Selling stuff online? Here comes the IRS

[temi]

Americans who sell items through Internet auction sites could be in for an unpleasant surprise at tax time next year, thanks to an IRS proposal designed to identify taxpayers who don't report income from those sales. The U.S. Treasury Department wants Congress to force auction sites like eBay, Amazon.com and uBid.com to turn over the identities and Social Security numbers of a large portion of their users to the IRS--so tax collectors know how much each person made through online selling.
source and full story here

 

[funkypilchard]

I always wondered about this... you know the guy I said about in ebay thread who trades fake microphones, I had issue with him and he complained to me when I asked for his address, he traded as a company but refused to give out his address, this made me suspicious because I would not have had any comeback if anything went wrong, he makes literally thousands of sales so he IS actually running a business entirely through ebay but he claimed he was one small guy selling a few things on ebay, is he declaring the sales to the IR? I suspect not, there are also hundreds of other so called companies who appear to be reputable but when you do a search on their name the only shop that comes up is the ebay shop.. nothing else, is this ensure taht they are non traceable for tax purposes or just cheap skates taht can't afford a proper website.. how much money is being lost in taxes from ebay.co.uk?

 

[temi]

Well, all that will be put righ soon, there is a bot coming to town soon in UK and some other EU contries designed to plug that look hole

 

[funkypilchard]

I suppose you can't blame people for taking advantage of the system if it leaves itself wide open, I just find it incredulous that the government haven't clamped down sooner???