Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Another excellent and informative video, Steve, thanks! I remember one of my younger sisters getting an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas in the mid-60’s. I was the dutiful older brother and bravely ate the resulting product. Even for a growing tween who’d eat just about anything and like it, I found it inedible. To my credit I kept my opinion to myself.
I am using Easy Auctions Tracker for the first time for 2016 and I like it. I don’t use all the features but I think it will still simplify tax prep. Keeping eBay as a hobby works for me now as well for the reasons you note plus I cannot operate a business or have a business license at my present residence anyway. I haven’t run the numbers exactly but I feel that financially it’s pretty much a wash for me at under $10K a year gross, the additional costs and trouble of a business against the 2% floor disadvantage of a hobby.
Christine – good for you on working the death piles! I’ve got some… still untouched though I hate the thought of having to box them up for the upcoming move.
My intent is not to discourage you from ramping it up as a business but I believe that IRS guideline you refer to is used only in the context of a taxpayer desiring to report an activity as a business. If an activity shows a profit for three years then the IRS will presume it is not a hobby and not challenge a taxpayer’s reporting it as a business. The guideline is only for defensive use by the taxpayer, so to speak. The IRS won’t challenge reporting as a hobby but it will challenge reporting as a business if it thinks it’s a hobby. That’s because a business can deduct a net loss against other income and even carry forward but with a hobby any loss over hobby income is lost forever and most hobby expenses are also subject to the 2%-of-AGI floor. The IRS gets more money when it’s reported as a hobby (like I do, BTW) and happy to have it.
Hi Christine – I started out as a Coast Guard JAG being reassigned to something completely new every couple years and continued the habit of retooling periodically in civilian practice afterwards so I did a lot of different things. Most recently before I retired I was mainly in business practice including trademarks with some estate planning and probate thrown in.
I have wrestled with this before myself. I’m a small volume seller so am also sensitive to even one ding on handling time. I typically change my handling time at least a day ahead of my trip to give myself a cushion and I also start taking additional care about accepting offers as it gets close. How far ahead I change handling time depends on the nature and length of the trip and with offers, I’ll again look at the trip and also the type of item to consider the chances of a slow pay, whether it’s easy to take with me and I’ll have shipping label access, etc. I agree with Ryanne that for your metrics you are stuck with the handling time in effect at the time of sale.
Wow! That was fast – congratulations! I was trying to figure out how to do something this morning and did a key word google search limited to scavengerlife.com for some information on a topic from a previous discussion. The keywords brought up the link on Google but when I went there, the discussion was gone. Am I missing some link to get to the discussions or are they gone forever?
