eBay reports your sales to the I.R.S.

[MAC702]

Does the US tax system not recognise the difference between an individual selling off "surplus items" that they may have owned for some time to someone "purchasing items with the sole intention of reselling at a profit"? Clearly there is a difference between the two scenarios and it may be reasonable to assume that the latter may attract tax after perhaps a threshold of profit had been passed.

If you study your whole life, you can understand enough of our tax codes to make a good living doing the paperwork for others, just well enough to not get your clients in trouble. It is very purposely extremely complicated.

Trump only made one campaign promise that I cared about: simplifying income taxes. He utterly failed miserably at it.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Sapper740]

Does the US tax system not recognise the difference between an individual selling off "surplus items" that they may have owned for some time to someone "purchasing items with the sole intention of reselling at a profit"? Clearly there is a difference between the two scenarios and it may be reasonable to assume that the latter may attract tax after perhaps a threshold of profit had been passed.

We are left with two options: enter the amount of the 1099 k on your income tax return and then file a Form 1040, Schedule 1, Part I – Line 8z, Other Income. List type and amount: "Form 1099-K Personal Item Sold at a Loss and Form 1040, Schedule 1, Part II – Line 24z, Other Adjustments to show the loss from the sale reported on the Form 1099-K. That requires a lot of paperwork for every item sold and good record keeping should you get audited. The other option, actually being suggested by an online tax filing service is to ignore the 1099 K completely. I'm going to choose the former as I don't want one of Chairman Jao Xiden's 87,000 new armed IRS auditors kicking in my door looking for proceeds from a garage sale.

[rcathey]

Surprised I've not seen anyone mention this yet...but they've always done this.

The threshold has changed, that's all. Granted, it used to be A LOT higher at $20,000 in payments and over 200 transactions.

Suffice it to say, this isn't eBay trying to screw you.

With the previous threshold, it was possible to have a pretty dang viable side hustle without worrying an awful lot about the tax implications.
One could sell ONE MILLION DOLLARS worth of product on eBay every year and not worry about taxes so long as you did so with only 199 transactions.

The $600 threshold makes it pretty hard for a fella to just make a little cash on the side. Stuff like this is why I consign most of my stuff to auction houses these days.

[matthanne1]

Yep, it's not ebay trying to screw us any more than normal for them, and you're not the real target either. I had to post acquisition costs, inventory costs, 'business' costs, etc and it ended up being about what I made.

The real target are the 'gig' economy people, the side hustlers whose Venmo, Paypal, etc who your local government can or wants to tap (instead of the offshore upper class). We are just collateral damage.

Resident of C(r)ook County, IL, glad I'm not in Chicago. Used to live in a place that was subject to federal, state, county and special regional city taxes, so at least it wasn't that bad. Just with all the hands in your pocket, you would think someone would at least scratch them.

[72 usmc]

Pay up, Biden needs taxes to redistribute income. Consider, You sell at gun shows, club or forum members, small flee markets, to fellow collectors in your area. Best is locals or use as trade items for work done instead of cash. High shipping, lost packages, poorly wrapped... ebay is a waste of time. Shipping is a killer. Ebay's fees are also nuts. Unless you are a store with super high prices to cover your costs, boxes, travel, and time, it's a joke. It is a lot of work to wrap items properly. As a buyer, I rarely buy on ebay due to tax and high shipping. Mostly rare books, with two lost due to book rate shipping after I requested and paid for priority in a box. I Filed a complaint and ebay removed money from the seller's account. Still, I would rather have had the book. You best start talking to friends and fellow collectors that may want the stuff. Most of mine goes to friends listed in a trust as gifts. Remember when selling , most want stuff at 50% value. Auctions are a no go and so are military or antique stores. You lose about half. You may be able to dump a collection depending on the quality items to Libertytreecollectors or IMA. But you take a hit, the antique store I worked at had 50% overhead, however if we had a buyer set up, then we grabbed items at 35% overhead because it was sold at a phone call. But only top condition rare items go fast. Buy stuff, it costs a high price, sell stuff- it's all junk. Most want stuff at a sweat deal. I had a so-called friend offer about 1/4 value on a huge lead soldier collection when I needed some cash to pay a high copay on a huge heart surgery bill. All those treasures become a burden to get rid of. I wish you luck.

[72 usmc]

Some have a private sale like a rummage sale, but call it an estate sale. But all things need to be in a garage so you do not have people walking in the house. This is a last resort, and list it on the town's web page of sales. You sell the stuff, but normally high priced stuff may or may not sell. Collectors will pay slightly more than sellers or junk pickers. You will have theft of some small items. Have a few people watching. Smalls in cases. Again most estate sale buyers expect a deal. After years of collecting you must know fellow collectors that want your goodies. Most cannot wait till I am dead, to get all the great condition stuff I got in the 1950s-70. Mostly toy soldiers and marbles. By the way, auto correct -sweet prices in above post.