Ebay "you will no longer receive payments to your PayPal account"???

[Tanooki]

10 hours ago, Blazing Lazers said:

My thoughts and concerns are the same. Suppose I were to continue trying to sell on Ebay- how do I account for the sales and how much information am I going to have to store or try to remember? Half the times I did sell something it was promptly spent on other stuff, which was I sold it in the first place. Or even worse, might such things as Capital Gains come into play? Price spikes in recent years have caused more than a few things I bought cheap years before to perform better than some of my intentional investments. 

 

From what I've been reading online from a variety of sources and Forum anecdotes, the lowered "stimulus" thresholds will be taking effect this Year, 2021, in some States, to include mine. That is, if I ever sell again on Ebay. I can easily see them losing a lot of sellers once those sellers get a rude and unexpected tax complication from all of this.

 

Similarly, how does this sort of thing affect PayPal or Venmo transfers? If somebody sends me money, or if I send someone money, has a tax situation been created? What if the money  is flowing between Countries?  I don't even want to have to think about these sorts of things, let alone actually have to account for them. 

 

And to note, I didn't find anything political or partisan about your post. This sort of policy is bad no matter who is responsible, and will equally affect buyers and sellers from all walks of life. Giving our fellow gamers and collectors a heads-up about this is a good thing!:)

Exactly and you have a larger concern there if you're talking over borders which I had forgot, and capital gains while that won't affect me I get it could really screw the pooch on someone else badly.  This really needs to be explained thoroughly and cleared up as black and white as possible by the end of this year or a lot of people are going to get taken to the cleaners hard in 2023 when they get a big fat bill from the US gov't for selling their old goods.  ...and thanks I was specifically not naming names or going down the whole this vs that side of things, but I guess that's still too touchy despite it was a specific call out to all the fraud and abuse hiding in a so called virus stimulus bill.  Guarantee you almost no one is aware of this but they will in a year if something isn't brought up very loudly and widely to the public at large.

[carlsson]

A bit related to the issue, I just read on Facebook that the UK based video games reseller The Attic Bug are trying to move away from eBay, in terms of letting their customers order items through Facebook instead. I would assume more and more resellers will be looking at alternatives to eBay, whether it is Facebook, Etsy, some existing dedicated place like Sell My Retro or that Game Gavel (yay for Mike Kennedy!), setting up their own web shop or - which I still am surprised it doesn't seem to exist - a community driven video games marketplace/auction site. Something that is collectively owned by some of the sellers, ran at minimum overhead costs. I don't know how peering with an international payment provider would work, and surely some fees and giving out personal details would still be involved. Fine if it would be strictly business related so no private sellers, even better if most of the aftermarket publishers would be present on the same site. Or maybe I'm being altruistic about something like that would work in the real world?

[Tanooki]

I agree it's weird there is no good standing game peddling auction site though gamegavel is there (was there?) mikey failed, Piko took it over, but as much as he tried due to the old baggage I don't think it did anything but fizzle out.  Right now is prime for undercutting ebay in a meaningful way, maybe not as grand as a nearly sell all site, but for specific markets.  Car people evade to here, gamer people to there, maybe gamer also has related vintage toys, etc.  Cutting out the largest digital payment processor to just get greedy and capture more fees while sticking the screws even worse to your base is bad business. They truly as the epitome of what should fail, but could be too big to really fail given a real concerted effort would need to take place.  Maybe when all those americans start losing nearly 14% of their sales to self employment tax, not understanding this at all once 2022 starts, and gets a big fat tax BILL (which also ate any refund) in 2023 will leave a sharp burden, furious vindictive memory, and utter hatred for the place more than potentially already was there under the surface.  Ebay timed their greedy slide pretty well cutting out PP with the tax scam that went in this year last month as it'll make matters even worse.

[Rik1138]

13 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Maybe when all those americans start losing nearly 14% of their sales to self employment tax, not understanding this at all once 2022 starts, and gets a big fat tax BILL (which also ate any refund) in 2023 will leave a sharp burden, furious vindictive memory, and utter hatred for the place more than potentially already was there under the surface.  Ebay timed their greedy slide pretty well cutting out PP with the tax scam that went in this year last month as it'll make matters even worse.

Keep in mind, that 2022 tax bill has nothing to do with eBay specifically, it's ANY digital payment processor.  Ebay payments, PayPal, Square, etc...  If you are selling online and taking digital payments of any kind (except maybe crypto), you will get hit with that tax.  Doesn't matter if you are selling on Amazon, Etsy, FB, through an Email list, etc...  Going back to having people send you checks/money orders through the mail is the only way I can see to avoid it...

[TeddyBear89]

7 hours ago, Rik1138 said:

Doesn't matter if you are selling on Amazon, Etsy, FB, through an Email list, etc...  Going back to having people send you checks/money orders through the mail is the only way I can see to avoid it...

I find myself chuckling about the irony of this.........

[Tanooki]

15 hours ago, Rik1138 said:

Keep in mind, that 2022 tax bill has nothing to do with eBay specifically, it's ANY digital payment processor.  Ebay payments, PayPal, Square, etc...  If you are selling online and taking digital payments of any kind (except maybe crypto), you will get hit with that tax.  Doesn't matter if you are selling on Amazon, Etsy, FB, through an Email list, etc...  Going back to having people send you checks/money orders through the mail is the only way I can see to avoid it...

I'm aware, just went the direction I did since it's an ebay topic.

Weighing my options now.  I've got a year to figure it out at least.  Worst case scenario I blow out anything I'm over with I have and sell like crazy this year, hoard the cash for when something I need comes along, because I'm not paying tax on goods I already paid tax on in the first place, garage sale level goods are off limits in my book.  I can't afford to have my refund destroyed over their petty stunt.

[Rik1138]

6 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I'm aware, just went the direction I did since it's an ebay topic.

Weighing my options now.  I've got a year to figure it out at least.  Worst case scenario I blow out anything I'm over with I have and sell like crazy this year, hoard the cash for when something I need comes along, because I'm not paying tax on goods I already paid tax on in the first place, garage sale level goods are off limits in my book.  I can't afford to have my refund destroyed over their petty stunt.

Yeah, definitely the intent of this thread.  I just know there are people that are just going to go ballistic because they have to pay tax on their 'eBay sales' and blame it all on eBay...  Then they are in for a second rude-awakening when they discover that all their Facebook sales are also taxed (or wherever else they go).

 

I'm in the same situation as you...  I've been lazily selling things for years, and this might just be the motivation to get a lot of my 'spare stuff' sold by the end of the year...

And making sure I have detailed records of everything for future years.  You can deduct what you paid for anything you sell (and some other expenses), but if you are selling everything at a profit, that's not a total solution...

 

But, technically, any profit you make on sales is money you HAVEN'T paid a tax on yet, thus the whole reason for the change in the first place...

 

Still sucks though, makes it tediously annoying for any casual seller that might have a few hundred dollars of stuff to sell throughout the year...

[Mikebloke]

I'm about to be forced into the new ebay system in the UK. I'm kicking myself for not putting some new things on for sale before the change but been too busy. 

 

I've still been able to buy things, but I'm not too keen on having to put my card details on ebay just to sell for their profits when PayPal has worked just fine since its inception. Shpock seems to still be an option though and people are buying things with delivery on that quite a lot lately so it does work out. 

[Tanooki]

Yup it sucks.  I just wish things were made clear and sooner than later.

 

I see three ways about this:

1) 'Garage sale' old goodies you didn't just grab to profit from, should be tax free and you can flag that on a turbotax(etc) form...done fine, happy

2) Anything if you've had it 40minutes or 40 years, you get screwed on, and it's 16%~ self employment tax.**

3) You start going cash only, money orders, definitely not checks, much like ebay before paypal, pennysaver, classifieds, etc.

 

** We get some direction on how to pay, maybe ebay(processors) automatically deduct this like state tax, and it's done and you have no cares otherwise as your refund won't get raped.  Or, they give us options on where the processor totals a monthly or at worst(hopefully) quarterly amount and you can click a button and pay it then and there so again, your refund isn't raped.

 

I don't really see another option worth value.  The absolute worst, it falls on each person to take account all year long on a spreadsheet which is f'ng asinine, and then pay the IRS before they get to showing what you will get back/owe with a clear cutoff date to pay up or else, and do it manually.

I figure in the end, it's going to be a 2021 clear out of the goodies, maxing out the ebay freebies per month, even if it means, dropping some prices to take a hit, to get the shit out because I'd rather cut 15% more off NOW, than give it to a greedy washington prick politician to abuse.

 

 

Just something to ponder, maybe we need another topic on this to not split the thread and wreck it, but what about the 2022-23 fallout?  DO we see ebay, amazon marketplace, mercari, etc suffer and take some large hit if not actual losses?  I don't see a lot of people being happy to do their own accounting or pay for an accountant to rack up all their years of receipts(if they kept them), tally up all their alleged profit, and then pay again in tax.  People will be pissed, and lazy easy is common, so lazy easy would be to drop those services and go with a direct cash/trade option which facebook, offer up, letgo, etc aside do not offer.

[Blazing Lazers]

I don't think another thread is needed, as these and the Managed Payments changes seem to be part of the same overall thing in that selling on Ebay is and is going to be getting a LOT worse and will no longer be worth the hassles that arise from these changes. Part of me wonders if a hidden reason of Ebay's for switching to Managed wasn't just simple greed, but because of them having advance notice about the tax reporting changes...

 

Word does seem to getting around about it, as I've seen similar threads on other Forums and elsewhere online. I am a bit hopeful that the inevitable surprise of these changes will cause a backlash that will result in major alterations being made to this new tax burden, possibly to include an outright repeal of it in the same way similar poorly thought out tax and reporting requirements were eliminated years ago. 

[Albert]

3 minutes ago, Blazing Lazers said:

Word does seem to getting around about it, as I've seen similar threads on other Forums and elsewhere online. I am a bit hopeful that the inevitable surprise of these changes will cause a backlash that will result in major alterations being made to this new tax burden, possibly to include an outright repeal of it in the same way similar poorly thought out tax and reporting requirements were eliminated years ago. 

I wouldn't hold my breath on anything changing soon.  The tax code in the US is a disaster and it just gets more complicated every year. And it's been that way for some time, yet nothing of any significance has been done to try and change it for the better.  I am kind of surprised how long it took the IRS to force payment processors to report income, that was a big loophole for years with PayPal and other payment processors.  It was at least reasonable before if you weren't selling a ton of things, but the new changes are obviously a burden to many who are just selling personal items.

 

 ..Al

[taxman]

This post has been very enlightening. First I learned about the $600 threshold change that was snuck into the bill and now I've learned about Self-Employment tax. Thanks for all the information even though it's bad news.

[taxman]

I think I understand the implications of this, but what I'm still not clear on is let's say I exceed the $600 and some of it was items I bought a while back and sold for more than what I paid originally, but it also consists of personal items around the house that I no longer need and sell for less than what I originally paid. Do I get to count that as a loss?

[nebrazca88]

On 4/10/2021 at 9:31 PM, taxman said:

I think I understand the implications of this, but what I'm still not clear on is let's say I exceed the $600 and some of it was items I bought a while back and sold for more than what I paid originally, but it also consists of personal items around the house that I no longer need and sell for less than what I originally paid. Do I get to count that as a loss?

As far as I understand it you have to keep track of absolutely everything and file it under its proper category.  It's still going to be on the honor system but if you get audited you better make sure you have some paperwork to back it up.

[Mikebloke]

Ahh sounds like US is moving similar to the UK. We are supposed to declare if we make over a £1000 ($1300ish) but realistically unless you are going stupidly over that limit and its your main or second income you wouldn't normally be expected to file it in a self assessment. We also have personal allowance that allows us to earn £12,500 a year before paying income tax as well. 

 

I'd be curious to know on both sides of the pond if it accounts for profit made (such as in those cases where you bought it then sold it again) or just the amount of the sale. 

[Shawn]

OK if they have the "self employment" tax then where is the "I'm broke as fuck and have to sell my shit" bursary? 

[Mayhem]

On 4/10/2021 at 2:56 PM, Mikebloke said:

I'm about to be forced into the new ebay system in the UK. I'm kicking myself for not putting some new things on for sale before the change but been too busy. 

 

I've still been able to buy things, but I'm not too keen on having to put my card details on ebay just to sell for their profits when PayPal has worked just fine since its inception. Shpock seems to still be an option though and people are buying things with delivery on that quite a lot lately so it does work out. 

Hadn't heard mention of the same happening in the UK, yet. Certainly no one I know who sells using eBay/Paypal had said anything to date about it. Worried now.

[Mikebloke]

3 hours ago, Mayhem said:

Hadn't heard mention of the same happening in the UK, yet. Certainly no one I know who sells using eBay/Paypal had said anything to date about it. Worried now.

I've got a warning that I need to do it before May 31st. It seems to be a slow roll out as opposed to everyone at the same time. 

 

I think you can still buy, must stress that, without putting details in, just selling. It's just they'll be able to automatically charge your card the selling fees instead of giving you an invoice. 

[Mayhem]

Cheers for the update, honestly not seen anything about it rolling out here. I opened a specific separate bank account for Paypal years ago away from my main account, so I guess I will just add that to my eBay account in due course instead if it comes to that (as I currently have eBay billing me through Paypal).

[+OLD CS1]

Received my notice today.  I have until May 28th.  Woooooo I will ostensibly save 0.5% on my sales fees, and lose the conveniences I have with PayPal.

[Blazing Lazers]

16 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

Received my notice today.  I have until May 28th.  Woooooo I will ostensibly save 0.5% on my sales fees, and lose the conveniences I have with PayPal.

So they're still rolling this out. Hmm. Well, enjoy your last few weeks of instant payment. You'll soon have to wait several business days to get paid. A major change like this, and they only give you a few weeks notice? Shows how much they really care. 

[+OLD CS1]

2 hours ago, Blazing Lazers said:

So they're still rolling this out. Hmm. Well, enjoy your last few weeks of instant payment. You'll soon have to wait several business days to get paid. A major change like this, and they only give you a few weeks notice? Shows how much they really care. 

This is fine.  I have been needing the final push to dump eBay for selling, anyway.  I have had enough of the bullshit.  The fee structure, even the new one, makes it so selling little things is not worth the effort.  There is a lot of work to do to post the listing in the first place, plus it has all these listing recommendations (which I am told will become requirements) for stuff which I cannot meet (it wants a brand name for my 64C LEDs for frak's sake,) then box and pack it, not get any worthwhile backing for a shitty buyer, then the fees make it so for a $1 item I net about $.48 not including time and materials.

 

I hate throwing things out which can have some use (like these Sun 13W3 cables I have,) but I also cannot hold onto things forever.  I push some stuff here, but then there are some items which simply will not go on AA but do on eBay (like the 64C LEDs.)  I need to find a better place to push this stuff or just start taking it to recycle and be done with it, especially since it seems the alternatives are places I will not go, like Amazon or Facebook.

[Tanooki]

They pulled that shit on me finally too, have until the 21st.

 

I need to figure out what to do kind of.  I mean, I flatly outright refuse to give those thieves my actual bank account information.  I'm going to have to setup one of those accounts with an online bank, put a few hundred in there from PP and just let that be I guess.  That way if they decide to try and screw me, they won't have much to pull from as I'll keep that account nice and low, keep the funds where they exist now as an added shield against scammers.

 

I've never actually have had to give ebay any real good personal info like SSN, bank access, etc.  They had a credit card I let expire in 2015 I never refreshed, PP really was it.  It sucks, losing some good protection from scumbags because you can get PP to overturn ebays bullshit.

 

Is it that hard to setup a bank routing etc thing with ebay or just follow the idiot prompts type situation?

[Iwantgames:)]

I can’t even get eBay to accept my bank info so i can’t even sell anything on there anymore  ? luckily I don’t sell stuff often but still kinda suck lol was going to toss a couple items up on there but guess not now lol 

[Razzie.P]

16 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Is it that hard to setup a bank routing etc thing with ebay or just follow the idiot prompts type situation?

I see some people are having some issues, so something seems to be going on, but from my personal experience --- it was a "just follow the idiot prompts" type of situation.    Only took a minute or so.