Standup Zone Forum
General => Random => Topic started by: addapost on March 29, 2018, 12:41:56 PM
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Last year I sold two things on eBay and collected payment via PayPal. One was a kokatat dry suit that I purchased 11 years ago for $1200. I sold it for last Spring for $650. The other item that I sold was a new Garmin gps that I bought at REI for $350 then sold a couple months later on eBay for exactly the same $350. PayPal reported that $1000 to the IRS as income. I had to pay income tax on that to the tune of $275. The accountant who did my taxes said yep that's how it works. WHAT!!!??? How the phuck can that be the way it works? What am I missing here?
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Losses on personal property are not deductible. Gains are taxable. You have losses.
Your returns can be amended to get rid of the gain reported but not recognize a loss.
To bad that your transaction was handled that way. Not everyone trading on eBay is a
business. You might want the preparer to amend. You should not be charged as they made
the error.
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1tuberider is right.
Also keep in mind that Paypal has a dollar and volume transactions threshold before they issue a 1099. So, if you have not exceeded those, and it sounds like you haven't, you should contact them and get that straightened out.
A good way to report 1099's is through Schedule C (along with the offsetting original costs), this way the service can reconcile your gross income form all reported sources and you will avoid notices.
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This is a worthwhile thing to pay attention to for folks in sports like ours. Keep the purchase receipt for anything you think you might sell at a later date. Even if a 1099 is issued you can report the sale with the original purchase price to demonstrate a loss or a lesser gain if you manage to sell something for more than you paid for it (hey, it could happen). And as mentioned above, the loss is not deductible for personal property, but the original cost can and should offset the sale. You can also deduct improvements that increase the sale price but not maintenance. And of course, the only time this gets looked at very hard is if you get audited.
But yeah, not a great accountant.
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Thanks guys. I have an appointment to go have another chat with the tax guy next week. I appreciate the responses.