mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@pklt8572 wrote:Actually, you can sell items using a paypal account without having given Paypal your social security number, if you had a paypal account set up before 2016. I think it's intrusive to ask for a social security number for any reason, and it should be your right to refuse to give it to any corporation that is not a banking institution. The onus for reporting income on your taxes is on the individual, not the middleman.
I set my account up MANY years ago, long before 2016 and PP has my SSN.
You do have the right to refuse to give your SSN. We all have that right. And Ebay and PP also have the right to refuse us service as sellers too. It is a two way street.
PP is NOT a bank.
If individuals would do what they were suppose to using the honor system, IRS would have never had the need to create the 1099K. But because too many individuals are not and were not reporting income as they were suppose to, IRS had the need to create this form.
For those very same reasons, some states have now required 1099Ks for much lower thresholds than IRS states.
So in a perfect world, no one would need to be looking over our shoulders to make us do the right thing, but sadly there are just too many that if not made to report certain income, they just won't.
@pklt8572 wrote:I 100% agree. With all the data breeches, this is identity theft just waiting to happen. Paypal has much more safeguards and a LONG history of keeping data secure. Why would anyone trust a brand new system on Ebay to keep your social security and identity information safe? I never give out my social security to anyone other than a banking institution. Period. I will no longer use ebay for selling.
Do you have anything you can back that up with? I'm curious since Ebay owned PP up to 5 years ago. Why would Ebay be less secure than PP. Ebay has always had some financial info on sellers to protect. Why would that change now?
If you gave it to PP, they are NOT a banking institution.
@parkave321 wrote:Except that Paypal acted more like a financial institution - ebay does a whole host of things and has been compromised before. ebay is just trying to cash in on one more aspect of the sales process and will undoubtedly take all of the savings for themselves as time goes on. Funny that they don't bother telling you that they need your SSN until your in the process AND they are doing NOTHING to tell you how your information will (or will not) be protected. Just closed all of my auctions today - See yah ebay!
But they aren't. PP is a wallet. MP is a basic money processing program. There is a big difference between the two. When PP started, it didn't have all the bells and whistles it has now by a long shot. MP will improve in time. Hopefully relatively soon but it is hard to say how long it will take it to gain closer ground on what PP currently offers.
There are policy pages on all of that. Security, what info need for MP, etc. It is public information. Ebay isn't responsible for emailing all these links to you. We as sellers have to take responsibility to learn about the program and search out information if needed. So they do tell you, but they don't feed it to you. YOu need to read about the policy.
You are assuming things that just aren't exactly what is happening, but I do wish you well in whatever you decide to do.
Just some food for thought. If you need an auction site, Ebay is the last of them or about the last of them for general merchandise. You will need to move to fixed price on other sites.
@matthehat13 wrote:the government doesn't send a bill, they expect us to do the work and get it right. I do it right. I am not concerned of paying taxes, I just don't want another large company to have my ssn number in case of a hack, that has happened with Target multiple times, our own government, a large credit reporting company, and recently somebody hacked a city or county in Florida to poison the water. I think most find it a security threat to personal info. Some may be looking for a tax break, I am just terrified of the credit fraud risk. I think ebay needs to beef up security and promote it prior to/or concurrent with such a data ask!
Why do you think they haven't? Why would they promote it, that only invites hackers and I'm confident that you don't want that?
@basspig wrote:I just got the notice that I have til 2/14 to add a bank account to get paid. So I started the process and the first thing they are asking for is a SSN. I do NOT share that info with anyone but the federal government. I leave it blank on doctor visit forms and dental. If they insist, I walk out of their office and go elsewhere.
Ebay has been getting ridiculous with fees lately, so I have not been selling here much anymore. I will take my business to Audiogon and Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. The last two are free of fees.
I'm interested in eBay selling alternatives as well. Corporate greed has gone out of control with the major industries. We need to halt use of services and businesses that start acting like quasi-government agencies.
What has Ebay raised fees on recently? I'm not aware of this, please advise.
It is federal law that requires MP to have your SSN for identification purposes.
@media-n-music wrote:What you are missing is that many of us use eBay to sell things that we've owned for years. I know most of what I sell is sold for less than I paid for it. But, who has a receipt from a record they bought in 1982? Who has a receipt for a jacket they bought ten years ago?
Your assumption is that this man is avoiding paying legitimate income tax. But, it isn't taxable income when you sell a jacket for $50 used, when you paid $100 for it new. You lost money, you didn't make a penny in that scenario. People are being taxed for not holding onto petty receipts for years, or even decades.
...but, because the government knows that most people are NOT holding original receipts from small dollar items that they bought years ago, they are instead treating all sales as profits. In reality, these eBay sales are more commonly losses, and now people are going to be taxed on a financial loss, because of a technicality.
.....that's totally Un-American.
@pburn didn't miss that detail. FinCen, AML [anti money laundering] nor the USPA [US patriots act] make exceptions for sellers of used items or used personal items. That would require a website to make some determination about a seller that they aren't qualified to make, nor do that have the information in which to make a valid decision on such a thing.
This is between the Seller and the IRS. Ebay plays no role in that. The seller just needs to make sure they follow the rules and regs as set forth by IRS for claiming or not claiming such income. You are correct, not all sellers that ONLY sell their OWN personal items have to claim their income to the IRS. Some do and some don't. You need to make sure you seek the proper advice on whether or not you fall into the do or don't category.
Some information to consider.
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/five-things-to-remember-about-hobby-income-and-expenses
https://www.1040.com/blog/2019/7/12/selling-stuff-online-taxes-for-etsy-ebay-letgo-and-more/
