IRS May Ask eBay To Snitch On Sellers 418
Makarand writes "The IRS thinks that many sellers on online auction sites are unaware of their obligation to declare their profits and pay their taxes to the IRS. Tax experts are now asking the IRS to require online auction sites like eBay, Yahoo, and Ubid to report the gross sales numbers for their sellers. Such a requirement will surely send a shock wave across the online trading world because it could drastically reduce the profits a seller would make on these sites. The IRS thinks it can collect an extra $2 billion in taxes from this requirement that auctioneers report sellers who complete 100 or transactions a year worth at least $5,000."
So.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Cool as long as Europeans stop getting (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:So.... (Score:3, Insightful)
This requirement will not reduce sellers' profits (Score:1, Insightful)
Cry me a river (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate the tax man as much as anybody, and my profits are already reduced by him.
So where did the submitter get the idea that eBay sellers are supposed to get a free pass?
If you already pay your taxes as the law requires of all of us, then your "profits" will not change. And if you don't... well, then you should go to jail like that guy from Survivor.
Re:Hmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Easy solution for Ebay (Score:4, Insightful)
While it is unarguably legitimate income that is required to be reported for U.S. residents, eBay is only one of COUNTLESS sources of non-employment based income that are absolutely untracable by the IRS. Tax evasion of this sort probably only amounts to a relatively small adjustment to the overall taxable income that the IRS handles. My guess is that IRS is just going for the "low hanging fruit" with eBay since all the transactions are recorded in a database and are easily deliverable; it is unlikely that they will be met with the same success in many other venues.
Re:Cry me a river (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually there is no such law at all. Everyone just assumes there is one! And the IRS goons come after you if you don't pay taxes, but in actual fact the IRS is constitutionally ILLEGAL! If you think I'm kidding, check this out:
YOUTUBE trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPypDaXfIV8 [youtube.com] [youtube.com]
Download the full movie torrent from here:
http://btjunkie.org/search?q=Freedom+to+Fascism [btjunkie.org] [btjunkie.org]
Re:It's really simple..... (Score:1, Insightful)
However, if in that year you sold 100 DVD players and said "sorry, no receipts," you can expect the full 10k as income. Plus penalties and interest, likely.
The whole point of this request by IRS is to ensure compliance by people running businesses on ebay, hence the $5k limit.
Did you know if you buy $5,000+ of goods from a business that you're planning on reselling... THEY'RE supposed to 1099 you for that?
Re:Exciting new tax bases (Score:4, Insightful)
"In the 2005 United Nations World Drug Report, the value of the global illicit drug market for the year 2003 was estimated at US$13 bn at the production level, at US$94 billion at the wholesale level , and at US$322bn based on retail prices and taking seizures and other losses into account."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_drug_trade#O
94 - 13 = 81 billion
81 * 25% ~= 20 billion.
so $20 billion in income taxes. and 94*.06 `= $5.5 billion in sales taxes.
That would be nice to get a bigger tax return due to the legalization of drugs wouldn't it! not even including the tax savings from not incarcerating drug users.
Re:Cry me a river (Score:1, Insightful)
OMG!!! There's a video so it must be trues!
Please retard, sell your scam somewhere else.
Fair Tax = Screw the middle class (Score:5, Insightful)
Under the "Fair Tax", the rich keep amassing wealth, but will pay absolutely nothing on what they gain but do not spend. Now, with this very large amount of the nation's income sitting around being completely untaxed, all that's left to tax is what is actually spent each year: The very rich, while spending more than the average person, spends a much, much smaller percentage of their income each year. Let's think this through: You are only taxed on what you spend, minus the "poverty level rebate" - the poor pay nothing, so only the middle class and rich really pay taxes. Let's say the average rich person spends 20% of their income each year, and the average middle-class home spends 90% (this is not unrealistic when you consider just how much basic living expenses and a few basic luxuries cost).
This means that the rich are paying 80% less taxes on their income than currently, while the middle class only gets a 10% break. Where exactly do you think that loss of taxes will be made up? Well, there's apparently only one place they're allowed to - the "Fair Tax". If this tax rate then doubles to make up for the short fall, the rich are paying 40% of their previous tax rate, while the middle class is paying 180% of their previous tax rate!
When you consider how much time and money the rich spend abroad, you can see that their share of taxes falls even lower, since they will pay no taxes whatsoever to the IRS when they spend it overseas.
Simply put, "Fair Tax" is a bullshit name for this concept; it's the same old "rich get richer, screw the middle class" idea that drives most unfair tax law changes.
You want fair, easy, and simple? Have the IRS tax be "X% of income over $Y minimum", with deductions only for those truly altruistic reasons, such as recognized non-profit charities.
Re:Fair Tax = Screw the middle class (Score:2, Insightful)
Government has NO RIGHT to take THEIR MONEY from them to pay welfare to some poor ass person at McDonald's that can't even do their job right. I walk into fast food places and retail stores and all I see people who can't work. These so-called workers mope around and slowly doing tasks. Doing as little as possible while making $5-$9/hr. I believe these retail and fast food workers should be paid what their worth -- $1.00 to $4.00. And get paid $7.25/hr when they have earned it.
Government should not and has no right to distribute wealth to anyone. It is not their job. Their job is protect us from foreign countries and provide the infrastructure necessary to survive. And by infrastructure I mean water, electricity, natural gas, roads and etc. Americans are not entitled to the money they have not earned. They are not entitled to free education. They are not entitled to free health care. Read the US Constitution.
Fair Tax is fair because it a sales tax. People only pay what they want to pay. Prebate checks are to pay the taxes that will be paid on living essentials (food, water, clothes). If you choose to buy expensive things, you will end up paying more in sales tax. The good thing is you don't have to. You can just buy bare essentials. Let's take for example Plasma screen tv. The rich, middle-class, and poor will pay the same amount of tax on it. Truly Fair. Rich may fly overseas allot but they still pay taxes on those tickets. They still pay taxes on those big fancy cars they drive. You can choose not to pay any taxes at all by buying used items. It's your money and you should choose how much tax you pay.
Wake up America! You are not entitled to free education, free health care, or those big fat welfare checks. You are only entitled to what the US Constitution says you are entitled too. And the distribution of wealth through excessive taxation is not the government's job.
Now I have spoken the truth and my mind. I don't care if I get modded down. Long live Freedom of Speech.
Re:Fair Tax = Screw the middle class (Score:4, Insightful)
How is "tax them the same as everyone else" = "Tax them more" ?
I like taxes ! (Score:5, Insightful)
As another poster noted, it all comes down to political theory and your preference for how society is set up. My preference is public servants carrying out the shared societal tasks, well paid enough that they don't have to take bribes to feed their families. I'm happy to financially contribute to that system.
I think they're lying (Score:4, Insightful)
If we look at this article http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2
They're assuming then that they can raking in 10% of this amount as taxes. That would be amazing, particular if we assume a cost basis of 50%, particularly since the bulk of ebay-ers probably come under the $5,000 amount and if anything, probably sell for a "loss".
Do the math people, this doesn't add up. One of two things will happen: Either they're going to go after every eBay transaction, of they're going to get probably 1/20th of the amount they claim. They may be counting on the fact that when you sell a Stereo you bought in 1978 for $400, you won't keep the original receipt making you liable for the entire $400 amount.
Really, this will add up to a tax bill for everybody who uses ebay, and the only people who will truly benefit will be accountants and TurboTax.
Re:Fair Tax = Screw the middle class (Score:1, Insightful)
It's amazing the following the Fair Taxers have, and their mixed-up priorities. These pseudo-libertarians talk a good game (at least they know their talking points), but they don't realize that they're doing nothing "conservative" for our nation. "Hey - let's give everyone a government check every month" and "let's change our entire tax structure WITHOUT cutting spending" do not sound like a good ideas to me.
They live on slogans and evangelism. It's almost a religion. "Abolish the IRS!" - but it just becomes another government agency with a BIGGER enforcement arm. "Keep all of your paycheck" - but it's an accepted fact (by Boortz, Linder, and their economists) that your pay will have to be cut to the current take-home level. That's the ONLY hope to keep consumer prices at the current levels. And if someone in the supply chain doesn't play along, well guess what? Consumer prices rise. Don't get me started on the 23%/30% fiasco. And don't get me started on the ability of Fair Taxers to critically look at their plan, and compare it to others. I've read the book, and the website, and I can say it's rubbish. Most Fair taxers haven't done any reading beyond the book.
Fair Taxers also hate government waste, the government in general, and our elected officials, but live in some weird fantasy world that the same politicians who have screwed up our tax code are going to magically decide to fix it
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Thanks again for putting up the good fight!