EB Lobbying For Change In New 1099 Tax Law - CLOSED

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sgt1372

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If you've got an EB account, you should have received this message in your EB "inbox," as I just have:

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You may have heard about a new tax law that went into effect this year. We believe this new regulation just doesn’t make sense. It creates confusing and unnecessary paperwork for millions of casual sellers on eBay, who will now receive tax forms even when they don’t owe taxes.

To help support our sellers, we’ve been working to put pressure on Congress by bringing our community together to make their voices heard. We need sellers like you to speak out today and tell Congress to act in the interest of sellers across the US.

Here’s what’s happening

Companies like eBay are required to report sales to the IRS using a tax form called a 1099-K. Until recently, you would only get a 1099-K if you sold over $20,000, or more than 200 items. Starting this year, new legislation has lowered that threshold to just $600, even if that was from a single sale all year. Where it gets complicated is you’ll get this form even if you don’t owe anything, because not all sales are taxable–for example, if you sell something for less than you paid for it. That means millions of sellers will now get unnecessary tax forms, creating confusion and pointless paperwork–both for the IRS, and for small-time sellers who aren’t set up to deal with it.

Imagine selling an old bike for $800 that cost you $1,500 a few years ago. Since you didn’t make a profit, the IRS doesn’t consider that taxable income. But under this new law, you’re still going to get a 1099-K. And now you’ll have to prove to the IRS that you don’t actually owe any taxes on that sale, which makes for complicated accounting work.


Here’s what you can do

We’re asking our community to take action today. Recently, new legislation was introduced in Congress to raise the threshold and limit the number of sellers getting these unnecessary forms. But we need your support to make sure it will pass!

Go to our eBay Main Street website and tell Congress to act now to support Americans selling online. It will only take a few minutes, and if we succeed, it can save you, and millions of other sellers the hassle of needless tax forms for years to come.

Click here to go to: EB Main Street

We’re committed to making sure all our sellers are set up for success, and will continue to keep you updated. Look for emails and alerts from us that will help explain what’s changed, and what you may need to do next. In the meantime, you can learn more in our FAQ about Form 1099-K and how it affects you.

Thanks for being part of the eBay community.

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The EB Main Street website makes it easy for you to send a message automatically to your "represenatatives" by filling out the form provided.

As far as I can tell, you do NOT need to have an EB account to make use of the form but you do have to enter personal information (presumably for ID to the representatives contacted) which could be misused.

While I do everything I can to avoid putting such info in such forms, I have already done so in this case and encourage anyone who feel similarly to do the same.

If you don't want to do that, you can at least post a tweet using the hastag #ProtectOnlineSellers which I plan to do as well.
 
Already received this autoreply from one of the Senators from my state:

On Thursday, May 12, 2022, 11:08:09 AM PDT, Senator Alex Padilla <senator_padilla@padilla.senate.gov> wrote:

Thank you for contacting me. I always appreciate hearing from the people of California about the issues that matter to you most. My office has received your letter, and we will review it and respond as quickly as we can. In the meantime, if you would like more information about my work in the Senate, please see my website or connect with me on Facebook or Twitter.
 
As someone who rarely ever sells things for a profit and if cost were included never sells on eBay for over $500 in a calendar year this is a pain and makes me want to avoid selling on their platform and they probably realize it will hurt them making their market more of a business reseller outlet and kill the original use it had.
 
As someone who rarely ever sells things for a profit and if cost were included never sells on eBay for over $500 in a calendar year this is a pain and makes me want to avoid selling on their platform and they probably realize it will hurt them making their market more of a business reseller outlet and kill the original use it had.

it's also a PITA for them to have to report all of the >$600 transactions rather than the >$20k transactions as previously reqd.
 
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Already received this autoreply from one of the Senators from my state:

On Thursday, May 12, 2022, 11:08:09 AM PDT, Senator Alex Padilla <senator_padilla@padilla.senate.gov> wrote:

Thank you for contacting me. I always appreciate hearing from the people of California about the issues that matter to you most. My office has received your letter, and we will review it and respond as quickly as we can. In the meantime, if you would like more information about my work in the Senate, please see my website or connect with me on Facebook or Twitter.

I also received that response. I'm in SoCal
 
Just talk about the this law. Political comments belong in a different forum.
 
EB is not bothering for folks enjoying hobbies but their own self interest, as it should be. EB alignment with hobbyist is obvious though.
In conjunction with no more hobby deductions, leaving only paid n sold paperwork to declare loss or gain, I would like to know the history of who authored the bill changing amount from $20k to $600.00 bucks, why they were motivated to select that amount as the lower limit for getting a 1099, and who voted for it. It would seem we would want to move to a higher limit because of inflation in the spirit of the original law. BS move from where I am standing as a hobbyist. It surely was not unintended consequence to keep people below $600.00. Lame.

If you duckduckgo the search term "irs.gov +hobby", the first 4 hits are short IRS pages with easy rules for hobbies.
Search on "IRS HIRING MORE AGENTS" to understand what we all know, its tough to find talent nowadays.
Here is May 2021 Treasury PDF whose executive summary is interesting in light of IRS needing to replace field agents, deduction changes and this new burdensome reporting requirement on our nation. No occurrence of the word hobby is found in this PDF.
 
I sent my email. It only a matter of time before either this law changes or the IRS gets torn down. This is abusive and unfair to everyone, and only serves to fund an army of new IRS adjusters.

n2s
 
I'm pretty ignorant of tax laws, but it don't think the $600 was chosen randomly. In my old job if you did consulting on the side, then $600 or more would trigger a 1099 (and kill a lot of my incentive to do extra work).
 
I thought the minimum for reporting was $700 but maybe it is $600 so I get where the number comes from but when you consider this is for a site around buying and selling and this number does not factor in original cost of an item that number is not a fair number to use.
 
Just talk about the this law. Political comments belong in a different forum.

This is a topic of importance to those of us who buy/sell items items on the Exchange and elsewhere.

I don't want this thread to get shut down if too many "political comments" are being made but the whole point of the thread is the "political" effort being sponsored by EB to lobby for a change in the current 1099 tax law. So, it's difficult to discuss this effort w/o making "political comments" of some kind.

So, if you think that this thread would be better suited to a different forum, please transfer it there IN WHOLE so that people can feel free to express their opinions about the 1099 law and the effort to change it w/o fear of being criticized for making any "political comments."

Just let us know where you've moved the thread, if you do.

Thank-you.
 
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Already received this autoreply from one of the Senators from my state:

On Thursday, May 12, 2022, 11:08:09 AM PDT, Senator Alex Padilla <senator_padilla@padilla.senate.gov> wrote:

Thank you for contacting me. I always appreciate hearing from the people of California about the issues that matter to you most. My office has received your letter, and we will review it and respond as quickly as we can. In the meantime, if you would like more information about my work in the Senate, please see my website or connect with me on Facebook or Twitter.
Hey look, you sent them a form letter, and they sent you a form response!

In seriousness I'm glad eBay is jumping on this, but I just have to wonder where the heck they were in the last two years about it.
 
Hey look, you sent them a form letter, and they sent you a form response!

In seriousness I'm glad eBay is jumping on this, but I just have to wonder where the heck they were in the last two years about it.

I was just pointing out that the "form" letter was sent/received to indicate that EB Main Street website works.

While sending in a form letter may seem trivial, the representative's staff will classify such letters into either pro or con and the more "con" letters they receive the more likely they will take notice which (coupled w/EB's lobbying efforts) may actually result in some legislative action.

As for why EB took so long to come to the table, they probably just realized how much more work they'd have to do and the problems they'd have to address because of the ridiculously low >$600 reporting requirement.

For example, they sent me (and I assume many others) a 1099 for 2021 based on the new 2022 >$600 and then had to send notices to everyone to ignore it because it was issued erroneously after I presume they were innundated w/complaints and inquiries from people who made them realize their error.

Not to mention whatever they had to do to retract any 1099s that were mistakening sent to the IRS (even though denied any such 1099s were sent).

So, it's definitely in EB's interest to try to get the law changed (presumably back to the >$20k or 200 transaction rule) and we all benefit if EB is able to get this done.
 
This is a topic of importance to those of us who buy/sell items items on the Exchange and elsewhere.
Who is arguing it isn’t?
I don't want this thread to get shut down if too many "political comments" are being made but the whole point of the thread is the "political" effort being sponsored by EB to lobby for a change in the current 1099 tax law. So, it's difficult to discuss this effort w/o making "political comments" of some kind.
The talking about the impacts and consequences of this law aren’t inherently political. Remarks regarding opinions about elected officials and leanings is. I think the two can be separated with just a little effort.
So, if you think that this thread would be better suited to a different forum, please transfer it there IN WHOLE so that people can feel free to express their opinions about the 1099 law and the effort to change it w/o fear of being criticized for making any "political comments."
Does anyone need a roadmap to the Political Arena? We love having new members show up :cool:
Just let us know where you've moved the thread, if you do.

Thank-you.
 
Just sent my letter, but even if it works and the Fed changes things, may not matter for those of us in states that had already been doing this (MA, VT, VA, etc).
 
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