Thank You, IRS... now we get to pay tax on guitar sales. Lovely

[Boogie]

The banking lobby pretty much has the “account reporting” nonsense thwarted. Keep in mind that this goes on already for transactions over a certain amount, so, as long as you don’t smell/taste/act like a bad guy, you won’t have a problem.

And like Sergio said…don’t sell anything, don’t report income.

 

[mookyshoots]

Sorry. I think we should all really try to live in the present, and only review the past when we can learn from it. Otherwise, why not hope for a better future? I personally find TV rather mundane and too violent or immoral to be of any interest. I don't mind viewing educational, nature, or PBS programming, but I don't waste time trying to keep up with the latest jokes or ever-changing trends in this world.

We live at much too fast a pace to appreciate things of lasting quality. No child left behind? Sorry, you folks can go about your own busy hectic lives.

I'll stay here and guard the beer fridge and sit on the sofa until you regain your senses. Don't forget to feed the cat, clean the kitchen, lock up, and put out the porch light. Time for a reality check, and my reality is now officially heading for some sleep.

This reminds me that I badly need to spend more time with my beer fridge. It probably thinks I don't love it anymore. LOL

 

[Frank McNerney]

Personally, I'm not a fan of it. That said, we here in the US still pay far less in taxes than most developed countries, so you have to keep that in perspective. Also, keep in mind that we're sitting in a forum for what would be considered a luxury brand. There are plenty of folks out there driving cars that are worth less than some of the guitars we own. At the of the day, no matter what your personal political stance is, paying taxes is part of being a member of a society and they're never going away.

If you really want to get pissed about taxes, you should question why the richest man in the world and a US citizen can get away with paying only 3% income tax (and bellyache on Twitter about it) when the average middle class family in the US paid 24.57% in 2021. We're paying the taxes so the rich don't have to and it's been that way for a long long time. Until the tax system is fixed and they're made to pay their fair share, complaining about paying taxes is simply pissing in the wind.

I'll take my soapbox and go home now.

RIGHT ON !

 

[HANGAR18]

 

[Tony M.]

Hey! Somebody has to pay for those 11 aircraft carriers.
It costs like $6,457,831.26 a day to operate each one.

I was wrong. I just looked it up.

"It costs approximately 1.5 million dollars to run a Nimitz class carrier for one day.
It also costs around 90,000 USD in maintenance costs, and the like, to launch only one aircraft off of the carrier."

So 1.5 million per day, but once they start launching aircraft the sky's the limit.

(No pun intended)

I guess we should get a tax cut after all.

 

[RickP]

Reading through the posts here, I thought I should add some clarifying statements…

I don’t have a problem paying taxes. I claim everything I should, including many things they would never know about, and that I get no IRS forms on, in my tax record every year. I’m not trying to beat the system. I worked for local government for decades, and I know infrastructure and services cost money. A lot of money. I get that.

It’s the trend. Another recent change and I now am paying sales tax to my state even if I didn’t buy the item from a business in the state, because it’s being sent here. Really? You can’t get around it, and it’s tantamount to getting stopped at the state border and being charged customs. Now, a couple of years later, this. I understand the $20k limits they had going… it’s a very low percentage of people buying and selling personal use gear that approach those numbers (and yes, I realized some here are among those, no offense intended). But $600 and you now have to have business accounting practices in place? It’s a ridiculously low and outdated figure, whether applied to self-employment or gear sales, and another example of how it’s easier to hose everybody than to go after the true businesses failing to claim online sales.

I pay to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and I’ll pay this too when required. I’m just saying I don’t agree with it.

 

[alantig]

It’s the trend. Another recent change and I now am paying sales tax to my state even if I didn’t buy the item from a business in the state, because it’s being sent here. Really? You can’t get around it, and it’s tantamount to getting stopped at the state border and being charged customs.

But - depending on the state - you were supposed to be paying that tax all along. They never enforced it (which, in my mind makes it more of a suggestion than a law), but you were supposed to declare that you bought this guitar somewhere else and here's the tax for it. Pretty much no one does that because of the enforcement thing. And there was no easy way for states to track that stuff. Now there is, so they've gone after it - especially because it's little work for the states.

 

[shinksma]

Oh, didn't know you were talking about Kate. How did she get to be queen of Canada? I thought she was British or something.

The Queen is Monarch over the United Kingdom and all Commonweath members. That includes Canada - she is the official head of state for Canada.

Barbados, for example, recently left the Commonwealth, and is now a Republic with a President. They no longer have a Queen.

Australia occasionally rattles on about leaving the Commonwealth, but nothing so far has generated a true movement.

As for this new threshold for reporting sales as though they were true income - yep, it will be a massive pain for most people, all in the name of catching a smaller proportion (but unfortunately still significant) number of people abusing the system, generating income but not paying the associated income tax.

Curiously, for folks who do lose money on a sale (and can prove it), this now encourages you to claim that as a tax deduction, since it would be considered a loss against your income. If the reporting is good for the goose, it's good for the gander...

 

[RickP]

But - depending on the state - you were supposed to be paying that tax all along. They never enforced it (which, in my mind makes it more of a suggestion than a law), but you were supposed to declare that you bought this guitar somewhere else and here's the tax for it. Pretty much no one does that because of the enforcement thing. And there was no easy way for states to track that stuff. Now there is, so they've gone after it - especially because it's little work for the states.

Doesn't any of this seem a pattern, almost a curve? I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I feel like a frog in water that is now getting hot fast enough for me to feel it, and realizing it was a lot cooler last I looked.

Really, I'm over it. It's just a point of frustration with how this cog in the system works. I love this country, no doubt. The system is flawed, as are all, but I still believe it's the best available. That may not be for much longer, with our political ridiculousness, but it still holds true for me. This tax grab is truly in the "first world problems" tier of concerns, and I'm thankful to be in such a place where things of this nature are actually considered an issue at all, and you're allowed to openly discuss it.

 

[alantig]

Doesn't any of this seem a pattern, almost a curve? I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I feel like a frog in water that is now getting hot fast enough for me to feel it, and realizing it was a lot cooler last I looked.

I think it's more an outgrowth of online commerce. The whole "supposed to pay sales (use) tax on out of state purchases" thing is something I'd heard about decades ago. In PA, it's actually on the tax forms - there's a line for declaring out of state purchases. The reality was always that they never really enforced it other than things like car sales (which have to be registered with the state) or when liquor prices at the state stores went up - they'd actually set up roadblocks like a sobriety check and look for people bringing back out of state booze.

 

[CandidPicker]

...I don’t have a problem paying taxes. I claim everything I should, including many things they would never know about, and that I get no IRS forms on, in my tax record every year. I’m not trying to beat the system. I worked for local government for decades, and I know infrastructure and services cost money. A lot of money. I get that.

It’s the trend. Another recent change and I now am paying sales tax to my state even if I didn’t buy the item from a business in the state, because it’s being sent here. Really? You can’t get around it, and it’s tantamount to getting stopped at the state border and being charged customs. Now, a couple of years later, this. I understand the $20k limits they had going… it’s a very low percentage of people buying and selling personal use gear that approach those numbers (and yes, I realized some here are among those, no offense intended). But $600 and you now have to have business accounting practices in place? It’s a ridiculously low and outdated figure, whether applied to self-employment or gear sales, and another example of how it’s easier to hose everybody than to go after the true businesses failing to claim online sales.

I pay to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and I’ll pay this too when required. I’m just saying I don’t agree with it.

I agree with you, Rick. The $600 figure is low and is an insult to low-to-moderate income wage earners who sell their used goods online. These folks can't afford more taxes, when they have to choose between buying food for dinner and their medications. FTR, I'm not complaining, just stating facts. And I'm not misleading you into thinking paying taxes is wrong.

Think about this: The population of the U.S. is provided with services that your taxes pay for, including first responder police, fire and ambulance services. There are also many other services that are provided as well that offer assistance to low-to-moderate income families. These families are people who NEED these services.

In summary, taxes that everyone is obligated to pay if you are a substantial wage-earner, pays for services we NEED. I think what it comes down to is how world leaders can provide for their respective country's population when they NEED assistance, allocating the necessary funds for the services.

Caesar's things to Caesar? Hand me that coin there and I can describe why we should play taxes...even in ancient times there were many provisions for caring for the needs of the poor. But taxes were only designed to maintain the state and pad the pockets of the wealthy elite back then. Nowadays, taxes are used in part to pay for services the general population NEEDS.

We've learned a little from history, but perhaps that "head tax" we pay today, still does belong to Caesar, and we receive back in the form of a refund what Caesar has borrowed during the past year IF we receive an undeserved kindness from Caesar.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Shell corps, Bob. It's all about the Shell Corps.

 

[Buildermike]

Happen to see this pop up today on the the CNBC website:

A few days ago, I received a text from an acquaintance asking why the IRS was starting to track individual users’ Venmo transactions. As someone fairly tuned into the financial world, I was confused that I had heard nothing about this.


Searches on Google and Twitter quickly yielded a flurry of panicked and angry responses to a change in tax law put into effect by the American Rescue Plan last year that lowers the reporting threshold for business transactions on mobile payments apps. But users were largely mistaken to believe the change applied to them. The IRS is not requiring individuals to report or pay taxes on individual Venmo, Cash App, PayPal or Zelle transactions over $600.

Rather, small business owners, independent contractors and those with a side hustle who use third-party payments apps for commercial payments will have their total transaction value over that threshold reported to the agency by the apps. Previously, it was $20,000 and 200 transactions. This also applies to those who run an eBay shop, for example, or any other online store that accepts payment cards, according to the IRS.

“There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about the tax reporting changes,” says Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation. “It doesn’t change anything about if any transactions are taxed or not.” In other words, the IRS is not starting to tax individual transactions between family and friends.

Splitting dinner with your friend, sending your roommate money for rent or gifting your cousin a round of birthday drinks? Don’t sweat it. “It’s not taxable,” Watson says.

That has been miscommunicated to many people, who seem to believe the IRS will be tracking every user’s account. Ambiguous headlines could be partly to blame. But the agency will receive aggregate transaction amounts from the payments apps about commercial transactions, Watson says, not information on specific payments.


Small business owners, those with a side hustle and others who receive commercial payments for goods or services through the apps will receive a 1099-K form from the payments apps, which will give the IRS more information about the business transactions being made on the platforms that often go unreported, Watson says. The change took effect Jan. 1, 2022, so filers don’t need to worry about it this tax filing season.

If your transaction is flagged by the IRS, Watson says you may receive correspondence from the agency that you can clear up with a receipt, bank statement or explanation. The only time you might really need to worry about being audited, he says, is if you move an “unusual” amount of money on the platform. But that’s always been the case.

“If we’re talking about a significant figure, into the five or six figures, of course you would want documentation,” he says. “But normal folks using it day to day, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. It shouldn’t dissuade you from using [the apps].”

 

[RC Mike]

I think it's more an outgrowth of online commerce. The whole "supposed to pay sales (use) tax on out of state purchases" thing is something I'd heard about decades ago. In PA, it's actually on the tax forms - there's a line for declaring out of state purchases. The reality was always that they never really enforced it other than things like car sales (which have to be registered with the state) or when liquor prices at the state stores went up - they'd actually set up roadblocks like a sobriety check and look for people bringing back out of state booze.

That's about it. Everyone says they want existing laws enforced, until... Hey, what do you mean I was supposed to be doing this all along?

In the end, it is what it is. If a person wants it to be different, we've got a mechanism for that. I haven't written a letter to my representatives in years now, but I'm pretty happy with things. Put another way, what's the difference if I pay taxes on my hobby transactions or if I pay it in my income tax? My tax burden is livable and I'm satisfied with the services I receive, so yeah, I'm happy.

That happiness part is the thing people seem to forget about. We all look for things to get upset about. I'm at my best when I'm not doing that.

 

[CandidPicker]

I think it's more an outgrowth of online commerce. The whole "supposed to pay sales (use) tax on out of state purchases" thing is something I'd heard about decades ago. In PA, it's actually on the tax forms - there's a line for declaring out of state purchases. The reality was always that they never really enforced it other than things like car sales (which have to be registered with the state) or when liquor prices at the state stores went up - they'd actually set up roadblocks like a sobriety check and look for people bringing back out of state booze.

CT has the same thing, but it's called "personal use tax." Several levels of tax percentages based on product or service purchases from out of state when there is no CT-state-based business that would serve to collect the state tax. Many other states collect state tax as well.

What defines the "loss" of capital gains IIRC, is based on the sale price "net loss" once a good or service was in your possession for a time and was resold. It was outlined for a time that used goods resold online did not need collect state tax, but that has changed in the past 7 or 8 years.

Only thing I'm personally looking to "lose" this year is some of my excess weight. Get rid of the excess baggage. Trim some of the fat to a respectable and healthy weight.

 

[alantig]

That's about it. Everyone says they want existing laws enforced, until... Hey, what do you mean I was supposed to be doing this all along?

In the end, it is what it is. If a person wants it to be different, we've got a mechanism for that. I haven't written a letter to my representatives in years now, but I'm pretty happy with things. Put another way, what's the difference if I pay taxes on my hobby transactions or if I pay it in my income tax? My tax burden is livable and I'm satisfied with the services I receive, so yeah, I'm happy.

That happiness part is the thing people seem to forget about. We all look for things to get upset about. I'm at my best when I'm not doing that.

F#cking happy people piss me off.

 

[Warmart]

F#cking happy people piss me off.

I, as well, respect a solid a55h0le to a much greater extent. Happy people just don't experience life normally.

 

[Warmart]

Why can't I like my own posts? Damn commies!

 

[alantig]

Why can't I like my own posts? Damn commies!

Because that would make you happy.

 

[Warmart]

Because that would make you happy.