Quote:
Originally Posted by Leon
Sales tax in the BST area? Yuck.
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Leon, exactly right....YUCK! But as I was pointing out, you're not likely to have any states come knocking, at least not anytime soon. Still, the BST really isn't basically different from Ebay in that it simply provides a platform for buyers and sellers to transact business. Probably the most meaningful difference though is that the BST, the site, and you, all have nothing whatsoever to do with collecting and passing on any of the money from any transactions. Nor does Net54/BST keep track of the details for any sales and sales amounts to calculate and take a piece of the action like Ebay does. I believe those major differences would likely keep Net54 and the BST out of the crosshairs of state sales tax agents for some time to come.
Still, if someone ever really pissed off a particular state, and their sales tax people, that also used the BST to transact business, I could see a state agent contacting you to inquire about parties involved in transactions using the BST. If for nothing else than to get access to the sales info from the threads, and who the parties are, which i believe you have all that information for. You see, by running the BST and having the threads out there and saved for all to see, you have also created an online, open record of sales activity that someone could look at. When people sign up for Net54 I don't think you ask if they are federal, state or local tax officials who may be looking to see what is going on with all the sales online through your site, do you? And assuming not, there's nothing to stop any tax agent from becoming a Net54 member and keep them from simply opening up the BST and looking for large sales and tracking the activity of certain sellers.
Quite frankly, for any board members who like using the BST so they don't have to go through Ebay or an auction house because they don't like their activities being known and want to be discreet about their sales activity and volume, the BST may not be as "hidden" as they may think. And from your standpoint, being in charge of all that accumulated sales data would make you a logical target of tax authorities to come knocking on your door one day to ask about who some of these people are.
Now if the site only ran and kept the BST threads open for a fairly short period, and then completely deleted them after a set amount of time, it would be less likely that some tax authority would come knocking to have you forward historical data to them. And even if they did, you wouldn't really have much to give them then, only info for the past few months or so. But even if you did start deleting the BST threads after a set period of time, tax authorities could simply monitor the BST and copy/print the threads on a current basis to get around that and save and accumulate the info themselves. Again, not likely to happen anytime soon, but, it could happen and is something for you and people using the BST to consider. I know I've heard some members like to keep the sales info on the BST transactions available for reference, but it also means the info is available for the tax authorities to go find it as well. And consider this, there are collectors from all walks of life and professions that can be into cards. What is to stop a tax agent from also being a collector, and by coming on this site they happen to pick up on potential activity they think may not be getting reported properly for tax purposes? Something for you and everyone else using the BST to keep in mind. Just saying.....................................!