IRS and eBay Fees

[vipclubber]

With IRS asking for personal information for sale of over $600 (which is not eBay problem) and 12.9% fee which just cost over $700 in sales, it becomes more and more difficult to business with ebay as oppose to their alternatives. eBay must review and reconsider their policies and fees. Thanks.

[wrong66]

??

[buyselljack2016]

IRS is not asking for any personal information.   eBay is now required to supply a 1099-K at a different level, but there has been no change in the individual income reporting requirements to the IRS.

eBay is probably reconsidering fees. Fall seller update will soon be out. Maybe a fee increase.

[m60driver]

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@vipclubber wrote:

With IRS asking for personal information for sale of over $600 (which is not eBay problem) and 12.9% fee which just cost over $700 in sales, it becomes more and more difficult to business with ebay as oppose to their alternatives. eBay must review and reconsider their policies and fees. Thanks.

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This was a policy enacted by congress and not by Ebay.  Ebay actually lobbied against this policy.  And most of the alternatives are beholden to follow the same policy.

[monroe67]

"With IRS asking for personal information for sale of over $600 (which is not eBay problem) and 12.9% fee which just cost over $700 in sales, it becomes more and more difficult to business with ebay as oppose to their alternatives. eBay must review and reconsider their policies and fees. Thanks."

I think the IRS might "know" your personal information when you are given a Social Security Number.  For sure, once you earn your first paycheck through a lawful business which withholds income tax, Social Security tax and other requirements, the IRS has records on you.  Those records, that personal information, is your name, your Social Security Number (SSN), and your mailing address.  

eBay is required by law to send the IRS a report of sellers who earned more than $600.00 per year by selling stuff on their platform, starting with calendar year 2021.  It's the law.  eBay did what they could to try to persuade the Supreme Court not to reduce that limit, which previously was $20,000.00 per year, but the Supreme Court said, essentially, "No, we think the IRS should know about every online seller who sells more than $600 worth of stuff every year."  

eBay's policies and fees, as you call them, are eBay's choices, which must comply with all laws.  Like the laws that say eBay gotta tell the IRS that I have sold more than $600 worth of stuff and it's only September.  

It's OK if you want to reconsider your own policies and/or decisions on alternative ways to sell your own stuff.  

"Thanks."  You're welcome.  

[monroe67]

Oooops.  I need to make a correction:

I said, "eBay is required by law to send the IRS a report of sellers who earned more than $600.00 per year by selling stuff on their platform, starting with calendar year 2021.  It's the law.  eBay did what they could to try to persuade the Supreme Court not to reduce that limit, which previously was $20,000.00 per year, but the Supreme Court said, essentially, "No, we think the IRS should know about every online seller who sells more than $600 worth of stuff every year.'"

The Supreme Court is the entity responsible for eBay calculating and collecting sales taxes.  

It was the Congress, the legislative branch of our government, that changed the dollar limit on reporting earnings to the IRS.  

Those are two separate things.  

I regret my error. 

[coolections]

Write your congressman. The government trumps what a company can do for a seller and Ebay must adhere to those government policies.

[kensgiftshop]

@vipclubber 

I don't see how it's any more difficult to sell here now, then it was in the past?

The fee's are about the same.

You claim your income and do your taxes like before.

You have been claiming your income, haven't you?

[uscprestigepostal]

Why is eBay Managed Payments reporting so unhelpful? It was relatively easy to determine that the 2020 1099-K matched total revenue derived from Managed Payments reporting. It appears that matching the 2021 1099-K reported amount will be more difficult. What is the problem? Managed Payments Payout reporting does not total sales or fees for each payout.  Fees are not well segregated by type. Postage is subtracted from sales instead of being added to fees. Fees related to listings may be combined with account fees. Listing fees may not easily be attributable to specific listings. Foreign site sales are included in Managed Payments reports and may include sale amounts or fees in foreign currency. Amounts not related to eBay.com 1099-K totals are not identified in reports. In 2022, sales activity increased sufficiently to preclude manual entry of eBay transactions. The QuickBooks "eBay Connector" does not capture non-item related Managed Payments data and may attempt to change eBay inventory counts.

Will eBay start providing simple, effective payout reports with monthly and annual Managed Payments rollups supporting 1099-K calculations? Unfortunately, eBay sales reports amounts are based on sale dates instead of payment dates relevant to 1099-K reporting.

[dbfolks166mt]

     I am sure eBay constantly reviews their policies and fees mostly to see how much they should raise them by or what additional fee they can tack on to increase revenue from the sellers 

[theteamsetguy]

vipclubber,

What alternatives are you talking about?

[luckythewinner]

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@vipclubber wrote:

With IRS asking for personal information for sale of over $600 (which is not eBay problem) and 12.9% fee which just cost over $700 in sales, it becomes more and more difficult to business with ebay as oppose to their alternatives. eBay must review and reconsider their policies and fees. Thanks.

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The IRS is not asking for this. Congress passed a law requiring payment processors to report processed payments exceeding $600 to the IRS. 

And if you have ever filed a tax return, the IRS already has your personal information.

[mam98031]

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@vipclubber wrote:

With IRS asking for personal information for sale of over $600 (which is not eBay problem) and 12.9% fee which just cost over $700 in sales, it becomes more and more difficult to business with ebay as oppose to their alternatives. eBay must review and reconsider their policies and fees. Thanks.

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Ebay has no ability to review the Requirements of the IRS.  The IRS is part of the federal government.  Ebay has ZERO control over that.  IRS isn't asking for more personal info from anyone.  They already have it all.  No need for more.

As for the fees charged on Ebay.  I guess it is a decision each seller needs to make for themselves.  I personally do not think it is a fee that is too high for the coverage we get worldwide.  There are few other sites that can do this.  The only other one I can think of charges more in FVFs.  And the others that charge less don't have the traffic Ebay does.

So it is just up to the seller.  What is most important to them.  Lower fees and less sales or higher fees and more sales.  Often that is what it will boil down to.  Do forget what Ebay offers each seller by way of visibility.  That has value.

[johnrj1226]

[laststopgeneralstore]

No they don't, the fee's are not that much at all for the exposure that you get. If you aren't turning the profit you want then you need to source better items at better prices. Most other platforms have higher fee's with wayy less exposure with the exception of the big A.