Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucas00
I was going back through a few sellers I enjoy who sell more unique ephemera/photography type items looking to get a few nice things. And their entire stores were completely removed. Not a single listing. Not to mention a few of my watches are now completely gone (they are not under completed listings).
How do people expect true hobby sellers, and by hobby I'm talking a few sales a month maximum type hobbyist. To be able to sell for any kind of profit?
I personally fall in this category and have removed my 60 or so listings. Between the 28% tax on collectables and ebay's 12% I would be losing money on 90% of my listings and doing 10x more work at the same time.
And I keep hearing "just set up as a business and do this and that" no. I'm doing it as a hobby not as a business.
How, in any world are the real collectors punished the most? It is very sad.
eBay will see record losses, if not this year then next. And they know it, they sent letters to Congress asking for the change to be reversed or a much higher threshold to be imposed.
What are hobbyist and small sellers doing with these small profits you might ask that warrants this change? Stimulating the economy with purchases at stores and supporting restaurants and tons of other taxed businesses? Impossible. They are funding terrorists and buying drugs with that money!
So now they lose that stimulation and people stop selling so they lose the taxes on buyers too. Very smart and well thought out government decision.
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No comment regarding the political aspects, I'll leave that to others.
As for the tax side of things, how can taxes suddenly be causing you to lose money on 90% of your sales? You do know you only pay taxes on NET capital gains from collectibles sales, after deducting the cost of the items sold, plus the direct transaction costs to acquire and sell you items (which includes Ebay's fees)? And the 28% tax is only a MAXIMUM tax rate on your net long term gains from collectible's sales. Depending on what other income is being reported on your return, the tax rate on your long term collectible gains can be much lower than that. The only way you'd be losing money on collectible's sales if you just sell something for less than what you paid for it, plus the Ebay fees.