General

I think we've done this topic about the 1099k thing to death already.

If you are paying tax on the full amount of your ebay sales, you need to hire an accountant

Nope, eBay isn't going anywhere. If you haven't paying income tax on things that generate income, you've basically not been paying your taxes correctly. If your selling things for less than what you paid for them, you're not making money on it. Depending on what you're selling you're most likely getting more than what you'd get for it by selling it via a yard sale or pawn shop.

I started using Mercari again because ebay revoked my selling privileges. They want my routing number. As if I know that. x_x

Only one time I was asked for my routing number and it was a decade ago. I think it was so I can order checks from walmart. Yeah, checks. Somehow I still haven't run out of them. Oh man I hope I don't run out of checks.

You can get the bank routing number from your checks. It's on every single one of them.

Depending on what you're selling, it should be very easy for you to never report a profit. How is the ORS going to prove that $20 NES game you sold wasn't our hated 30 years ago for $60 or whatever it went for?

You now created a $40 net loss that can offset gains on another sale. This works with basically anything. Certainly be harder if you're selling higher value items that don't/didn't retail for that much, but still should be able to offset any gains for tax purposes with enough sales.

mcorrado wrote:

To be fair, if you get audited, it's not the IRS that has to prove things to you. You're thinking the wrong way around

benstylus wrote:

Oh for real? My bad, I honestly haven't seen it discussed here. Was it in a mega thread?

SwiftJAB wrote:

This would require itemized deductions then right? Further, how do you qualify sale of say a video game or computer component that you don't have a ten year old paper trail on? Clearly I'm not well educated on the manner but I feel like the masses will ultimately lose out here.

Like just recently, I dismantled and sold off the components of two old computers. One is 11 years old, the other is 5 years old. Already paid the tax on them when I bought but now when I sell... I'm gonna get taxed again right?

benstylus wrote:

Well crap, thanks! I'll close this topic.

Big thread (https://gametz.com/General/tax-reporting-paypal-ve...) got closed.

Don't remember what I filled out where or when, but have recieved two emails recently:

------------------------

Dear Mr. Bean,


Thank you for your letter on the 1099-K reporting threshold. This is an important issue that will impact many people in Ohio and across the country. I’m grateful to hear from my constituents about it. I agree with you and I oppose this change in policy.

As you know, Form 1099-K is an information form typically provided to individuals or small business owners that receive payments via a third-party payment system like PayPal, Apple Pay, or Venmo. The minimum reporting threshold for the form was changed as part of the American Rescue Plan. The previous threshold required reporting for gross payments where there were over 200 transactions that totaled at least $20,000 per year. The new threshold requires reporting transactions in excess of $600 with no minimum number of transactions.

While I understand the motivation behind this new policy, I believe it would needlessly subject American families to excessive paperwork requirements. It also validates the premise that the IRS needs to be checking up on everyday Americans for their routine transactions like rent, car payments, and furniture expenses. The IRS already gathers droves of information on taxpayers each year during filing season.

In my view, the IRS should be focused on scrutinizing international corporations who shield intangible income, large corporations who pay no income tax, and high-net-worth individuals who play by different rules. These areas are ripe for the IRS to close the tax gap and ensure better revenue collection. Instead, the agency is putting average Americans who faithfully pay their taxes through excessive and undue scrutiny for engaging in digital money transfers.

Thankfully, the IRS delayed implementing the new threshold until at least the end of 2023. Hopefully, they will reconsider this policy in the midst of staunch opposition. I am working with my colleagues in the Senate to determine the best way to address this issue. My staff and I have been closely reviewing the policy. We have had several productive meetings with constituents and stakeholders to learn about how this policy will impact them, their livelihoods, and Ohio as a whole.

The input of constituents like you has been invaluable in helping me develop an informed opinion on the subject. I hope you will continue to communicate with me on important policy matters.



Sincerely,



JD Vance

United States Senator

------------------------

Dear Mr. Bean,

Thank you for contacting my office regarding the 1099-K reporting threshold. I appreciate your engagement on this issue. I have always said though it was my name on the ballot, we are all going to Congress. Bringing our community’s voice to Washington is only possible when I hear from you about the issues important to you — thank you for doing your part and for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you on this matter.

As part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Congress lowered the 1099-K reporting threshold from $20,000 to $600. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced a delay in the implementation of the change - the threshold was originally scheduled to take effect for filing 2022 taxes, but will now take effect for filing 2023 taxes.

Members of both parties have previously introduced legislation to address this concern, including H.R. 488, the SNOOP (Stop the Nosy Obsession with Online Payments Act) in this 118th Congress, and H.R. 7079, the Cut Red Tape for Online Sales Act from the 117th Congress. While I am not on the House Committee on Ways and Means, where this legislation is being considered, I will continue to monitor its progression through Congress.

By selling used goods online, Ohioans are able to take advantage of a much-needed economic lifeline. These transactions, which are not creating taxable income, should not be triggering IRS reporting requirements. I believe the reporting threshold should be increased to guarantee burdensome and complicated reporting requirements do not result in a seller’s incorrect overpayment or ineligibility for certain tax benefits.

Knowing your views helps inform my decision-making, and your message will be carefully considered as the U.S. House of Representatives reviews and votes on related legislation. Thank you again for contacting me about the issues that are most important to you, and please do not hesitate to reach out again if you have future thoughts or concerns as the legislative session continues.

It is my honor to serve our community in Congress. For a full list of services my office provides and how to get in touch, please visit sykes.house.gov/services. If I can ever be of assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out.


Sincerely,

Rep. Emilia Strong Sykes
Ohio’s 13th Congressional District

i wish ebay would die so my son would stop buying crap from there and pay his portion of the damn car insurance

These sites aren't going anywhere but we are going to see a shift. Amazon has made people think shipping, returns and packaging is free, but they are beginning to charge for these things and people are angry about it. At the same time most cry for paying "a living wage" but how DARE you charge me what a product/service is worth.

Anyway, I'm rather tired of being taxed all to hell. We pay for new things, we pay to continue to own things (cars, personal property tax) and we pay when we sell things, and buy things used a lot of times and those sellers in turn pay tax too. Not to mention the sellers fees online are insane and can't really be lowered because their costs are up too.

I sort of think stores and malls might make a comeback in the next 10yrs personally. Shipping is getting too expensive to re-sell online for the average user not to mention the cost of goods soaring. We had it good for too long. I remember being sad when Priority Mail hit $5.95 for 1lb and now it's what $9 or $10?

I have repeatedly said I would be willing to have a box fee upcharge for Amazon to ship in a box rather than their crapty non-protective mailers.

Almost all of my Amazon returns ate because they just tossed it in a mailer and it got crushed in transit.

(I have an item that I need to drop off at my local ups store for this very reason).

Funnily enough, ebay sellers have generally been more conscientious when it comes to shipping. Several games I've order have unexpectedly arrived with those clear protective boxes around them inside the packaging. Wasn't advertised in the listing, they just did it.

One of my favorite game designers, James Ernest, does a lot of stuff that you can print and play for free, or order professionally made cards on drive thru cards. With regards to the latter option, he said something to the effect of "sure, shipping is expensive, but shipping IS expensive! Buy more than one thing at a time!"

sinnie wrote:

If I remember right when I really got started doing buy/sell/trade online small packages were doable for $2.61 first class. Now it starts closer to $5. Makes smaller deals not really worth it. And yeah priority even paying online really starts over $8 now.

benstylus wrote:

I double box just about anything with a box. I get box protectors for my boxed games as well, so if it's something from my collection it will be in that as well. Just not worth risking damage.

I just sold a GBA game in box and I double boxed it, because I don't trust USPS.

That said, my sales have gone down horrendously in the past couple of months... I'm barely making ends meet now...

benstylus wrote:

Amazon is such a hypocrite too when it comes to their packaging. They have boxes that boast "made with less materials!" and it's really basically paper that is trying to be a box. They break more items than they protect, we handle the returns (and EVERYTHING has to be bagged in plastic) and 90% of it goes to the landfill. They'd make the planet better and save a ton of money to just do it right in the first place, and if they gotta charge for it, just do it because people are already addicted to shopping on Amazon due to the ease of things.

But yeah, shipping hurts. I still sell decals occassionally and it costs me just under $4 to ship first class and get tracking. Some of my stickers alone are $3. I don't get many takers, but some pay it. I don't ship without tracking because they usually never show up and it's a pain in the ass to remake the same product when USPS loses it.

I used to get stickers from an artist I used to support on Patreon but I stopped when I realized he spent more money sending me stickers than what I was actually paying him.

Foxhack wrote:
But why stop? It's his choice if he wants to pay. Maybe he was viewing it as an investment in customers?

nonamesleft wrote:

... I stopped having the stickers sent to me.

I had to turn off my patreon for other reasons. :p

Email from ebay this morning, woooo!

---

In some excellent news for millions of eBay sellers, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced another delay of the $600 reporting threshold for Form 1099-K.



As a result, for tax year 2023, sellers will receive a Form 1099-K only if their 2023 sales exceed $20,000 and 200 transactions, they had backup withholding applied in 2023, or are residents of states with a lower reporting threshold. For tax year 2024, the IRS announced plans for a $5,000 reporting threshold. We expect further guidance on tax year 2024 and beyond in the coming months and will keep you in the loop.



eBay and the Coalition for 1099-K Fairness have worked tirelessly with lawmakers for the last 2+ years to advocate for a higher, common-sense threshold on behalf of our seller community. While we are grateful that the lower reporting threshold will not be implemented for the upcoming tax filing year, we will continue to advocate with members of Congress to establish a permanent legislative solution with a higher reporting threshold.



Sincerely,



The eBay Government Relations Team

Would be nice if they could make this decision earlier in the year so people can plan around it.

The $5k threshold for 2024 sounds like a good start though.

oh thank fudge I'm not even reaching the 20k threshold i'm safe

Keep in mind there are a few states that have already had this law in place, so you will get a 1099 once you hit $600.

I've been doing the jig for a few weeks now in our Discord, I think I read about this from a freak IRS link in a random google a couple days before Thanksgiving. Now I only have to pay penalties for early IRA withdraws, yay. Glad I picked up a second job.

No more buying crap and firesaling it. No more credit cards.

I hope there is some loophole for shipping costs so that way we'll return to the era of 99 cent glass chess sets with $20 shipping :D

rayzor6 wrote:

That's an ebay decision instead of an irs one. And they like making money off every penny you get so I don't see that happening.

Don't they charge a fee on the shipping, too?

Foxhack wrote:

Yeah ebay's final value fee is based on the total amount of the transaction including shipping.

The majority of sellers either sell less than 600 or are businesses that already pay taxes, so I'm guessing probably not. It might stop a few people but the majority will either keep selling and pay taxes or ignore it and not much will happen since it's a small amount

Eh, eBay is better than Amazon...

benstylus wrote:
And taxes! Then they take the taxes out.

Porksta wrote:
Yeah, I heard about that. Doesn't seem right. Someone was telling me how when they sell an item on eBay, their final value fee is calculated based on the price + tx. Why is eBay charging that to the seller?

nonamesleft wrote:

Isn't it because if you live in a state with sales tax, you're supposed to report it?

Ebay collects the sales tax automatically so you don't have to.

But yeah they include the tax when determining final value fee.

And tax is based on the location of the buyer, not the seller. So better hope your buyer is from Oregon instead of Tennessee!

mcorrado wrote:
Could be this. And perhaps in combination with what benstylus said, that since eBay automatically collects it for the seller, maybe they're charging a small fee for it by way of including the sales tx in the final value fees.

It's not that big a difference either. If you assume an average sales tax of 7% and eBay final value fees are 9%, then the increase you pay is 0.63%.

So for every $100 of sales + shipping it's going to be on average an extra 63 cents.

You'd think that thru the years there would arise a serious online competitor to ebay and that way competition brings better deals for us on the selling platforms. (I know there is etsy,mercari but there fairly new and Amazon is more strict when selling on there platforms.)

gameremporium wrote:

Plenty of places have tried but ebay/amazon are so big its hard to compete.

Facebook marketplace and mercari are the only ones that have really stuck. Etsy is typically more craft/homemade stuff

eBay is bad but Amazon is ten times worse. Their so-called strictness is ignored in favor of scam shops with randomly generated names and they're not seller friendly - you can't browse or search someone's inventory easily, there's no options for shipping discounts or even combined packages... I've been browsing items that have a discount coupon if you buy two or more from the same storefront, only to click on it and find it empty, not even showing the item I was browsing. It's nuts.

I think I sold maybe 3 things this entire year on eBay. Instead I trade in all gaming items to a local retro shop that pays cash. Everything else I sell on Mercari. I make everything free shipping and bake it into the item cost. I list items high and have it set in smart price mode to drop over time. Their fee structure feels simpler than eBay and its made my end of the year accounting very easy. I ship everything via Pirateship, not Mercari labels. Collect the data, send to my tax accountant.

Edit: I do claim the retro shop cash buys, thus I can claim the mileage to and from the shop. Same with my mileage to and from Goodwill, Estate Sales, etc.

benstylus wrote:
.63 might not sound like a lot, but for every million sales, which eBay easily gets, that's another 630,000.

I am so confused by the math in this thread.

nonamesleft wrote:

Um, no. 0.63% of $1,000,000 is $6,300.

EDIT: Wait. NOW I see what you are saying.

You're saying that for every million SALES that EBay makes -- of $100 each -- that they get $630,000. That would be accurate.

That being said, I'm not sure the 0.63% is accurate, so I'm not saying anything on that part.

If any of you buy from Goodwill to resell, make sure to check glasses. I bought a pair of Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses for $2, flipped for $60. Also bought a weird pair of Jacques Marie Mage eyeglasses. Limited edition, numbered. I spent $3 and resold for $200.

My brands I look for: Ray-Ban, D&G, Coach, Prada, Maui Jim.

I'm sorry if it was mentioned in this post but they delayed the PayPal tax again for 2023

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-announces-delay-i...

John wrote:
Yeah, for every $100 sale, based on the .63 you mentioned. Even if it was just .50, or even .25, that would still be a nice amount extra that eBay is getting.

They can get more money while claiming their fee is a lower percentage than what you actually end up paying after taxes are added

And the difference in the amount per transaction is pretty negligible on the seller side so most casual sellers won't even miss it.

Probably a remnant of the change from the days when shipping wasn't originally included in the final value fee. Once ebay realized sellers were scamming them by charging low for the item but high for shipping, they closed that loophole. And now they have turned it around on the sellers so ebay gets just that little bit more

benstylus wrote:
In 2010, there was a popular Yu-Gi-Oh card called Pot Of Duality that then was going for $100. Sellers were selling them for .99 and 100 shipping. Or .99 and 300 shipping for 3 of them. I guess that was still before eBay caught on.

I guess a way to not eat that fee as a seller would be to charge more for your item. Though, that might make the item harder to sell. But I can't make sense of how things sell. I've seen identical items with different prices, and the more expensive one sold first. I don't know why.

nonamesleft wrote:

Some sellers get pushed higher, more visibility, than others.

It's why I can't sell any crap despite having a lower price on my things.

Foxhack wrote:
Ahhh, that's what's going on? What gives a seller that higher visibility?

Listing more items is one way. I reckon sell through rate and using photos help.

Paying ebay more to be sponsored works too.

"Higher seller ratings", which is some bullcrap metric they came up with.

They want me to add more info to all my listings, but what if there isn't any more info to add?

EBay isn't meant for one-off sellers like us any more. Their big money comes from the (Chinese and other such) companies selling thousands of widgets and parts and such.

It has transitioned from it's original "sell your own stuff" platform long ago. It is now a marketplace for those selling thousands of items. The rest of us are just minor side notes.

John wrote:

You could replace eBay with Amazon and your statements would still be true.

Amazon was never really intended to be for individual SELLERS though. So that doesn't bother me as much. We're generally just buyers at Amazon -- so them having more sellers with more items -- even if they sell thousands of them -- doesn't really bother me.

It's not really the same at all to me. Amazon hasn't "transitioned from it's original 'sell your own stuff'" platform like EBay because it was never intended as a "sell your own stuff" platform. (You could do it, sure, and I did for a bit -- little one-offs here and there -- but I don't see that as Amazon's original intent or platform at all.

For a while Amazon had much better rates and service than ebay for individual sellers. Then they slowly got more hostile towards small sellers, to the point where you couldn't even sell things like dvds or video games as an individual because they were "high risk" items.

It didnt feel great being pushed out of that marketplace after years of never having any seller complaints because I didn't want to pay extra for a premium seller account. Especially with all the obvious dropshipped aliexpress bootleg crap all over the site now.

Sure, like I said, there were some using Amazon to sell, but I don't think that was ever what most people saw as Amazon's original intent -- unlike EBay.

But, I agree, I also stopped selling even the little one-offs on Amazon because it got too complex.

The new crap where they hold your money when you sell something ,I rarely sell on ebay now.

Hm? I get my money in a day. Better than Mercari, you have to wait for the receiver to hit got it for that one

If you don't mind credit you can start using it soon as you make the sale.