Quote:
Originally posted by Neilk
Quick question- hypothetically (we're not there yet), if my gf/wife were to sell her old purses and clothing, stuff she bought for herself and used, and sold them for $7,500, would she have to declare that? On paper she would show a loss from the retail price.
Speaking of Ebay, my GOD THE FEES ARE HIGH... she recently sold a purse for $75, there were about $10 in fees between Ebay and Paypal. No wonder Ebay is making a killing and that sellers are moving away from Ebay.
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Obviously tax laws are different here than there, but personal consumption or depreciation of personal goods isn't permissible as a write off. Corporations can deduct depreciation, but not private individuals.
I think tax laws would apply to ebay the same way they apply to garage sales. If I understand it correctly, you're allowed to sell a certain amount of personal property (at loss or gain, it's all considered gain as far as taxes go) without declaring it. I assume this stems from the fact that it'd be far more costly to monitor garage sales than the tax revenue such monitoring would generate. But with ebay, it's an easy snare.
Personally, I think $5K/year is a fair cutoff. The gov't is trying to make sure those that make a living off ebay (or a fair portion of it) cough up their taxes. And they included the 100 transactions provision so as not to include people selling a car or something similar, which normally isn't taxable as income.