Tha' Gubment Wants Yo Dollas!!!

[oldskool69]

To quote the famous James Brown (Who had his own IRS issues...)...

Wel, well, well, well...

As taken directly from the IRS.gov site:

Form 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Income, is most commonly used by third-party payers to report payments made in the course of a trade or business to others for services. Third-party payers should report the following on Form 1099-MISC:

Payments of $600 or more for services performed by persons not treated as employees, such as fees to subcontractors, attorneys or accountants

So what does this mean to the eBay account holder or PayPal user?!?!

It means that if you sell a grail for anything more than $599.99, you must report the income as taxable. Heck, if I sell my lawnmower to my neighbor for $600 bucks and he writes me a check for it, I'd have to report it.

What our Govrnment is trying to do now is claim those so called "lost dollars" from small transactions. This even kills the barter system for small business! What a joke. Now even they cannot do small transactions for say, like services. That sucks.

So what does this mean for us who trade in boomers? Or have secondary income from eBay which really is not all that in the grand scheme of things? I don't but am curious.

 

[Superduper]

I'm sorry Freddie but I think our country might be beyond salvation. People just don't seem to be smart enough (or care enough to pay attention to) that all these little things that the government is doing has great impact on our personal lives. Yes, we complain about conditions then keep putting the same A-Holes (or new A-Holes) into office who only cares about growing government. Trusting the government is like trusting the fox to guard the henhouse.

I'll tell you what impact this is going to have -- it is going to ensure that our economy is going to be stifled even more. So far, ALL the proposals these clowns are belching out is anti-business, anti-private enterprise. Why would anyone want to do any business in a climate like this. And everytime the government says it will roll out a new program to be paid by new taxes on the wealthy doctors, oil companies, car companies, whatever......... people just don't realize that it's the ordinary Joe who is going to pay that tax. That is because business are in business to make money -- not to be a nice guy. So if you tax them more, they will simply pass those taxes on to the consumer. So companies NEVER eat any taxes, it's always passed on..... to you, and I.

 

[oldskool69]

I agree with everything you say Norm. We absolutely will end up "getting it in the end". But the real concern should be for the occasional seller or guy who make a little extra cutting grass. That's where the real danger is. We know small business will get hurt, but we also won't have entrepenuers either.

Think about this. If someone asked me if I could work on a reciever for them. I'd say "Sure, no problem." As soon as the work was done, they offer to write me a check. I would refuse. Why? I'd tell them, "When you write that check you note what services it was for to track your budget. I do not need to have to expalin every little thing like this to the IRS". "However, you're a mechanic and I may need a favor one day, let's leave it at that."

Say a sixteen year old want's to make extra money washing cars over the summer. Now HE'S expected to report his income. A sixteen year old kid! This makes no sense.

Where can it affect us? Well, though boomboxes are not important in the overall grand scheme picture, it can mean lower prices or a return to thrift stores getting these as eBay part timers do not want to risk having to pay taxes on what may amount to 3 to 6 transactions a year.

So the collector could get hurt from that sense. And think about the fact that there will be people who want to circumvent the 'Bay so transactions cannot be reported. (And eBay is required to do just that. Even Craigslist will be monitored for sold items and what they cost.) So they find us, s2g, and AudioKarma, etc. to sell to. How long before some government snoop is scouring what some little old harmelss sites like ours are doing to see who sold what and for how much to tax it? They probably are already.

It has absolutely gotten bad and worse is on the way.

 

[ford93]

13 Trillion and counting and where did it go?

I heard Ron Paul wants to audit our gold reserves in Fort Knox and in New York. I wonder why?

 

[Fatdog]

If the goons at the IRS ever get their tentacles firmly in eBay, I think it will spell certain doom for eBay. Until then, heed the words of Randolph and Mortimer... Sell! Sell! SELL!

 

[Superduper]

I met a guy who's dad used to make a fortune on amazon.com and ebay. He sold me something and when I went to pick it up, we had a long chat. He told me he used to work for the Post Office but quit because he could make more money selling stuff on Amazon than working for the Post Office. I find that hard to believe but I did see a whole crate full of labeled/stamped envelopes waiting to be mailed. He said those were ready to take to the PO to be mailed. He's working on other stuff.

I then asked him whether he considers this a real business or something on the side and he said Yes, because his Dad got busted. What happened was a local newspaper wanted to interview him about the advent and success of internet home based businesses. After the article came out, it wasn't long before the State Board of Equalization came knocking and wanted their share -- hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. He lost everything.

See, they know how much income you got. Of course never mind that you only made a 5% or 10% profit. All they know is how much money you took in. Since you never documented how much money you spent to acquire the stuff (maybe you even lost money), for all they know, you got the stuff for free and is making 100% profit.

So yes, all I know is that it's getting harder and harder to make a buck. They took away all the jobs by creating a hostile business environment. So now that unemployed people are scrambling to try to find ways to make ends meet, they are trying to block your exits. Help! They've set the house on fire, and now trapped us in the burning house by locking all the doors too! There is no escape.