[widebody911]

Well all knew this was coming (well, at least I did)

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9018758&intsrc=hm_list

The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) is sounding an early warning on a proposal in the president's 2008 budget that would require Internet businesses like eBay Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. to collect personal data on their customers and share it with the Internal Revenue Service.

The move is part of an effort by the U.S. Treasury Department to track down unreported small business income generated by the sale of personal property on such sites. Under the proposal, online "brokers" would be required to file income statements for all customers who use their sites to conduct 100 or more separate transactions that generate $5,000 or more per year.

Among the information the brokers would be required to collect would be customers' names, addresses and taxpayer identification numbers or Social Security numbers. The proposal would be effective for sales of property on or after Jan 1, 2008.