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Not sure why I am posting this here, but can't find a Tax Sub.

Below is the new section on Ebay about sales over $600. Notice the "No need to worry— you only pay taxes on profits." Fuck, who has invoices from 10-20 years ago? and no mention about "No need to worry— you also get to claim the loss on sales."

Buy a collector car 20 years ago (wasn't a collector car then) for $1,000 and sell it for $10,000 in 2022 = $9000 profit. Buy a Honda in 2010 for $10,000 and sell it in 2022 for $1000 = $9,000 loss. Can I claim the loss?

Ebay Policy: Here’s what you need to know Starting on Jan 1, 2022, eBay and other marketplaces are required by the IRS to issue a Form 1099-K for all sellers who receive $600 or more in sales. The new tax reporting requirement will impact your 2022 sales and taxes that you file in 2023—it will not apply to your 2021 sales and taxes that you file in 2022. Throughout 2022, look for updates from us that will help explain what’s changed and what you need to do next. If you haven’t already given us your Social Security number (SSN) or Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN), we’ll ask you to provide it once you reach $600 in sales. No need to worry— you only pay taxes on profits. You won’t owe any taxes on something you sell for less than what you paid for it. For example, if you bought a bike for $1,000 last year and then sold it on eBay today for $700, that $700 you made would generally not be subject to income tax. While eBay is unable to give tax advice to our sellers, we want to help make dealing with taxes as easy as possible. Our goal is to help all sellers, casual or those selling as a business, with these new requirements.

Not sure why I am posting this here, but can't find a Tax Sub. Below is the new section on Ebay about sales over $600. Notice the "No need to worry— you only pay taxes on profits." Fuck, who has invoices from 10-20 years ago? and no mention about "No need to worry— you also get to claim the loss on sales." Buy a collector car 20 years ago (wasn't a collector car then) for $1,000 and sell it for $10,000 in 2022 = $9000 profit. Buy a Honda in 2010 for $10,000 and sell it in 2022 for $1000 = $9,000 loss. Can I claim the loss? Ebay Policy: Here’s what you need to know Starting on Jan 1, 2022, eBay and other marketplaces are required by the IRS to issue a Form 1099-K for all sellers who receive $600 or more in sales. The new tax reporting requirement will impact your 2022 sales and taxes that you file in 2023—it will not apply to your 2021 sales and taxes that you file in 2022. Throughout 2022, look for updates from us that will help explain what’s changed and what you need to do next. If you haven’t already given us your Social Security number (SSN) or Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN), we’ll ask you to provide it once you reach $600 in sales. No need to worry— you only pay taxes on profits. You won’t owe any taxes on something you sell for less than what you paid for it. For example, if you bought a bike for $1,000 last year and then sold it on eBay today for $700, that $700 you made would generally not be subject to income tax. While eBay is unable to give tax advice to our sellers, we want to help make dealing with taxes as easy as possible. Our goal is to help all sellers, casual or those selling as a business, with these new requirements.

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[–] • 0 pt

I sell stuff on eBay. I just make sure to keep excellent records of each sale - taxes received on each sale, eBay fees on each sale, shipping costs on each sale, number of bubble mailers I used ($0.10 each), and price I paid for the item plus sales tax. At the end of the year it makes for easy addition. Then when I do my 1099-C at the end of the year, I just sum up the total sales plus taxes, and put down the deductions for taxes, office expenses, cost of goods and fees. Most of what I sell I either got for free (no cost of goods) or I purchased on sale from a big box store (cost of goods). I rarely sell stuff that is old and has depreciated value, but when I do I either have a record of the cost I paid or I estimate it (like my college books).

It's annoying, but it's a necessary evil because there are too many tax avoiders, sadly (mostly the hispanics and blacks doing digital payments under the table). We affluent peoples have to suffer.

I saw your other comments about OfferUp. I've sold and bought stuff from OfferUp. The buyers are assholes and always try to negotiate for pennies on the dollar, while sellers are mostly trying to scam you. I've been burned once on an iPhone I bought (it looked good and worked fine, but the screen was a third party install which needed a replacement but Apple made me pay for even though the phone was under warranty officially. The phone of course lost it's warranty with the third party install of which I wasn't aware at the time of purchase). Most people selling phones are either selling fake iPhones (Chinese androids), stolen and thus blocked, carrier locked, or phones they got from a carrier on a payment that have a remaining balance! There are a lot of scammers on OfferUp who try to get you to buy or sell off the app to avoid the 10% fee and of course never send the item. So I'm done with OfferUp for stuff I want to maximize profit. For stuff I want to get rid of at cost, I don't mind using it.

Craiglist is ok, but just not enough eyes to generate traffic/interest for selling. People don't post enough good stuff on CL to buy.

Nextdoor local app is pretty good. Rarely a scammer or an asshole because you have to register with your real name. The only problem is that you get a lot of buyers who have families and are therefore busy. Flaking is very common.

[–] • 0 pt

great input. I have one Ebay account run as a business selling new/almost new stuff and I have no problem with it as I have receipts. But my other Ebay account selling collectibles/art/owned forever old stuff I will have a big problem with. I have been thinning out my junk for a few years now and been surprised what some is worth (profit). But also, some old hardly used stuff is worth nothing (loss), hence the question what the IRS will do on claiming a loss. I have not found guidance on this issue.

[–] • 1 pt

The IRS is pretty fair on this topic. If you read up about depreciation and cost of goods, you can claim what you need to without worrying. It is best if you have a receipt but for most vintage stuff you've probably lost it. I sold some film cameras at $10 each. My mom gave them to me to get rid of. Problem is they were so old it was hard to determine the original purchase price (which I'm sure was $100 each at the time 30 years ago), and since my parents were the ones who bought it ages ago, I don't think I'd be allowed to claim the cost of goods since I received it for free as a gift (technically speaking). At $10 each, I didn't feel it was worth problems with the IRS to show so many sales with no profit, I'm not that cunning with my eBay sales. Now if I was like that guy ResaleRabbit on YouTube who does almost $600,000/yr in sales (not profit) on eBay (he shared his sales number in a recent video, not the profit numbers of course) then I'd start caring about COG and depreciation so as to maximize my profit for my business. Depreciation is big for him, I'm sure, as he buys so much shit that is old and not manufactured anymore. Old TV remotes, old VCRs, old t-shirts (in new condition), etc.

For the purposes of my taxes, I claim my eBay sales as a business and I get a little Trump QBI deduction. At $300 year I could technically claim it's a hobby and keep it all, but in my state the $600 limit was already in place for tax year 2021 and I had $1500 of transactions in PayPal that was submitted to the government as a 1099-K in 2021 (only $600 or so of the $1500 was taxable... lots of manufacturer rebates among other things). So considering I explained those eBay sales as a business in 2021, I figured it was in my best interest to continue reporting it even though it was well below $600 for tax year 2022 (I did less than $300 in profit last year). eBay has since changed payments to be self managed, but at the time in 2020 for TY2021 it was all going to PayPal.