http://www.dailytech.com/...ewsid=7191


Millions of users from eBay and other sale sites could soon be required to file reports with the IRS for personal sales


A quick search for the latest gadgets on eBay can quickly reveal that there are literally millions of users selling and buying stuff on a daily basis. May of eBay's users are simply people at home who sell their belongings or other things for cash. A camera, a CD, clothes -- just about anything. For the most part, many people can make a moderate and even lucrative side income from selling products on eBay.

All this is about to change for millions of eBay users according to a report on a proposal being drafted by the U.S. Treasury Department. The IRS now wants a cut out of sales that occur on eBay and other popular user-to-user sale sites such as Craigslist. A proposal is being drafted that will require all major market sites to store, track and send user information to the IRS. This information includes transaction details and other personal information.

The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) reports that the new IRS proposal is all part of President Bush's 2008 budget proposal. The intention is for the IRS to track down small business income that is generated from the sale of personal property. If you make more than $5000 USD per year on eBay sales, you may soon be forced to file income statements with the IRS. This means that users of sites such as eBay, Craigstlist and Amazon.com will be required to fill in more personal information as well as social security numbers.

Demanding that sites such as eBay request more personal information from users is already looked upon as a bad thing according to the CDT. Many Internet users are already up in arms over privacy concerns. Identity theft and other unfortunate situations can occur from storing user information online. Since the beginning, eBay users have experienced account hijacking and other malicious attacks so storing information such as a social security number will become a big concern for many.

According to the Treasury Department, Americans owe it billions of dollars and this would be a legitimate move into getting some of that lost revenue. But the CDT indicates that the Treasury Department has not yet convinced Congress that this proposal is necessary.

CDT deputy director Ari Schwartz indicated that collecting personal information such as social security numbers is a big no-no for end-user security. "Such data retention proposals would force the creation of massive, privately maintained databases of personally identifiable data that government investigators could tap at their leisure," said Schwartz. "Sites that currently ask consumers for their [social security numbers} are very likely to be related to illegal 'phishing scams," added Schwartz.

The IRS claims that such a move is a necessity due to the "explosive" growth of the Internet. "One of the more popular business opportunities is the selling of new and used items through online auction sites such as eBay, Ubid, etc.," noted the IRS report.

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the gang
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I've often wondered about this.

Great, I sell on ebay

More B.S. form the IR pain in my ass.

Son of a... what's next? Taxing fucking garage sales???

Taxing air 2 breathe

JediTodd said:

SHHHHH.....don't give them any more ideas!

Graycap23 said:

Isn't there already a tax on that?

Sowhat said:

dont tell mr Brown this!!

JediTodd said:

"If you make more than $5000 USD per year on eBay sales, you may soon be forced to file income statements with the IRS. "

That would be some garage sale to make $5,000. I think it's likely that if you are selling more then $5,000 on Ebay it's a second job or your only job and of course you should have to pay taxes.

I was surprised to read folks were making a living off Ebay...makes sense i guess, buy low sell high.

Add to that, what about stolen goods etc.

lovemachine said:

agreed, i dont see the problem...

How would this work? I mean, there are several eBay sites for different countries, but I imagine many non-Americans just sell on eBay.com. They couldn't be taxed in the US. Would that mean you'd have the Americans paying taxes and all the others not? They'd feel pretty aggrieved, I'm sure!

fhqwhgads said:

in the UK, they dont monitor sales, but money deposited into your bank account and receipts issued.

eraclito said:

Ah, I see.

It'd get really complicated, right? The gross income would be nothing like the actual income, so imagine all the work that would need to be done to claim that back.

When I was teaching here I didn't pay taxes either here or in the UK. Are you saying that from money paid into my account I could've been taxed in the UK even though 'living' here? I'm still officially living in the UK even now - still just a tourist at the moment.

fhqwhgads said:

well obviously one would be required to get an accountant to ballance the books.
otherwise you will be paying tax like a mf'er..

as for working in the UK, if it was all by the book, the tax would have been deducted before you received your wages.

...

Honestly, that seems fair to me. Why should people who run online businesses via ebay be exempt from income tax?

eraclito said:

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, if Bush hadn't cut taxes for the wealthiest people in the country, they wouldn't need to be taxing people for selling on eBay. State and city governments have tried and failed to impose a tax on eBay and Amazon sales, and I'm not sure how much traction this type of proposal would have on pro-business Republicans. On the other hand, there are a huge number of powersellers who are making huge sums of money on eBay bay basically taking their businesses online. But if they are operating a small business, they already have to report income to the IRS and pay taxes on any net proceeds from sales on eBay. It seems that what is really being proposed is a stealth national sales tax that the government can take money from right away instead of when people file their tax returns.

lovemachine said:

I must have skimmed over that line.

eraclito said:

I meant I was working here, but officially still living in the UK. Not a tourist, on reflection, but on a non-immigrant B, which is the kind of visa you get for then applying for a work permit (which I never did, just got the visa over and over). I guess I was in limbo.

The only thing that surprises me about this is that it took so long.