September, I'm told, is the start of Christmas Prep for sellers, and the start of Bargain Planning for buyers. I've never really had Christmas gift type items - maybe a few a couple years back - but I still like to hear what plans others have to get ready to go, Go, GO!
My plans? To not spend more than I have, to not overeat, to plan with the grands every chance I get, and to continue prepping for retirement in 2024 or 2025. Oh, and to keep adding new inventory to replace the sold, and working to get to 750 units each in two of my accounts so I can rotate the stock monthly.
-Bob.
@sumsum70 wrote:By the time December 25th rolls around, eBay may look like this if they don't make things right:
It's time for ebay's top management to begin & earn their pay & bonus
@coolections wrote:It is not even labor day yet. I doubt there will be people scrambling Ebay to buy Christmas gifts. In fact I doubt many will not even shop for Christmas gifts on Ebay. Christmas décor maybe.
September is when people start planning - who all will they be buying gifts for, or how much cash to tuck in their card. October is when the shopping starts - there's plenty of time so less stress. November is when the stress creeps in... better hurry or the stores will empty and the online deliveries won't arrive in time. December is for panic buying, or just deciding to send everyone cash and be done with it.
These are rather broad ranges, true, but it's easier to think/plan month-by-month rather than week by week. At least it is for me,
-Bob.
@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:It's not close to Easter either, but that's what I've been selling lately.
Now THAT is planning ahead!
-Bob.
@iart wrote:Next year should be much better after all the 1099s go out. Sellers will be dropping this place like rocks in a pond.
Unfortunately, I think you may be right. A lot of folks have never had their own business (online or B&M) or even done retail more than the occasional garage sale. They think they will have to pay taxes on every penny they make. Or they come to discussion boards like this one wondering what they did wrong.
-Bob.
@chapeau-noir wrote:Well, if that's the case, maybe people local to me will stop putting everything online (since every online platform is covered with the marketplace taxation rules) and yard sales will stop being full of junk. Right now it's useless going to any of them because people have been listing anything good online for decades (I live in the Silicon Swamp), so all that's left is children's toys, ratty clothing and tons and tons of knickknacks and bric-a-brac which no one wants.
ETA: Sometimes there are tools, though.
When people stop selling online, they will drop more stuff off with Goodwill, who will then sell it online. So instead of spreadding that money around, it will all begin to concentrate in those sellers big enough to know how to lower their taxes and keep their records.
-Bob.
@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:I don't think he was wrong. He was talking about folks actually running a business not evading taxes.
Of course he passed before the internet was a thing so he may have changed his views then.
I was always curious about this question -- why do I have to report every penny I earn to the IRS. So when I was audited for the 2005 tax year, the first year in a long time that I had been fully self-employed, I asked the auditor.
Reporting is required by law - that's something you need to talk to your congressperson about. They write the laws, not the IRS. And the reason you don't see the IRS busting down the doors of everyone who's ever had a yard sale is simple -- #1 they don't generally bust down your doors, and #2 the expense of tracking down and hauling in everyone who has a yard sale would cost many times more in salaries alone than the IRS would ever hope to glean from the sale proceeds. So they prefer to go after the big cheats, where the odds are better they will find "oversights" and generate more taxes than costs.
I also asked why I was being audited - she said that while she didn't have any concrete information, nothing in my paperwork to indicate why, that it was likely because I was fully self employed and was making quite a nice gross income but a very small net. They wanted to be sure my records were in order and I was reporting everything properly. Out comes the receipt box and the spreadsheets that back up the number on my filing form. I had missed a couple small receipts and ended up writing them a check to settle the bill. My CPA paid for his services that day -- I'm not a good record-keeper, so his suggestions on how and his recommendations on why were of great value.
Do you know why the Feds decided to go after the venues instead of the individual sellers? That same yard sale cost vs income ratio -- it's easier to work with one entity representing 3 million folks that to work with those 3 million folks directly. Same for the States - they wanted their cut of the sales tax that should be collected from buyers and remitted by sellers. Much easier to work with one than with the many.
So why did the Feds lower their limits from $20K AND 200 transactions to $600? I think it was because the 20K/200 limit didn't net them as much as they thought -- a lot of sellers by that point were already reporting their income. So they lowered their limit to match the most common figure used by the States.
-Bob.
