Hey Aneoth if you were to buy and then maybe resell a few things for a tidy profit I bet the bitch would shut her trap real fast hehe.  Just tell her its an investment your stuff will be worth more one day, the 200 pairs of shoes she's bought will not  I bet that SW Orange B3 you got is worth much more then you paid for it

I'd also personally have no problem with a federal sales tax if.....  The stupid government would spend it here(univeral healthcare, free college for all ext) not give it away, but that will never happen.

Gus Landt wrote:

bclarkie wrote:I have been buying and selling for 6 years now. IRS tax records can only go back per law 7 years. How can they say for certainty that I didn't buy my whole collection back in 1999 for $50k(my collection is not worth this much by the way) and and now I am selling if off at at huge loss. It would be almost impossible to refute my claim.

How long have you lived in the US? The IRS couldn't care less about your claim. It isn't up to them to prove anything. It is 100% up to you. They'll look at all of your income and say it is 100% profit unless you can prove otherwise.
The burden is all on you.

Unless I am mistaken, I was under the impression that I am innocent until proven guilty, regardless who is charging me.

draco76 wrote: I bet that SW Orange B3 you got is worth much more then you paid for it

I offered him my right nut for it, but he turned me down.  Now I know my right nut is not worth an Orange B3  :cry:

Mike B.

Jesus. Every April ...

Guys, the answers are not going to be found on this forum, guaranteed. Not only is tax law very complicated, but the major players involved — the Department of the Treasury and eBay — have offered no clear guidelines whatsoever. The best that Treasury can come up with is to apply a nine-step guideline to determine if an activity qualifies as a hobby or a business; the best that eBay offers is their standard line about how they're just "a venue" and not responsible for anything, at any time, for any reason, ever.

Three thoughts to close with:

1. If you hesitate for even a second when asked, "Does your eBay activity constitute a business?" then it's probably a business. I'd seriously consider declaring your eBay income.
2. No matter what your answer to No. 1 might be, it will only cost you a couple of hours to visit a tax professional — the sort of individual who will be, oh, roughly 500 times more prepared to answer this sort of question than the average Acaeum visitor.
3. If your answer to No. 1 is "yes," all is not lost. You can now deduct business expenses. Among the possibilities (off the top of my head): packing material, ISP fees, eBay fees, PayPal fees, postage, mileage on your car, computers and other office equipment, getting a logo made, and basic supplies (paper clips, staplers, etc.).

BTW, thanks, wthomas!

GamersRest[FNG] wrote:I was just curious when the thread first started if there were any related news articles about a new tax.

All of the hysteria began with an Associated Press report that was picked up and run by virtually every news-gathering organization in the country. There's about 10,000 links to choose from, but here's a pretty good summary:

USATODAY.com - Better ask: IRS may consider eBay sales as income

Xaxaxe wrote:You can now deduct business expenses. Among the possibilities (off the top of my head): packing material, ISP fees, eBay fees, PayPal fees, postage, mileage on your car, computers and other office equipment, getting a logo made, and basic supplies (paper clips, staplers, etc.).

Not all eBaying works out to a profit.  However, that's not necessarily a bad thing.  Get the government to fund your collection!

1.  Buy Orange B3s/other "rare" copies
2.  Sell Green B3s/other "non-rare" copies  (who has time to track the exact inventory, we just go by product code and quantity, sir!)
3.  Record losses of about $1000 an item.  
4.  Deduct net loss from personal income tax.
5.  Keep good stuff and repeat.

* This advice is provided for entertainment purposes only.  Do not really try this.  If you do try this and go to jail, it's not my fault, and I don't exist.

Xaxaxe wrote:

Deadlord36 wrote:And be realistic: 99% of audits are conducted on individuals making $100K or more a year. For businesses, it is $500K. There is simply no profit in auditing the little guys; on the contrary, the IRS LOSES money on small-time audits.

Sorry, but those are both myths ...

Take 2003, for example:

* 54.5 percent of all audits were performed on individuals with LESS than $25,000 reported income.
* 76 percent of all audits were done via correspondence (no face-to-face contact at all). These are incredibly profitable for the IRS — one study from 1999 found that the average "audit-by-letter" ended up putting $2,700 back into Treasury's coffers.

Another thing to keep in mind: the IRS has computers, too. Many auditing victims are chosen by nothing more complicated than a random-number generator ... "rich man/poor man" doesn't enter into it at all.

As to how this applies to the current discussion ... well, it doesn't really change anything. I'll paraphrase what I said a few posts ago: if eBay is paying your rent, go see a tax professional; if it's not, I don't think it's worth worrying about.

All good advice.  Funniest IRS screwing story EVER:

    One of my best buddies had fallen on hard times.  He was working in a Kroger stocking groceries for several years (he's now a soccer coach and history teacher with a large suburban high school, so things got better).  Being the lazy alcoholic druggie he was, he never filed any taxes at all. Nothing.  Never sent the IRS back anything.  Just took all his tax statements every year and stuffed them in a box under his bed (in the room he was renting from a friend).  
  One day the IRS calls:  He hasn't filed in three years, and they are going to do an audit.  I guess he had been sending up red flags all through the system.....not only had he not filed, his living address was a very tony neighborhood in the area (He was renting a room from a buddy who felt sorry for him, basically living in the pool house for something like $200 a month).  The IRS calls and makes an appointment for their auditors to come by and "talk" with him and get the back money owed (this is in the 80's, before the "audit by letter" crap they have now).
  The day arrives, he's forgotten all about it and is passed out in bed.  Not one but TWO auditors show up.  According to his friend in whose poolhouse he lives, they are practically jumping for joy as they get out of their car and walk up to this $250,000 house.  He says you can see the gears turning in their heads and their smug smiles to each other as they dream about how much back taxes and penalties they are going to nail this miscreant for.  They are understandably upset when he answers the door and explains the situation that the guy they are looking for not only doesn't own the house, he doesn't live inside, he's in the poolhouse which he rents for $200 a month.....
  So they go to the poolhouse.  At the time, my buddy was living what could charitably be called a "sustenance" existence....he owns a tv, radio, bed, dresser, and a large pile of fast food wrappers and empty beer cans.  In his t-shirt and underwear, he ushers the IRS agents in (who are rapidly seeing their promotions getting smaller and smaller) and changes into some clothes...but not before taking a GIGANTIC dump in the adjacent bathroom as the now very worried agents sit on his bed (the only place to sit in the poolhouse) and try to avoid the stained and dirty sheets while getting out and opening their briefcases and case file envelopes like the "professionals" they are.....
 With the aroma of post-Taco Bueno and beer dinner dump wafting through the room, they get down to business, which is to ask him why he hasn't filed, does he know it's illegal, he'll have to pay penalties, etc.  At this time my friend tells them he hasn't filed because he thinks he's owed money.  They ask him for paperwork/verification of that.  They are also asking him questions like does he do work around the house (no), does he clean the pool (no), does he clean the inside of the house (no), everything is no no no because at this time all he's doing is working at Kroger and spending all his money on beer and dope.  
 So my buddy reaches under the bed and pulls out the box with all his W2 forms and information.  The IRS quickly add up the amount.  It turns out even with penalties for late filings, he is owed a very large amount of company. Much to their chagrin, they are forced to cut him a check for sevearl hundred dollars before they brush themselves off, flee out the door, and  jump back into their car (to apparantly hit the nearest drinking establishment and commiserate about the fuck up they've just participated in).  Meanwhile my buddy after doing nothing except sleeping off a stupor has a very large check in hand that he can now use to resume his partying.....
  The post script is even funnier....apparantly to show they are sore losers the guy who owns the house is auditied the NEXT year (gee, what a coincidence), but being as he is a savvy self employed businessman he hires a tax attorney, who refiles on the guys taxes for the last few years once he finds deductions the home owner never took due to ignorance, and he also is presented with a fat refund check from the by now severely depressed IRS agents who apparantly moved onto greener pastures after their double asswhipping at the same residence....

Mike B.