January 1 could be interesting thanks to congress.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by sreader3

Why should one not worry about the situation you are describing where deducting basis from the revenue shown on the 1099 triggers an audit and forces one to pay an attorney and testify to prove one's innocence? That sound like a nightmare. Except for the attorney.

C'mon, are you really being serious?!?!?!

Reporting what you have received as gross income/revenue, as shown on a 1099 you receive, and then deducting the expenses and costs you had in acquiring the items you sold, and/or other costs involved in marketing and selling them, are NOT going to trigger an audit by the IRS. Do you really not believe the IRS knows the 1099s only report the gross amount someone receives, and that in virtually almost every instance that does NOT reflect the actual taxable net income or taxable net gain someone ends up with and that they actually owe tax on? You do not pay and owe taxes on gross income/revenue, you due owe it on net taxable income/revenue.

The IRS is not stupid and looking to create even more senseless work for themselves. They have Congress and the rest of the government to do that for them.

[sreader3]

Originally Posted by BobC

The IRS is not stupid.

Sorry Bob. You are a super cool dude and I appreciate your NYC information. But the IRS is, in fact, very stupid. This latest Dem 1099 overreach just gives them more authority to troll through the records of legitimate taxpayers. It is yet another bad Dem idea that has come to fruition.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by sreader3

Sorry Bob. You are a super cool dude and I appreciate your NYC information. But the IRS is, in fact, very stupid. This latest Dem 1099 overreach just gives them more authority to troll through the records of legitimate taxpayers. It is yet another bad Dem idea that has come to fruition.

The comment I made was in reference to the IRS not being stupid by going out and suddenly auditing everyone for simply deducting the tax basis of items they were selling. That WOULD be senseless and stupid, with no other evidence or issues to indicate the person's return was somehow wrong and their income tax underpaid. The IRS doesn't have the time or resources to even think about doing something like that as they are already still way behind in processing millions of tax returns from last year. So why would they voluntarily want to make their backlog and situation even worse by suddenly starting to audit even more returns with no real issues, that will likely never result in any additional tax revenue? That would just stupidly be adding more work that they don't have the time or resources to perform.

And as for the comment about trolling legitimate taxpayer records, what is the IRS supposed to do? They are simply doing their job in looking at the records and every 1099 they receive to make sure that they are picked up on the taxpayer's tax returns. They aren't "trolling" anything. What you are suggesting would be similar to someone saying how a cop sitting by the side of the road using radar to catch speeders is somehow "trolling" all the "legitimate" drivers going by that aren't speeding. Do you have some better way for the IRS to determine who is or is not properly reporting and paying taxes on their sales, and similarly, for the police to determine who is or is not speeding, without having some way for either the IRS or the cops to measure and check things?

And what is with the comment that "the IRS is, in fact, very stupid"? If it is a fact, exactly what factual evidence or information is there to support and prove that? After making that statement, you immediately jumped over and laid the blame on the Democrats for this change in the tax reporting threshold, and how the IRS was now going to "troll" "legitimate" taxpayer's records because of it. What does any of that have to do with the IRS' collective intelligence or stupidity? The IRS and their employees are only doing the job they were hired to do. Are you saying the individual employees/agents of the IRS are stupid, or that somehow the entire IRS organization is stupid, and if so, how are you measuring that? So, is the IRS dumber or smarter than the Dept. of Justice? What about the Dept. of Defense, or maybe the General Accounting Office? I really am curious as to how one can determine and measure if a particular government office or agency is more or less intelligent than others. I can understand if a particular individual in some government office/agency is deemed stupid for something they said or did, or how an entire office/agency itself could be deemed stupid for some particular thing they said or did, but to claim an overall office/agency itself is simply stupid in whole, how can that be? Unless you're somehow saying the idea of having such an office/agency itself is just dumb. But in the case of the IRS, the government has to have some office/agency in place to enforce and collect income taxes so the government can function and pay to get things done. That is clearly not stupid, it is extremely necessary. So again, how exactly is the IRS as a whole, stupid?

Scot, you're a great guy and have nothing to be sorry for. I'm just trying to figure out where you're coming from. in all my decades working with (and against - LOL) the IRS, I've come to have a pretty good idea of how they work and function. They are basically apolitical, and simply trying to enforce the tax laws they are handed by our government, whether it be from Dem and Rep sponsored legislation. They are just trying to do what they are supposed to do, to the best of their ability, and are normally more than fair in their dealings with the taxpaying public.

[BobC]

Sorry, double post.