Selling On Ebay- Help!

I am not sure what you mean. There is a NY state sales tax. I have never worried about it before with ebay but I wonder if its different with currency.

So in general when I sell I dont have to worry about tax or the IRS right?

So its ok to say that I'm not a pro grader but would give it choice AU or XF in my opinion?

Well Basically I'd be selling these items out of my home in NY. Its not a business, just a personal thing. Anything I should worry about? Most sales will be in other states but who knows, we may also get a new york sale.


WHAT DO YOU GUYS DO?

Which is a New York Nexus for tax purposes



Irrelevant to both NYS and USIRS. If you make money you pay taxes... Yup, if you make money selling, even one cent, technically you owe tax on it. The tax return itself may say "if less than $1 do not file" (don't know about NYC/NYS, TX has no such de minimus test).

It's not all bad - as a business you can deduct many things, but equally you need to show a profit 2 out of 5 years or it's a hobby and non-deductible.

Will they come after you? Not likely unless somebody turns you in for the 10% reward. If you are going to do more than a trival # of sales, find a FoaF (Friend of a Friend) who is a tax adviser and pay $100 for his/her advise. You may not follow it, but at least you will do so knowingly (and the $100 is probably deductible).

Years ago NYS residents used to routinely go to NJ to buy pricey items and (wink wink) have them 'mailed' to their NYC addresses. That way they paid neither sales nor use taxes. When several of the sellers opened NY outlets the state taxation department dropped subpoenas on them for ALL of the records. And people who bought $100K necklaces and rings and watches "tax free" received demand letters. That was a lot of work because in those days the receipts were carbonless paper copies. But the program paid for itself both in $ received at the time and in years and years of on-going collections since.

All I'm advocating is that if you are going to break the law, do so with your eyes open, not an expectation of "they can't ever catch me". States are very hard up for money and very interested in collecting owed taxes of all kinds. The costs of a program similar to NYS with today's computerized business records is trivial. It might cost $0.50 to drop a demand letter into the mail and if even 5% paid up taxes and penalties, it would be a major win for them.

Thank you. I don't recall sales going to NY residents for the other things I have sold in the past but it probably has happened. I don't think I'd be selling anywhere close to the kind of volume that stands out. I mean I am talking an item or two every few months if even that.

I started this thread as I was going to list a few coins on ebay which would net under $500 most likely but I ended up selling to a local coin shop today.