they are bored or desperate for tax dollars???

http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10008366/ebay-vs-the-irs-in-new-online-tax-scuffle-with-craigslist-in-the-front-row/

[xxsn0blindxx]

I could only see this being possible if the seller lists a company name in their auctions/ads. There's no way they could link sales to a seller on craigslist to know the quantity and value of their sales, they also have no way to know if the items sold or not and for how much.

[GRM-REPR]

I could only see this being possible if the seller lists a company name in their auctions/ads. There's no way they could link sales to a seller on craigslist to know the quantity and value of their sales, they also have no way to know if the items sold or not and for how much.


Clark Howard was just talking about this today and he mentioned in the Washington Post that the IRS has already gone after sellers. I'm interested as well how they are getting this information (if no company name) is available.

[emptypockets]

Obama just wants everyones hard earned money so he can give it to worthless, unemployed, lazy pieces of shit. Needs to fund his nonsense somehow, aside from just printing more worthless money.....

[Prince Valiant]

This is interesting...if you own an asset and convert it to cash, your net gain in worth = 0....because while you gained cash, you lost an asset of equal value.

It's like if I sold my house for 100G tomorrow. I didn't make 100G, because I lost a house valued at 100G to offset the gain in cash.

Maybe a case could be made for capital gain transactions say I bought at 10G and sold for 11G a week later...but even then, what if I bought something for 10G this year, and 5 years later sold for 12G? Heck, though it may have seemed to appreciate, once inflation is factored in, I really didn't gain much...hence my objections to taxing capital gains like stocks, etc.

It's bullshit.

[Karps TA]

If someone is running a "business" via ebay why should they be exempt from paying taxes that any other "business" owner would need to pay? The article clearly states "professional sellers".

IMO this isn't much different then if Target was selling stuff for cash out the back of the store.

I know several people who have ebay businesses and who pay their taxes lawfully.

[ND4SPD]

Well they'll be looking into me then... but then that's fine, all my earnings are reported and I even collect sales tax when required. Still, I just love how the government tries to find more ways to triple and quadruple tax the same dollar.

I don't think they're going to hit too many people using eBay as a big continuous garage sale because most of that stuff is sold at a massive loss. Say you pay $50 for a video game, then sell it for $10... they aren't going to tax you on that $10 because it's a $40 loss.

[TheRX7Project]

Well they'll be looking into me then... but then that's fine, all my earnings are reported and I even collect sales tax when required. Still, I just love how the government tries to find more ways to triple and quadruple tax the same dollar.

I don't think they're going to hit too many people using eBay as a big continuous garage sale because most of that stuff is sold at a massive loss. Say you pay $50 for a video game, then sell it for $10... they aren't going to tax you on that $10 because it's a $40 loss.

If anything, you can write that $40 off as a business loss, LOL so what, lets track these people down and give them refunds?

[GRM-REPR]

If someone is running a "business" via ebay why should they be exempt from paying taxes that any other "business" owner would need to pay? The article clearly states "professional sellers".

IMO this isn't much different then if Target was selling stuff for cash out the back of the store.

I know several people who have ebay businesses and who pay their taxes lawfully.

Karp, this a point to consider, however; I suppose a question off of your point would be, why are they doing this NOW instead of before? eBay has always been a point of focus for trying to corral more money but why now? That's why my last sentence was a question (in layman's terms) is it out of desperation for money?

Just a good point.....:)

[ND4SPD]

It's really a no-brainer that the government will be increasingly hard up for money. Obama and co. know full well that their current policies, along with their eventual desire to raise taxes (instead of cutting spending) will cause tax revenues to go down (which has been shown, time and time and time again) so they need to find new revenue streams in order to keep the money rolling in for all of their new plans. Why do you think they keep floating trial balloons about the VAT or a national sales tax?

[Karps TA]

Karp, this a point to consider, however; I suppose a question off of your point would be, why are they doing this NOW instead of before? eBay has always been a point of focus for trying to corral more money but why now? That's why my last sentence was a question (in layman's terms) is it out of desperation for money?

Just a good point.....:)

Why? Because they do need the money. But again, I'm all for it. I want all the loopholes closed. If I have to pay my taxes, so should everyone else regardless of how much money you make.

And this isn't just an Obama thing. The deficit was huge even before he took over. And the spending to get out of the recession was already happening. To think that big time govt spending wasn't going to happen if McCain won is a fairy tale. It's all they know how to do in Washingon. Lefties and Righties. This isn't your 1950's govt anymore where there was actually a difference between the 2.

[Feature Pony]

That would be great for all the hits I took on selling my old parts I then could use the loss I take and write them off on my taxes.

[Reverend Cooper]

Just so you guy's know this isn't new its something thats been going on for a few years,my accountant made me aware of it awhile ago

[GRM-REPR]

Just so you guy's know this isn't new its something thats been going on for a few years,my accountant made me aware of it awhile ago

To the general public on eBay, it's pretty new as Clark Howard stated--it's why he had a segment on it.

Karp--Not disagreeing with you at all, I agree if one has to pay up the taxes, everyone has to. Also, who hasn't sold something and not paid taxes of some sort on them? This is a car enthusiast board, I guarantee many times over that owners here sold a car and fibbed on the taxes owed to the government. The DMV knows hundreds of thousands (probably millions) of car sellers do this nationwide. We also know they could do more to curtail the practice of lying about how much we actually sold the car for. In similarity, the buyer is fibbing too.

Add eBay into this scenario, well........