posted on March 30, 2001 07:13:31 AM
I am new to ebay and its time for me to do my taxes. How do you do your taxes from ebay auctions? I sell stuff for profit yet I also sell stuff I don't need anymore. How does someone report ebay income?
posted on March 30, 2001 07:21:18 AM
Understand that you should ignore any advice on taxes you get here since we're all just random people typing in our opinions...but given that, the concensus is that "selling off stuff no longer needed" is typically ignored for tax purposes, but selling items for resale would be a business that you would report using Schedule C (plus other supporting schedules as needed, like 8829 home office, etc).
Figure out all your expenses (including PC depreciation, travel costs, internet fees, etc) and use them to offset your income from selling.
posted on March 30, 2001 07:51:53 AM
I used Kiplinger's Tax Cut software, and it really made it simple. This was my first year selling on Ebay, and the software literally walks you through it, holding your hand all the way. They reminded me of some expenses I hadn't considered (like depreciation of my PC, mileage driving to the post office, etc.)
posted on March 30, 2001 08:00:19 AMworldwide1 just to give you some ideas, you might want to check out these two articles. You should definitely check with an accountant or tax preparer, though.
posted on March 30, 2001 08:49:34 AM
I use Microsoft Money for my personal finance. You pretty much need to have an understanding of the basics of what income is taxable from your auction and what expenses you can deduct, but other than that, the program is very handy for categorizing your auction income and expenses. Then you can create a report that just includes those auction categories and use that at tax time.
