Ebay and PP users must file tax forms beginning in 2011 - discuss

[dr_teng]

True and many work in the US.

I was referring specifically to these two failures: Cash for Clunkers and the New Homeowner programs.

Well, I'd say those worked wonderfully...they were just working to help the companies more than the people. So working as intended, just the wrong way, haha.

 

[The Ringer]

Bye Bye PP and ebay in 2011.

 

[The Ween]

I don't have a problem with this. If people are running a company via online, they should have to pay taxes like storefront merchants; I am sure alot of people will just find more loopholes around it. Personally, I think it should be 10K...anything to help get us out of the huge deficit that our country is in.



I agree 100%, and I am not a democrat. So many people _____ and moan about taxes, but, depending on the state, we have about the lowest tax rate out of any industrialized nation...except Calfiornia where we have a high tax rate and still are broke as heck and our politicians have no clue what is going on. Honestly, I think people need to get over taxes and start worrying about how our government is completely gridlocked because of partisanship and how fast our national debt is growing. I know paying taxes hurts in the "here and now," but we have major, major financial problems in the near future. The "anti-government" party has fillibustered 90% of any legislation designed to fix issues to "win" and make the "pro-tax" party look like idiots. The problem is that this works in the short run and gets votes, but is just causing more problems in the long run.

All politicians suck. Plain and simple and until they get out of this partisanship mode and start working together, we'll just slip further into the sinkhole.

"It's a trap!"

 

[Kibishii]

All politicians suck. Plain and simple and until they get out of this partisanship mode and start working together, we'll just slip further into the sinkhole.

Perfect post. Instead of writing my whole diatribe, I should have just typed what you put.

 

[risingstar]

Not the greatest news... especially for those people hoping to unload all of their dust collecting product.

 

[The Ween]

Not the greatest news... especially for those people hoping to unload all of their dust collecting product.

This is the whole thing. I think there's a difference between selling stuff like an online garage sale, and basically selling retail on eBay. Of course that would be hard to determine the difference.

If you sell on eBay like a retail store, where you're buying wholesale and reselling it, I would think you would have a vendor's license and those are the ones they should go after. Not just people selling stuff from their basement.

 

[Darth Madden]

Not the greatest news... especially for those people hoping to unload all of their dust collecting product.

But how many of those people are getting over $20,000 a year... not many.

 

[316what]

Well, I'd say those worked wonderfully...they were just working to help the companies more than the people. So working as intended, just the wrong way, haha.

Oh no they didn't. There are numerous car dealerships who still have not been reimbursed. Not to mention the artificially inflated sales numbers for those months AND the consumer not being informed they have to pay taxes on the money. The program harmed just as many dealerships as it helped.

The homeowner program penalizies many responsible people mainly due to some of the stupid requirements. The $6500 credit for people buying a new home (who previously owned a home) kicked in way too late...November of the tax year. And the requirement to have owned a home for the previous 5 years eliminated almost all military families from the program. In my case, we bought a home when we moved to Ohio, then last year we upgraded into a brand new home. Yet we can't claim the credit because we didn't own the first home for the 5 years prior....and that's because I was serving my country in the military and didn't live here 5 years ago...we lived in Italy.

 

[316what]

This is the whole thing. I think there's a difference between selling stuff like an online garage sale, and basically selling retail on eBay. Of course that would be hard to determine the difference.

If you sell on eBay like a retail store, where you're buying wholesale and reselling it, I would think you would have a vendor's license and those are the ones they should go after. Not just people selling stuff from their basement.

I agree...and the $20K cutoff is the gov't's way of attempting to determine the difference between "businesses" and online garage sellers.

But how many of those people are getting over $20,000 a year... not many.

Probably a very small percentage of the online garage sellers....so they'll be ok.

 

[dr_teng]

Oh no they didn't. There are numerous car dealerships who still have not been reimbursed. Not to mention the artificially inflated sales numbers for those months AND the consumer not being informed they have to pay taxes on the money. The program harmed just as many dealerships as it helped.

I actually meant the car manufacturers (who had increased sales) and banks (who received lots of new people buying houses because of the credit), but I should have clarified!

 

[316what]

I actually meant the car manufacturers (who had increased sales) and banks (who received lots of new people buying houses because of the credit), but I should have clarified!

Yet 2 of the big 3 car companies were on the verge of bankruptcy AFTER Cash for Clunkers and closed a ton of dealerships.

And banks have not received lots of new people buying houses because of the credit. Housing finance rules changed (for the better) and eliminated more people than the credit would help. If your credit score isn't 750 or above, you have slim chances of getting a home loan. Current home loan rates are proof the program didn't work to create a significant increase in home sales. Rates are at least 1% lower now than they were when the program started.

Lower rates have had much more influence on home loans than the tax credit.

 

[Shropt]

I agree 100%, and I am not a democrat. So many people _____ and moan about taxes, but, depending on the state, we have about the lowest tax rate out of any industrialized nation...except Calfiornia where we have a high tax rate and still are broke as heck and our politicians have no clue what is going on. Honestly, I think people need to get over taxes and start worrying about how our government is completely gridlocked because of partisanship and how fast our national debt is growing. I know paying taxes hurts in the "here and now," but we have major, major financial problems in the near future. The "anti-government" party has fillibustered 90% of any legislation designed to fix issues to "win" and make the "pro-tax" party look like idiots. The problem is that this works in the short run and gets votes, but is just causing more problems in the long run.

No, *******, it's Obama's fault. Don't you watch the news? Geez.

 

[Kibishii]

The homeowner program penalizies many responsible people mainly due to some of the stupid requirements.

This is very, very true.

We were denied simply because we refused to be late with our mortgage payments (Bank of America actually told us that they would put our mortgage payments in a "holding account" for 90 days during some trial period so that we could be artificially late ) and San Bernardino County Tax Assessment claimed that we did not buy our house at "arms length" because we got it under $300K when they assessed it at at near $400k. This was really stupid because we bought the house from Countrywide and we quickly won our dispute with the county (resulting in a really nice tax refund from our impounds account).

So, basically, unless you are way behind on your payments and have trashed your credit, you get nothing.

 

[Kibishii]

No, *******, it's Obama's fault. Don't you watch the news? Geez.

What the hell are you talking about, *******? I am not saying that it is Obama's or the Republican's fault; neither party wants to work together and the strict partisanship has congress completely gridlocked.

What I WILL say, is that the national debt has skyrocketed over the last 10 years and anything that gets put on the table by the current administration gets filibustered by the Republicans and you don't hear the Republicans offering any ideas.

Like I said in my earlier post, this works really well for getting reelected, but doesn't solve any issues.

 

[The Ween]

But how many of those people are getting over $20,000 a year... not many.

But like I has said before, is it just $20,000 a year or it it that OR 200 transactions? I know people who sell seperate baseball cards and I'm sure they do alot more than 200 transactions a year. I could easily hit that if I seriously got into selling off all mine and my parents stuff.

I'm too lazy though.

 

[dr_teng]

Yet 2 of the big 3 car companies were on the verge of bankruptcy AFTER Cash for Clunkers and closed a ton of dealerships.

And banks have not received lots of new people buying houses because of the credit. Housing finance rules changed (for the better) and eliminated more people than the credit would help. If your credit score isn't 750 or above, you have slim chances of getting a home loan. Current home loan rates are proof the program didn't work to create a significant increase in home sales. Rates are at least 1% lower now than they were when the program started.

Lower rates have had much more influence on home loans than the tax credit.

Just because they were on the verge of bankruptcy doesn't mean they weren't significantly helped by it ... or else the Cash for Clunkers program wouldn't have run out of money so early. It was intended to spur sales and it did.

I'd be willing to bet the same with banks. If the programs weren't effective, they wouldn't have used the amounts of money that they did.

Kibishii : I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic.

 

[316what]

Just because they were on the verge of bankruptcy doesn't mean they weren't significantly helped by it ... or else the Cash for Clunkers program wouldn't have run out of money so early. It was intended to spur sales and it did.

I'd be willing to bet the same with banks. If the programs weren't effective, they wouldn't have used the amounts of money that they did.

Kibishii : I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic.

Both programs helped about as much as a band-aid helps a shark bite.

On paper, the Cash for Clunkers was a success and ran out of money. but much of that money is still tied up in bureacratic paperwork and hasn't been dispersed to the dealerships....many of which have closed up shop during the waiting period.

And people that bought cars using the C4C program actually ended up paying MORE for those cars than if they had not used the program. On average they paid sticker price because dealerships weren't slashing prices because the gov't was giving the rebate. And now those buyers are paying income tax on that same rebate.

The big banks used the money so they could shore up their own assets and make loans to smaller banks. Very little trickled down to Joe Bag O Donuts for a home loan. Go look up the stats for home sales since the credits started and compare to previous years....they are down, not up...which was what the "smart" people thought the credit would help.

 

[316what]

All of us that use Ebay and similar sites should really be happy though. If this measure had passed in 2008 when it was originally attached to the Budget, then:

Internet auction sites will only be required to report customer revenue information if the customer does more than 100 separate transactions in a fiscal year and generates more than $5,000 in gross proceeds. In a report from the Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee (part of the IRS), the new proposal is supported by a 2005 study showing that over 700,000 Americans have a primary or secondary source of income through eBay. Essentially, these people are running small businesses, but IRS research on small business tax returns shows that "non-farm sole proprietors under-report 57 percent of business income on Schedule C" (if you're a non-American who has never experienced the wonders of "Schedule C," count yourself lucky).

 

[316what]

But like I has said before, is it just $20,000 a year or it it that OR 200 transactions? I know people who sell seperate baseball cards and I'm sure they do alot more than 200 transactions a year. I could easily hit that if I seriously got into selling off all mine and my parents stuff.

I'm too lazy though.

From everything I've read on the new tax requirements, it's AND: transactions totals over $20K AND over 200 transactions during the calendar year.

 

[Darth Madden]

But like I has said before, is it just $20,000 a year or it it that OR 200 transactions? I know people who sell seperate baseball cards and I'm sure they do alot more than 200 transactions a year. I could easily hit that if I seriously got into selling off all mine and my parents stuff.

I'm too lazy though.

I can see the 200 transactions part being a problem for a lot of people... I hope thats not really true.