How do you navigate the tax burden of selling expensive cards?

[Hordfest]

how do you guys navigate the complexities of selling precious prewar cards without having an outrageous tax burden? I understand ultimately I will probably hire a CPA at some point, but figured I'd start by asking around here.

[ullmandds]

https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...ighlight=taxes

https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...ighlight=taxes

[Hordfest]

Ah thanks. I should have done a search. Shame on me.

[Republicaninmass]

Buy more

[Hordfest]

Originally Posted by Republicaninmass

Buy more

Honestly, the more I dig into this the more I kind of agree. Our tax code seems to incentivize investing into your business at a very high level. It's no wonder businesses are so growth minded. Things are starting to make sense.

[Smarti5051]

I realize I should read the other thread, but I am not sure how "buy more" actually helps reduce tax burden. My understanding is that you pay tax on the difference between net sale price and your basis in a card. So, if you have 5 cards that you bought for $10,000 and sell them this year for $210,000, you would have a net gain of $200,000, which is subject to income tax. If, during this tax year, you bought an additional card for $200,000 (let's say a Ruth Goudey), but you continue to hold it, you can't reduce your gain with the new inventory purchase. I need BobB to check in on this one, but that is my understanding. Otherwise, a company could perpetually increase their assets by buying new cards to offset gains on old ones without ever paying taxes (which is generally frowned upon by the tax man).

I would love to be wrong on this one, so please let me know if this is inaccurate.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Hordfest

how do you guys navigate the complexities of selling precious prewar cards without having an outrageous tax burden? I understand ultimately I will probably hire a CPA at some point, but figured I'd start by asking around here.

The threads Pete Ullman included in post #2 is a good place to start, but doesn't begin to really cover all the pertinent questions you may/should have. The link in Scott's (SB1) post #16 to the Tax Adviser is very informative, but also very technical, and not as easy to understand. It is the kind of stuff I end up reading a lot.

If you want something a little more geared towards tax issues from just baseball cards/memorabilia, and in a little less technical jargon, go to near the top of this or any on page in this forum, and find the box on the right-hand side of the page that says "Welcome" followed by your username. On the line just below that box, find the "Search" link, and click on it. When it opens, click on the "Advanced Search" option, and then on the subsequent page it opens, go to the "Search by User Name" box in the upper right-hand part of the page and type in BobC as the username. On the top left-hand side of the same page, go to the "Search by Keyword" box and type in the words "tax" and "taxes" in the Keyword(s) line/space. Then go to the bottom of the page and click on the "Search Now" button.

This should then take you to all the threads I've posted in where we ended up talking about taxes. This includes sales tax and business taxes as well, but you may as well run the whole gamut, so you get the idea of what you're dealing with. You can ignore my posts and responses to any trolls encountered. After that, just let me know if you still have further questions or need some additional clarifications on anything. Good luck.