In your original post you state: "I don't make a profit on most of my transactions. . . . I also don't want to pay for tax preparation because I'll need to file schedules to write off expenses related to something I'm doing for fun."
In general, only profits are subject to income tax.
In general, if you don't make a lot in profits, you won't have to pay a lot in income taxes.
You may find that paying for tax preparation is the best way to make sure your tax return forms are accurate.
As for your position that $600.00 is a ridiculous amount, you are not alone.
That dollar amount was supposed to go into effect for calendar year 2022. The IRS, however, issued a notice on December 23, 2022, only eight days before the end of the year, saying essentially there were too many details to be ironed out and they would not be implementing the $600 threshold for 2022. The 1099K threshold for 2022 remained at $20,000 and 200 transactions.
The following year, 2023, the IRS published a very similar notice late in November.
At eBay Open 2024 last week, one of the speakers mentioned that eBay is still in communication with the IRS trying to work out implementation details for that very low threshold. I imagine that many other internet commerce platforms who are also 1099K reporting entities (like Poshmark, Etsy, Reverb, etc., etc.) are also giving their input to the IRS.
So we're all waiting for the final word from the IRS -- again.
