ebay as a hobby
Anyone here sell on ebay as a hobby, not as a business? I am trying to come up with a model in which I keep my hand in due to having stuff I can't just list on Amazon instead (such as lots). I am not quite ready to wholesale throw the stuff into a ravine. If nothing else I still have a ton of manga to do something with. Also anime series and some miscellaneous other stuff.
What does selling as a hobby mean to you? Strictly limiting your number of listings and/or the time you spend on the site?
I am thinking of cutting back to listing only one day a week and not Sunday so I can take more of my weekends off. Maybe just 10 auctions a week or whatever. No more listing single books and gradually removing the listings. Maybe sales will end up being so low I'll finally take the plunge and close up shop. I just don't want to run two full-bore businesses anymore.
ilsh_94
·2 years agoYes, many people sell on eBay as a hobby. You can list your manga, anime series, and other miscellaneous items in lots, which might attract collectors and enthusiasts who prefer bulk purchases.
mam98031
·2 years agoYou are absolutely correct. However that doesn't mean you don't have to report those sales on your Federal Tax returns.
aldet_4021
·2 years agoThanks for posting, I really enjoyed reading the responses. I'm actually having trouble thinking of how to respond!
I sell on eBay, Etsy and Marketplace and I operate as a business, have an LLC, etc. But the challenge that I have is that I consider a hobby "fun", so is what I'm doing work (can work actually be fun)? I still consider myself new at all of this, like 10 billion other people, I started doing this in 2020. I worked in a corporate job for just under 21 years. That was work - it was mostly enjoyable, but I don't think I would ever call it "fun". So the challenge is that selling on line - even with all the stress and frustration of making sales, unhappy customers, buying and listing things that just don't sell - is fun, I love it, and I think I'm getting better at it.
My main income today is as a landlord. But since I have wonderful and long term tenants right now (you have no idea how grateful I am for this), that does not take up much time per month. As much as I can, I am selling things on line. Right now, can I actually make enough to live eBay/Etsy/Marketplace alone? No way. Is it a good supplement? Yes. I also see it as something I can do when I am older - there will come a time when I can't climb ladders, clean snow off of awnings, etc. so I picture myself years from now in a very basic apartment working on finding and listing small items to sell every day.
So I guess for me it's a hobby that is also a business. However, I take it very seriously and treat it as work - my occupation and/or career - because of the amount of time I spend on it each week, and I want to keep doing this as long as I am physically and mentally able.
mam98031
·2 years ago@aldet_4021
There is nothing wrong with enjoying your job as a seller. Because you enjoy doing a job that does NOT make it a Hobby, it just means you enjoy your work.
I've had my account set up as a Sole Proprietorship from the first day I started selling here almost a quarter of a century ago. But I don't sell stuff that I could potentially need the protection that an LLC can offer.
All we need to remember is that at our heart it may be a Hobby, IRS does not define it like many do here. If you sell for a profit and/or purchase stuff for resale, in IRS eyes you are a business and need to treat your tax returns with that in mind.
keziak
OP2 years agoI feel the same way; my husband counts the days to retirement but I've always said I want to keep my businesses as long as I physically can. Selling lots of books is hard though, especially with a 3-story operation. I know many people who got knee replacement and after the initial recovery do well so maybe that's in my future. But as a major time-suck I also want to gradually cut back to fewer hours a week. I haven't quite decided what that will look like. Taking Sundays off sounds good except that there is no way at all I can spend more than maybe an hour a day gardening (thanks, knees). So I may take time off most mornings instead.
steve_stuff
·2 years agoTo sell and spend as little time as possible doing it, and thus having as 'fixed' a schedule as possible -
Only auctions that always start [and thus end] on the same day - a friday or saturday - so buyers have friday or saturday to monday morning to pay. Best cast one trip monday to ship.
NO fixed price or taking offers as they sell 'willy-nilly'
keziak
OP2 years agothank you, those are good insights. My situation is different in that my main venue is Amazon and I ship every day. Ebay shipping tends to be clustered because I try to do auctions twice a week not every day. If I cut back to doing auctions one day a week it could help. I usually do Thurs and Sunday which is kind of tough in that I am busy on Thurs with other work so not much time to list auctions, and doing it on Sunday cuts out a day when maybe I could do some non-work things like gardening.
steve_stuff
·2 years agoOK, after reading your reply - disregardful everything we just said [typed] - We gave you the ship one day set up - With your deal, only way we see to cut down time spent is shipping once a week and packing everything the day before. That at least bunches stuff together.
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoIt's good advice for others, even if the OP is on another platform and needs to ship every day.
I run auctions to only end on Sunday, I always ship Mondays to get the weekend stuff out. I ship again on Wednesday, and then Thursday and/or Friday depending on volume... I only have so much time to do packages before I leave for work, so I plan to get around 10-12 packages ready in the morning (to drop off at my shipper on my lunch break). If I'm working at home, I probably won't be shipping that day (USA/International packages). I may walk down to the post office to do some Canadian ones, Canada Post is a few blocks from where I live.
C.
keziak
OP2 years agoI do most of my packing and label printing in the evenings when I am too tired to focus on listing. That helps with getting a head start on the next day. It's still a challenge to stay caught up though.
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoI have a similar system. When the news is on at 9pm, that's when I print my postage labels. I know the weight of just about everything i ship without checking (and in some cases I guess a bit high to make sure there's enough postage, even if it costs a few cents, we're dealing with 4-15 oz packages).
They sit on the printer overnight and I pack in the morning before I leave for work. If I work at home, I pack them and let them sit in my office until the following day. I go into work 3 times a week, so that's my three shipping days (until they stopped being open on Mondays, now I drive to Burlington after work on Mondays to ship).
I know I can do 8-12 packages in the morning, pending on how much effort it takes to find the item, and how much effort it takes to pack. Postcards and stamps take a bit more effort than a token/coin type of thing. Lots of effort is needed for some coin sets to cut cardboard and pack so they won't bend. If I'm afraid I won't be able to find something in the morning I'll look before bed, but try not to let it keep me up all night if I can't find it. Also some types of inventory isn't here... another reason to have a few extra days handling. I have designated days during the week to stop by the store and pick up things that are there (which take 10 minutes to find everything since it's all organized).
C.
keziak
OP2 years agoI have all kinds of boxes, bubble mailers and bifolds. The stuff that sucks up time requires poking around for the right box. Then of course hauling all that up the stairs and to the car. I did finally get out of the business of shipping the heaviest loads like big sets. A good argument could be made for quitting the business of other lots that don't bring in that much money. How amazing it would be to basically only ship with the bubble mailers and bifolds.
steve_stuff
·2 years agoOK ... As I said we gave you the ship one day a week -- and then repeating the same routine every seven days. There is also the list and sell one week, then shop and restock for the next three deal. So basically you're selling one week a month and buying/writing/scheduling the next three, then repeat the next month.
mam98031
·2 years agoKeep in mind that handling times 5 + days are lowered in the search returns.
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoI updated all my templates today to have "5 days handling" now, instead of 10. But to avoid creating problems I don't want to adjust the ones that are listed (not right now anyway). Changing things on eBay puts them out of sync with SixBit, and if I have to update on SixBit it will undo all my changes on ebay.
Someone who knows the SixBit software can probably explain, I had an issue when I deleted photos in listings to save space (because of the size limit of the database) and it somehow synced so only the last photo was showing (replacing what was deleted). Then it synced on eBay to only show the one photo, and here I am looking for photos of all the corrupt listings to fix them.
All the problem listings are down, and I did get the postcards (one type of item that was badly affected) rephotographed. I'm working on fixing the corrupt stamp listings now, but I have all my photos since Jan 2022, so if it went live after 2022, I'm good. Some of them went up in 2021, so I have to photograph those again.
I have no end of problems sometimes, and part of that has to do with the sheer volume of items I'm juggling in my store. Tonight I spent my whole 4 hours of eBay time repricing silver so we'd make money. The coin shop wants the melt price of anything i sell, so if the prices online don't go up, we'll break even and I won't make anything on the sale.
C.
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoI had a similar setup (to your one week a month thing) back in 2013-14 when I first started, and I had a really big collection to liquidate. I'd get a box of coins from the coinshop, divide it among the number of weeks I was going to run auctions, spend a weekend doing all the listings in turbolister and then have 3 weeks or so running after that. My plan was to not have them end on long weekends (in Canada, at that time I had some pretty regular Canadian bidders and some of them didn't have smartphones to bid from anywhere). Then I'd run my auctions and focus on shipping which was happening every day... literally I had 50-100 unique buyers each Sunday.
Once the auctions were done, we migrated to putting things in the store as fixed priced items and selling them willy nilly whenever.
I'm back to auctions on Sunday, but now I spend time when I have it getting a week ready in SixBit and uploading them when the time is close enough for them to run. I'm a few weeks ahead at doing listings, so if I have to divert my attention to something for a couple of weeks I've got my listings ready to go. All the auctions are running from the same basic template, so it's pretty quick to make listings.
C.
keziak
OP2 years agoNo, I asked and you gave good answers. Grist for my decision making process.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agothank you, those are good insights. My situation is different in that my main venue is Amazon and I ship every day. Ebay shipping tends to be clustered because I try to do auctions twice a week not every day. If I cut back to doing auctions one day a week it could help. I usually do Thurs and Sunday which is kind of tough in that I am busy on Thurs with other work so not much time to list auctions, and doing it on Sunday cuts out a day when maybe I could do some non-work things like gardening.
You can always use the schedule feature to have the auction start on whatever day you want and at whatever time you want. O often have a lot of scheduled listings sitting in queue. I post them as my time allows. My biggest problem is I like to do a lot of other things, hike, camp, fish, hunt, visit family and friends and occasionally handle a project around the house or help a friend with one.
keziak
OP2 years agoI want to do other things, too. I have a bad problem of work at home sucking up too much time. For example I know perfectly well I need to strength train and have everything I need here but I'll be darned if I manage it. The only way I exercise at all is to go to the gym. I need to use their equipment when I am already there I guess. I also really want to garden but have problems due to sentence 2 and how quickly it hurts my knees, sigh.
broto_64
·2 years agoRegardless of why we sell here Ebay considers selling here as a business, whether low or high volume, 1 sale a year or 100 a day, makes no difference.
dogofwar777
·2 years agoWhen I sold here I considered it a hobby and a way to make a quick buck. I would only list maybe 2 or 3 items at a time because I didn't want to deal with managing multiple listing and didn't have time to run back and forth to the post office. I would list all the items at the same time and have them all end at the same time and it worked for me. I would sell them and ship then list a few more items. It was fun and I got to meet great people here, some of who I still talk to.
ten_o_nine
·2 years agoSelling as a hobby, to me, means:
Leisurely pace: You're not trying to meet strict sales targets or deadlines. You list and sell at your own relaxed pace.
Limited commitment: You don't spend excessive time on the platform, maybe just a few hours a week. You can take breaks whenever you want.
Flexibility: You can change your listings, prices, or availability whenever you feel like it. No strict schedules or inventory management.
Enjoyment: You're doing it for fun, not just for profit. You enjoy the process, and it doesn't feel like a chore.
Small scale: You're not trying to make a full-time income from selling. It's supplemental or just a way to declutter and make some extra money.
Limiting listings and time spent on the site can be part of it, but it's not the only thing. It's about finding a balance that works for you and enjoying the process.
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoThis is an awesome definition of "hobby business" and it does describe what I do, although I do have many sales and am committing considerable time to packing and shipping items.
C.
mam98031
·2 years agoWhile this may be a personal definition of what a Hobby is, it is Not the definition the IRS goes by.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoI used to collect stamps as a hobby.
Now I sell as well as buy them.
I get the opportunity to see fascinating stamps in my hands before I sell them.
Some are harder to sell...Although I don't collect stamps anymore...the ones that haven't sold yet I still have as a collection hoping for them to sell one day. I probably have more stamps than a lot of collectors...but I don't collect...yet they are still sitting around in my place.
My idea was to sell something that is easy to store and cheap to ship. I tried toys but shipping is too expensive these days for boxes...maybe one day I can get rid of my boxes of toys...market is flat for my Star Trek Toys.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoI'm not a hobby seller (though some of the more doctrinaire people on here would say I was) - I sell part time now to supplement my income and do the same thing when I was full time, only less of it.
mam98031
·2 years agoI am sure there are many sellers that personally consider themselves a Hobby Seller, but IRS would have a different opinion of that.
Per the IRS:
A hobby is any activity that a person pursues because they enjoy it and with no intention of making a profit.
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/heres-how-to-tell-the-difference-between-a-hobby-and-a-business-for-tax-purposes#:~:text=IRS%20Tax%20Tip%202022%2D57,intention%20of%20making%20a%20profit.
keziak
OP2 years agoMaybe "hobby" isn't the word I am looking for. Maybe just "very part-time". I don't want to sell anything that did NOT make me at least some profit! I am reminded of people I see locally who sell on Amazon FBA and pay cash for books, in such volume that they may be "making" a few dollars on some but not all of them, then comes all of the FBA fees which are astronomical. Not at all sure what they are doing but surely making any money isn't it.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoWhat does selling as a hobby mean to you?
I do not sell as a hobby, so it means nothing to me.
Maybe "hobby" isn't the word I am looking for. Maybe just "very part-time".
It sounds like you have already defined it for yourself.
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoI see eBay as a profitable hobby... but our tax laws in Canada stipulate money must be declared. They don't go after people for a couple of thousand dollars in sales though... no here anyway. Not yet.
With your redefined definition, I would say I'm part time, and that's only because I have a full time job and work 40 hours a week doing paid work. So that leaves around 4 hours a day for eBay, which is part time. I just do whatever I have time for and focus on what needs to get done (like tonight it's packing and shipping orders, later on I will be making listings). I just do whatever I feel like and make sure I do what's needed when I have time.
If I don't feel like making listings today, I'll do something else... there's a list of things that have to be done sooner or later (like the actual business side, accounting and expense tracking). I kind of have a weekly schedule of how to divide my time to get stuff done. What I don't have enough time for is taking photos, processing collections of new stuff and making new listings. There's always much more of that to do than time available. I've been taking days and weeks off work to try and get caught up on these things when it accumulates too much.
C.
keziak
OP2 years agogood heavens, typically you work 40 hours a week at your FT job then an additional 4 hours a day on ebay? Is that every day? That's a whole lot of work. Maintaining 2 online businesses (ebay and Amazon) has meant a whole lot of work for me and I"m sick a nd tired of [insert whininess everyone has heard before]. I've started working with a nutrition coach to deal with my eating patterns and the conversation got around to issues of overwork and I started tearing up just talking about Ebay. Enough is enough.
Plus, organically I will be downsizing my auction business a lot due to selling off inventory a nd disposing of a lot of the rest of it. I no longer go out and bring home tons of stuff to list. It feels GREAT to see the house gradually emptying out. I still get lots of books to list on Amazon and if I cut ebay back hard I'll have more time and energy for that while hopefully also taking time off to rest and pursue hobbies like reading and gardening.
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoI've got good and bad stuff to share... for one, I don't have to worry about the house needing to be emptying out because I don't keep stuff here (or I didn't... until I bought several postcard and stamp collections, now there's stuff here... but it's kept in closets).
Also what's bad is doing eBay at night on the computer isn't much different than doing work all day. I'm in document processing (legal docs) and lots of my eBay admin tasks don't seem much different than uploading and viewing a document, modifying it to rotate and resize pages... all kinda like editing eBay photos and putting up listings.
4 Hours a day isn't every day... last night I took a 2 hour nap because I needed to rest, it was a long day at work. Tonight it's 9pm almost and I've been sitting on my bed with the laptop since 4:30 (creating auctions in SixBit for my upcoming Sunday auctions, sending out offers, printing packing slips and creating shipping labels, and reading the forum).
Saturdays are my "days off" the computer... but I still process stuff. I do whatever I want. Last weekend I was taking my left over vacation money and packaging and labelling it for listing. then I took pictures of it. I also was packing up and organizing all the loot I got in South Africa (Royalty medallions that apply to the royal visit and events in South Africa). I consider all that to be fun stuff, and not really work at all.
Sundays are when I do my excel spreadsheets and log my sales for the coin shop to calculate their cheque (as the funds go into my personal bank account first), and Sunday afternoons auctions are ending, so orders are packed most of Sunday. I give myself Friday night and Saturdays off the packing orders part and get caught up on Sundays. Sundays feel like work though because I have to pack orders, and I consider that to be the only real chore in the whole process (the one thing I have to do whether I want to do it or not). But I tell myself getting orders out means customers get them quickly and come back to buy something else sooner.
I have a life partner who is running his own business and works 12 hours daily even on weekends, so we're a good fit for each other. He spends time in his home office on the computer (not much unlike what I do) and sometimes spending time together is being in the same room working on our businesses and taking breaks to socialize.
I get giant collections sometimes that take weeks and months to process, so as soon as I'm done with a collection a new one comes along... I got a stamp collection that took me 6 months to process, and when that was almost done I got a coin collection which will take 6 months to process and run auctions for. There are smaller projects that come along. I never have enough time for **that** part of the business... most of my spare time is spent shipping orders or doing bookkeeping. Tonight I made time to get the next week of auctions ready to go.
C.
keziak
OP2 years agoWell, I think your work ethic is incredible. I do like the part about how your partner and you are in sync in many ways and take the breaks to socialize. My husband the lawyer works hard all week but also manages to spend time any evening he isn't lawyering at city council meetings reading, listening to apparently hilarious bits on the Internet, and playing music. His weekends are sacred, no hint of work unless something (very rarely) is a crisis or a major court case he needs to prepare for.
I on the other hand are a commonplace drudge. Last year I started asking myself was I going to put off any semblance of real life until retirement. Who knows, I could get some dire condition or disease before then. Meanwhile I was nearly crippled with bad knees. I decided that by goodness I would make the time to exercise and it's turned my life upside down in the best way (though getting up at 4:15 to hit the pool at 5 is tough sometimes).
In 2024 I want to get my eating house in order and actually tend my extensive gardens. I know I can't do that and still work (scout, list on two sites, handle all the mail) so many hours a week. I am going to force myself to be OK with that (ie make less money, have more time). Might as well face it, I'm addicted to ebay. Especially auctions. Well anyway, said all this many times. I've sworn to my husband I mean it this time (cutting back) and maybe instead of shrugging he will hold me to it.
mam98031
·2 years agoIRS doesn't care if you are part time, occasional, full time, double time or whatever. If you sell for a profit, you need to claim the sales on your tax reports.
As to the rest, I don't think that has anything to do with your sales, or does it.
keziak
OP2 years agoOf course I pay taxes no matter what I make.
keziak
OP2 years agofor example everyone I know who sells on Facebook Marketplace tells me they do not pay taxes on w hat they make there and at least one of them makes a lot. I've recently started experimenting with selling there and keeping track of what I make for putting on my Schedule C for 2024. Same as for the year I made money selling to Decluttr.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agofor example everyone I know who sells on Facebook Marketplace tells me they do not pay taxes on w hat they make there and at least one of them makes a lot. I've recently started experimenting with selling there and keeping track of what I make for putting on my Schedule C for 2024. Same as for the year I made money selling to Decluttr.
People who sell on FB and CL may possibly be skirting their tax liabilities for the moment just as they do on eBay if they do not get a 1099. That may change for some sellers next year depending on how their buyers are paying and where the Fed or other states go with the 1099-K issuance thresholds.
You are in VA, as am I, and I am sure you remember when VA, rather quietly, changed the 1099-K reporting threshold to $600 in 2020 even before the proposed Federal change that was part of the Biden American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. That law passed in July of 2020 and they made the total gross amount processed by financial processors retroactive back to January 1 of 2020.
Things remained pretty quiet until January/February of 2021 when people started receiving 1099-K's from PayPay, Venmo, GooglePay.......... I still purchase items off FB, CL, garage sales, estate sales and other local forums as well. Despite the shift towards electronic payment methods a lot of sellers on those venues will now only accept cash payment since it is literally impossible to track.
keziak
OP2 years agoI actually prefer electronic payments for MP. I'm just getting started and books are a hard nut to crack there. I'm not sure, do PP and Venmo have threshholds for sending 1099s or do t hey do it for any amount?
mam98031
·2 years agoThey will eventually likely get caught. And those IRS penalties are no joke.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoFacebook doesn't collect sales tax for it's market vendors?
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoNegotiations are through messages, how do they know what you're selling and for how much?
C.
mam98031
·2 years agoI think there are different ways to sell on Facebook. But IF the money is process on Facebook using the money processor, you betcha they are collecting sales tax and will do a 1099k if the sales reach the threshold for the form.
mam98031
·2 years agoI didn't accuse you of anything. I stated that I have read on these threads a lot of times where a seller will declare they are a Hobby seller because they think it will avoid paying taxes on what they earn.
If you sell to make money, you are not a Hobby seller. If you purchase items to sell here, you are not a Hobby seller. You are a business.
msmaggie060
·2 years agomam, because we are calling ourselves hobby sellers doesn’t mean that we don’t prepare and send in our taxes each year.
mam98031
·2 years agoMaybe you don't, but that is not true for many. I've been on many threads with this subject and somehow some people are convinced that if they call themselves a Hobby seller they don't have to report the income.
The rules for IRS is simple. They expect all of us to report all our gross income of $400 or more to the IRS. That is BEFORE deductions for expenses.
winterpalace25
·2 years agoMam,
I'm pretty sure that $400 number is the threshold for having to pay Self Employment tax. If your Profit is $399.00, you don't have to pay that tax, and if it is $400.00 or more, you do. The IRS expects you to pay income tax on all profit, not just over $400.00.
mam98031
·2 years agoYou are correct.
pcobra93
·2 years agoThe IRS also says that a tax "refund" is income....and must be reported next year so they can steal it back.
mam98031
·2 years agoCan you please provide a link to that IRS policy please. @pcobra93
dhbookds
·2 years agoFrom https://itap1.for.irs.gov/owda/0/resource/Commentary_Files_Redirect_ITA/en-US/help/trcoit.html
If you receive a refund of (or credit for) state or local income taxes in a year after the year in which you paid them, you may have to include the refund in income in the year you receive it. This includes refunds resulting from taxes that were over withheld, applied from a prior year return, not figured correctly, or figured again because of an amended return. If you did not itemize your deductions in the previous year, do not include the refund in income. If you deducted the taxes in the previous year, include all or part of the refund in the year you receive the refund.
This information is found in Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income.
I would note that this concerns State Tax Refunds, not Fed...........but is applicable to the Fed return.
brightlightbookseller
·2 years agoThat's a very limited subset of refunds. Not most tax refunds.
mam98031
·2 years agoThat is very selective and IDK that was the point the other poster was trying to make. I still stand by what I previously said. FYI the conversation was about IRS, not states.
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoThat's pretty funny since I've turned every single hobby I've ever had into some kind of profit making venture (even if it's a small profit... I can't possibly make a living on sewing handbags, but I have fun designing and making them, I just made so many I might as well sell them).
I was told once at work that I wouldn't be allowed to have my eBay store up when I go on LTD (I have pending surgery and will miss 2-3 weeks of work). Saying the listings can stay up and people can buy and I won't ship them until LTD is over doesn't cut the mustard because there are transactions happening and money is being received during the LTD period.
So what I said was, if I were ever on a leave where I wasn't incapacitated and not allowed to earn money, I'd spend my days designing and sewing jewellery and bags just for fun, like a hobby, and deal with selling them later when not on LTD. No one is going to tell me I can't enjoy my hobbies just because I sell the result of the stuff I make with the materials. I figure selling the bags reasonably cheap is better than being a hoarder, and in reality I'm just looking to cover the cost of fabric. I know I'll never get paid for my time.
C.
mam98031
·2 years agoHaving fun doing a job doesn't make it a hobby either. I've had paying jobs that I have very much enjoyed over the years and they weren't hobbies. Then I've had other jobs I've loved and never been paid a dime for.
"No one is going to tell me I can't enjoy my hobbies just because I sell the result of the stuff I make with the materials." I have no idea where you got this idea. The IRS says NOTHING about enjoying your hobbies. Whether or not you enjoy making the stuff you make has absolutely no bearing on your taxes. I simply don't know where you got this from.
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoI pay taxes. My reference was related to work dictating what I can and can't do on a LTD leave of absense. They say I can't make money. I enjoy sewing, and eventually I'm going to sell my purses. Work can dictate I can't sell my stuff on eBay but they're not going to stop me from sewing if that's what I need to do to fill my spare time.
C.
mam98031
·2 years agoI pay taxes. My reference was related to work dictating what I can and can't do on a LTD leave of absense. They say I can't make money. I enjoy sewing, and eventually I'm going to sell my purses. Work can dictate I can't sell my stuff on eBay but they're not going to stop me from sewing if that's what I need to do to fill my spare time.
Have you looked up the rules on your disability you are getting? There is usually some amount you can earn without if affecting your benefits. You should really look closely at the contract.
sin-n-dex
·2 years agoIt's self-insured by my workplace. Not a government offered LTD with standard rules.
I did read the policy (because I will need to claim when I have surgery, although in all fairness I won't be selling during this time anyway since I don't know my limitations, and once I'm well enough to pack and ship orders I'll return to work). The policy says you can not do any sort of "work" for "wage or profit", and selling on eBay is considered "work for profit", at least that applies to me since I'm selling the coin shop's items.
I spoke with a rep and they said they can audit my activities to see whether or not I can still sell while on LTD, but I've seen what happens during an audit of someone's alternate income sources and it's invasive. I say if I can sew, it's better to just make bags for fun and sell them later when allowed. (I also don't make profit on any of my sewing since I price things so cheap... it's tough to compete handmade products against mass produced stuff from the third world).
C.
mam98031
·2 years ago@sin-n-dex
I'm not sure what to tell you. You are fully aware that selling on the internet puts your Disability income at risk, yet you still do it. That is a choice you have made. Hopefully they will never audit you, but if they do it seems you are risking a lot to sell here.
I wish you the best.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoSo a kid selling lemonade at a stand because he is making a profit who is maybe 10 years old should declare that to the IRS? Curious...
mam98031
·2 years agoWell IDK and I think you are trying to discuss this using an example that is not even close to the spirit of the conversation that has been going on in this thread.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoNo. This is covered by IRS Publication 501. Generally, a minor who may be claimed as a dependent only needs to file a return if their income exceeds their standard deduction.
Single dependents
You must file a return if any of the following apply.
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p501#en_US_2023_publink1000220702
luckythewinner
·2 years agoThis is a partial quote from the introductory paragraph of an IRS publication that goes on to list 11 determining factors that must be considered together.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoThis is a partial quote from the introductory paragraph of an IRS publication that goes on to list 11 determining factors that must be considered together.
It all comes down to ones perspective and which definition of "hobby" they are looking at. Like many words in the English language there are multiple definitions/meanings for a word. You have the multiple different dictionary definitions and then of course there are the add-ons from the government, specifically the IRS.
I can remember when Karen and Becky were peoples names.
mam98031
·2 years agoYes you are correct. I also gave the link if anyone wanted to read further.
mike_jayroe
·2 years agoI am more of a hobby seller. Between 1978 and 1993 I enjoyed riding behind and chasing trains pulled by steam locomotives and 1992 to 2002 watching NASCAR cup races.
I am now selling everything I bought as I no longer have an interest and just want it out of the house.
First year went great, last year it dried up, and it is still kind of slow. Have added other items, some of which I have inherited and others I bought.
I just fire up e-bay and off and turn check to see if I sold anything and if so get it to the USPS as soon as I can.
Good luck with your sales.
msmaggie060
·2 years agoI consider myself a hobby seller now, although I still run my store as if it is a business. I have been selling here since 2005 but continue to do so to keep my mind active. I figure if I can keep up with all the rules and changes here it must be good for my brain. I read a lot, watch only the news and Bloomberg on TV and do the crossword puzzles each day, hoping they all help!
I do try to list 1 or 2 items each day and try to keep my listings up to date but I don’t get upset now if I can’t do it all. Just do what you can and try to enjoy what you are able to do.
I just wish eBay was the “happy†place that it used to be. I keep coming across jokes, recipes and other memorabilia from eBay friends but eBay has grown so much now that everything has changed.