I'm NOT sending eBay my SSN#! I do not wish to pay my taxes on eBay's profits.

[mikevsmith]

EBay has been recently sending me messages stating that I must give my SSN# to them in order to receive payment for my sales. I have a number of problems with this.

1. I do NOT give out my SSN without a really good reason. Are they even remotely aware of the identity theft problem. If they are willing to indemnify me for 100% of my total assets, we can talk.

2. They state the IRS requires this for anyone with total sales of over $600.

a: My total sales only exceeded $600 if you include shipping charges (which were paid directly to eBay) and sales tax, and if ignore eBay's selling fees.  My total net sales were $468.54.

b:  If I am expected to pay taxes on the portion of my sale that eBay collects as their fee does that mean I am expected to pay the tax on eBays income? Does eBay not report their fees as income? If they do report it as income, please explain the rationale for taxes being paid twice on the same monies.

c: As noted above in point 2a, the shipping charges were paid by me directly to eBay. How is this determined to be my taxable income?

d: None of these requirements were effectively communicated to me prior to selling my equipment on eBay. Communicating this to me after the fact is not satisfactory.

[jerseyboymusic]

Sadly, Ebay is no longer "America's garage sale" or whatever it was known as years ago. It is now an ecommerce site.

I used to recommend Ebay to friends who were casual sellers, who just wanted to let go of some stuff, or sell stuff for extra income. BUT the way it is now, with the government's internet sales tax laws, does not make it feasible for the casual seller any longer.

The fact is, they do have these requirements in place. They are NOT the only ecommerce site these days and there are other options out there. BUT I would say that ANYONE who wants to list stuff to sell on Ebay needs to know what they need to do to get paid before they even open a seller account.

I think a lot of this information may be lost in the shuffle. It's hard for me to keep up with changes, even though I have been a seller on here (under my oldest account) since 1999. I'm sorry you're going through all this.  

I DO know, to get paid, you need to submit your SSN and be done with it, or wait until your state has this money via unpaid funds. Sorry this has been a learning experience for you

[fab_finds4u]

A few hundred? LoL there are 34,810 named Michael Smith. It's  the second most popular first and last name combinations in the U.S.

[johnrj1226]

@mikevsmith 

Here read eBay's policing on registering as an eBay seller.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/registering-seller?id=4792

Bet a dime to a doughnut eBay's counsel has scrubbed this thoroughly before posting.

Good Luck .

[mikevsmith]

Hi jerseyboy,

Thanks for your civil response. Yeah, I'm exactly what you describe, a casual seller. If you look at my profile, you'll see I have seventy something sales, that's over roughly 30 years (maybe more, shortly after eBay first went online, whenever that was). I'm more of a micro/nano seller. So yeah, I might have read their T&Cs back then, but I certainly don't keep up.

I have to admit, I kinda feel bad for eBay being put in this position by the IRS, but the bottom line is I'm not giving them my SSN#. It may be at the IRS' request, but they still have my data on their servers, which is not acceptable to me. Fortunately, I have an easy solution, I'll just stop selling on eBay. Not a major loss for either of us. As for my current ~$450 in profit, I've already told them they can keep it. Another vulnerability in my data security is not worth the price.

Frankly, from my past experience with data breaches, even if I relied on eBay for income, I most likely still wouldn't comply with SSN# requirement. I expect that's a moot point for any legitimate business, however, since I assume they would have an EIN or ITIN (don't know the correct term but you get my point).

Thanks again,

"mike"

[robbie31415]

I'm curious though. People say it's a lack of understanding how eBay has evolved and added a SSN requirement.

But for you eBay vets out there. Before eBay managed payments, I'm guessing eBay at least for awhile used PayPal for their processing. Even if eBay didn't require a SSN, did PayPal not require it?

I mean eBay literally owned PayPal, so giving PayPal your SSN is virtually the same as giving eBay it now.

Maybe I'm not understanding things. 😕

[chapeau-noir]

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@robbie31415 wrote:

I'm curious though. People say it's a lack of understanding how eBay has evolved and added a SSN requirement.

But for you eBay vets out there. Before eBay managed payments, I'm guessing eBay at least for awhile used PayPal for their processing. Even if eBay didn't require a SSN, did PayPal not require it?

I mean eBay literally owned PayPal, so giving PayPal your SSN is virtually the same as giving eBay it now.

Maybe I'm not understanding things. 😕

---

@robbie31415Yes - Paypal required our SSN#.  Any money processing company will. I sell on four different marketplaces and they all require the same information. 

[jameshen1]

Yes.  And that is what is so silly about this.  People gave their information willingly to PayPal, but won't now to eBay.  eBay is just as secure as PayPal.

[inhawaii]

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@robbie31415 wrote:

I'm curious though. People say it's a lack of understanding how eBay has evolved and added a SSN requirement.

But for you eBay vets out there. Before eBay managed payments, I'm guessing eBay at least for awhile used PayPal for their processing. Even if eBay didn't require a SSN, did PayPal not require it?

I mean eBay literally owned PayPal, so giving PayPal your SSN is virtually the same as giving eBay it now.

Maybe I'm not understanding things. 😕

---

You are correct, sir.

[albertabrightalberta]

@mikevsmith 

• Do you have a cell phone? Your cell phone company has your SSN. 
• Do you have electricity in your home? Your electric company has your SSN. 
• Do you have any credit cards? Every card company has your SSN. 
• Do you have a mortgage? You mortgage holder has your SSN. 
• Do you have a bank account? Your bank has your SSN. 
• Do you have a retirement account? The company who manages your retirement account has your SSN. 
• Do you have an investment account? The investment company has your SSN. 
• Do you own any life insurance? The life insurance company has your SSN. 
• Are you or have you been a beneficiary of any life insurance proceeds? You need(ed) to provide your SSN to prove your identity as the beneficiary. 
• Do you have a passport? They have your SSN.
• Do you have a Real ID? They need your SSN as well as a bunch of other proofs of identity.
• Have you ever checked your credit report? Are you aware of the Equifax breach from several years ago? 
• Did you go to college? You SSN is/was they used in records of your student identity 
• Do you go to doctors? They use your SSN for medical records identification

There are so many other businesses that use your SSN. If you are so bent on not giving it to ebay, so be it but ebay is no more likely to have a breach than any other company. 

The more common way identities are compromised is when YOU click on a link on your phone or computer or in an email. My guess is that if you've been compromised as many times as you claim, you probably did something to help the scammer.

JMHO. 

[mikevsmith]

Hello Alberta,

That's quite an extensive list. It makes no matter. I will not share that info unless absolutely necessary. It's not necessary, I'll just discontinue listing on eBay, simple. 

Your guess that I did something to help the scammer is odd. My name was in the US Gov't GAO (General Accounting Office) database that was hacked years ago. My info was sold by one of the major west coast banks more recently. They were fined multiple tens of millions of dollars for the offense and other customer facing violations. If you live anywhere near the SF Bay Area you should be able to figure out who I'm referring to.  How you've deduced I had a hand in either of those is a mystery. 

You "helpful" folks in this community are pretty amazing. I've had one (maybe more) imply I'm a tax dodger and you implying I've aided a scammer with no evidence other than your own bias. 

Please, feel free to share your info with whomever you chose.

[yuzuha]

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@robbie31415 wrote:

But for you eBay vets out there. Before eBay managed payments, I'm guessing eBay at least for awhile used PayPal for their processing. Even if eBay didn't require a SSN, did PayPal not require it?

😕

---

PayPal absolutely did. I had to give them my SSN years ago.

[johnrj1226]

Yep PayPal required a SSN

[nuclearomen]

jesh, all this for a huge amount of $0 - $5 tax after filing...shame some people just don't understand basic tax deductions. 

[mikevsmith]

FYI: I was curious about the PayPal thing and researched what I supplied. I did not supply SSN, simply linked a credit card account. This was quite a while ago, maybe they changed policies and you had to, or maybe your list is not completely accurate.  I'm certainly not going to go through it line by line.

In any event the point is moot. As I originally stated, "I do not supply SSN# without good reason". Additionally, it's not only the reason I'm supplying it but who I'm supplying it to. I hope you're not seriously comparing buying a house or obtaining a passport to an eBay account that generates on average roughly $200 a year in income, especially if I have no idea of their data security protocols. If so, I'm requiring you to give me your SSN# before you respond.

And, to you folks that infer that I'm cheating on my taxes because of my objection, you're either projecting or are in need of a remedial reading class. Same comment applies to making an assumption that I "probably did something to help the scammer" when I was simply one of a large number of victims affected by a database hack and a bank mishandling data.

Note to moderator: eBay is now sending me emails asking me to select an "Accepted Solution" from this mess. In one of my prior messages, I've already given my "Accepted Solution". The solution is, I will cease selling on eBay and you are welcome to do whatever you please with the proceeds for this year's sales. Please mark this as my "Accepted Solution" and close this subject.

[eze-right1]

No, I see your frustration on this and yes, folk aren't actually reading what you mean. eBay's done some pretty unscrupulous things in the past (which I won't go into but if you know, you know), and with that in mind, I won't give them my social security number either. With all that went on, I never will. I don't mind paying taxes either, I just don't want to go through eBay's way of doing it. After all, I represent eBay but work for me. If they want, put me on the payroll and pay me a wage. Until then, nope.