mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@evelyb30 wrote:Is anyone else thinking that eBay has finally twigged that they need the small sellers the new tax enforcement is scaring off? Half hoping they did, but I'll believe it when they offer us real customer service and stop aiding and abetting credit card fraud. I.e. good luck with that.
The new reporting threshold is a hassle only if you've never been reporting your income. If you've been reporting all along, nothing much changes, when you take the time to think it thru. If you haven't been reporting all along... well, good luck with that. 🙂
I also believe that eBay's 'urgent' status is more likely due to the expense of producing those forms, programming the interface to send all that data to the IRS, and the requirement that the numbers be accurate and complete. That last one may be the kicker....
The credit card fraud is more due to CC chargeback policies by the card issuers. I don't think there's any Federal requirement to allow chargebacks for 180 days... that feels more like marketing than requirement. And the card issuers have ZERO skin in the game -- they bear no responsibility for the actions of the cardholder or their assigneds. Some online companies are fighting back - I got some Amazon charges on my CC recently that didn't connect with any order I'd placed, so I called and contested the charges. The issuer then actually investigated - and I got messages from Amazon explaining what those charges were from. Turns out it was one purchase that somehow got split into smaller pieces. That was irritating....
Card issuers, at nearly any request by a cardholder, will simply reverse the charge to the merchant, withholding those funds from upcoming deposits, and for the most part retail merchants just shrug and write it off as just something else to be accounted for when setting prices -- how much were they ripped off in the last 12 months as a percentage of total sales, and then add the percentage to the price of a product to ensure those losses are paid by the honest customers (who don't chargeback) and not taken from the company's profits.
Online sellers, micro-sellers like ourselves, don't have the pleasure of being able to set our own price and know we'll actually get it. You don't see signs in Walmart showing the price of the same item at Target, Kohls, and other retailers in the area. On eBay, shoppers see everyone's price and can pick an choose without having to even get their oversized behinds off the bed! Amazon makes it a bit harder - you actually have to click to see the other sellers and their prices. And since eBay's attempts to mimic Amazon thru the eBay 'catalog' have never taken off or just simply failed, it's unlikely that difference is going to change any time soon. Plus their UPC data is a mess. ISBN is pretty accurate for books & media, but UPC is a mess - one UPC number may reference a half dozen totally unrelated products. Oy!
-Bob.
This is not the first time Ebay has tried this approach with the sellers. Ebay fought the lowering of the threshold long and hard. It is likely how hard Ebay and Amazon fought it that delayed the implementation of it by IRS and the Congress.
IDK Ebay is "scared". I think Ebay is doing what it can to try and help some sellers. But remember, even if the threshold for this FORM and remember it is merely a FORM changes nothing. You still need to report your income. The threshold on a FORM does NOT set the minimum requirement for reporting your income to IRS.
And in fact, IRS doesn't have a minimum threshold for reporting income. So whether or not the FORM is changed, we all still need to report our income to the IRS.
What I find scary is how many sellers have gotten so upset my this lower threshold on the FORM. Does that mean that when the threshold was $20,000 that they all thought they didn't have to report their income to the IRS if it was below 20K??? If they did, they have some real tax issues coming their way.
@pennysdream wrote:Probably not a popular opinion, however, I have been filing a schedule-C for YEARS. So many years, that the IRS will notice if I didn't. (Closing out is a big pain) I very much appreciate the 1099. It took at least two hours off doing my taxes last year. So much less paperwork I must keep. Shoot the 1099 almost replaced a file cabinet.
I do understand maybe some of you think that you're just selling stuff. Consider yourself a Hobby Seller, or whatever. The government no longer cares how you got the money. If it was yard sales, pick-six, selling online, or a prize on the radio. If it was over $600.00, you are supposed to report it. That has been in effect for about 5 or 6 years now. It is not new. The 1099 just makes it much easier to report.
The only one who appreciated the 1099.
My two cents.
Penny
Keep in mind that while yes we are suppose to report our income, that does NOT mean it will raise the taxes you owe. But you do need to report it. Make sure you do your homework so you find out if the income you report is taxable or not and how to account for it on your forms.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/eBay-and-TaxAct-partner-to-help-you-navigate-new-Form-10...
https://www.irs.gov/faqs/small-business-self-employed-other-business/income-expenses/income-expenses
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/gig-economy-tax-center
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/service-and-payments/2022-changes-to-ebay-and-your-1099-k.html
