tonebender wrote: ↑Sun Dec 03, 2023 1:00 am
I hope they never implement that policy.
Agreed. I believe that in most personal income tax cases, it is just retaxing the same earnings twice. Here is how:
The rule assumes that 100% of the gross transaction price is gross earnings. It assumes that the standard deduction accounts for the error (IMHO, it doesn't). It also falsely assumes that everyone selling an item at auction, is running an underground business and trying to avoid taxes.
According to IRS's own definitions, once post-tax earnings are used in a purchase, in federal taxation that has now become an asset, not subject to earned income tax (duh, right?). The process should be that if you sell the item later for $10 more (after selling and shipping costs), then that $10 is earned income and subject to federal taxing. And to be fair in taxation, a seller should have the right in a tax year to discount their auctions sold at a loss from their total AGI. Way off from the intended $600 tax operates.
In relative news, I thought the IRS announced last October that not only are they deferring it, but they are increasing the amount to $5K (I am unsure of the exact amount) or more, per instance. So not cumulative sales values when you exceeded the $600 hurdle, but only instances which exceed $5K.
IMHO, the real motivation for this added rule, is US political virtue signaling coupled with the IRS trying to rebuilt itself to the pre-90's empire it once was. The IRS is inefficient and will spend more in administrative costs than they recover, making it a net LOSS to the US taxpayer. But, common citizens won't realize this trickery until years after it is institutionalized and hard to reverse.