Gov't is Making it Hard For The Little Guy Just Trying To Make Chump Change

I agree almost 100% with your rant. While I don't object, although I don't like it, I do pay sales tax on new items. Same as if I could find something locally. Which is why I buy on eBay and the like. There isn't a source locally, at any price, for most of the things I purchase online.

Where my beef gets its' teeth is with used / previously taxed items. My purchasing has gone down by at least half, maybe more. I do did resell a lot of the items I find on eBay. And pass along the sales tax as part of the cost. But otherwise don't make any profit to speak of. It's about the hobby, not money.

The tax paperwork is too much of a problem. The way I figure it, I don't file any because anyone doing tax work should be up and about doing work, not sitting behind a desk growing zits on their gluteus maximus. I have a (legal) corporation that allows retail reselling. But I don't use it, mostly because I'm retired and don't like the paper shuffling until the ink is worn off the pages. The tax man is paid to do that, let him earn his own keep. Don't lean (tread) on me.

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In Oz we pay "Goods and Services" tax on all our ebay purchases but ebay takes that out.
Purchasing from the states is now out the window, the shipping costs are usually way more than the product.
 
That reminds me of a scrap dealer in a town not far from me. He also had a welding shop and was an ornery old cuss. It came to pass that the state decided to audit him. When he didn't show up, they came to his shop and demanded that he go through all his records. He brought down several grocery bags stuffed with receipts, invoices, and the like and put them on the table. Then he threw down a set of keys and said "Here are the papers. Lock up when you leave. I'm going fishing." The tax men tried to go through the papers and finally gave up and left.
 
My dad taught me that Schedule - C losses go well with W2 income and it worked pretty well for most years. Then there was the year we made a profit in the business; my wife asked where the tax refund was and I had to explain that you don't get deductions for profits ;)

Dad was a very, very smart engineer; like sending men to the moon with a slide rule smart. He would read the tax code (not the IRS rules, the actual law) every year before doing his taxes. Figured out he could estimate everything so didn't keep receipts at all. He got audited three times, one time he had to pay the other two they paid him....

"Declare the pennies on your eyes"

John
 
darkzero said:
Just a matter of time before it happens. Got word that it would happen eventually a few yrs ago. Amazon already had to make the change & went into effect for ebay for a number of states earlier this year.

I was ready for the internet sales tax to kick in today for my state on ebay. I made all my purchases for the things I had saved on ebay these past 2 weeks & made my final purchases yesterday. Saved quite bit of money so I'm happy about that at the least.
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Smart man
 
Can you imagine how large the government (county, city, state) tax departments would have to grow to handle all of the previously unlicensed sellers that dabble in online sales if they were outed by the sites they use for commerce?

When I looked into it last year, Paypal doesn't report anything to the IRS until you cross the $15k per year threshold. Etsy reporting a small seller to a city tax entity must have to do with the location of their business offices or something equally silly.
 
matthewsx said:
My dad taught me that Schedule - C losses go well with W2 income and it worked pretty well for most years. Then there was the year we made a profit in the business; my wife asked where the tax refund was and I had to explain that you don't get deductions for profits ;)

Dad was a very, very smart engineer; like sending men to the moon with a slide rule smart. He would read the tax code (not the IRS rules, the actual law) every year before doing his taxes. Figured out he could estimate everything so didn't keep receipts at all. He got audited three times, one time he had to pay the other two they paid him....

"Declare the pennies on your eyes"

John
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One of my vintage toolboxes had a lot of Lockheed Martin stuff in it.
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Actually, a lot of my stuff came from engineers. I usually imagine the old school engineers as guys who could figure stuff out with pencil and paper what most of us now need computers for. So, yeah, I bet your dad was super smart.
 
Holescreek said:
Can you imagine how large the government (county, city, state) tax departments would have to grow to handle all of the previously unlicensed sellers that dabble in online sales if they were outed by the sites they use for commerce?

When I looked into it last year, Paypal doesn't report anything to the IRS until you cross the $15k per year threshold. Etsy reporting a small seller to a city tax entity must have to do with the location of their business offices or something equally silly.
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Probably, but my daughter said that her opening a store triggered everything. I was hoping to sell some hard to find expensive stuff. Sales tax in SF county is 8.5%, but they probably would charge based on customer's shipping address county rate.
 
savarin said:
In Oz we pay "Goods and Services" tax on all our ebay purchases but ebay takes that out.
Purchasing from the states is now out the window, the shipping costs are usually way more than the product.
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Where is Oz? Just curious since you mentioned not buying from the state's.

Susan
 
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