Hiya, I was reading an article, and while it may make some sense, I'm a little skeptical that this could open a future door to taxation on sales of precious metals by us. What do you think? http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/02/08/1535819/bill-aims-to-make-it-harder-for.html
Seems to be just a way to prevent fences from operating so freely. If you were concerned just sell via mail or another method.
This. I don't worry much about Big Brother tracking my sales. I worry a lot more about gang brother burgling houses in my neighborhood, confident that there are dozens of fly-by-night "Ca$h 4 Gold" operators who'll pay cash, ask no questions, and keep no records.
Howdy, The IRS considers any gains from asset sales a taxable event. Heretofore, they're accounting abilities were limited due to technology. These days with computers and digital records of most everything OF COURSE THEY WANT TO TAX THE PROFITS FROM YOUR COIN SALES. The big buyes and sellers have been reporting, but many individual collectors have not. We sort of slide by on the 'garage sale' exemption. The IRS let's you sell stuff in a garage sale manner and not have to report. That said, anything you sell for a profit is subject to tax. Period. This is going along with the 1099 reporting that got slipped into the Health Care pkg. Staring next year, any sale of anything for $600 or more will require a 1099 to be submitted to the IRS with the buyer and seller noted. And in keeping with this same trend, all brokerages are having to collect cost basis data from customers for legacy stocks that were rolled into the new brokerage account. So, the great inventory or our financial assets is underway. enjoy, rono
I read the article - This is not anything being dreamed up in DC - its about state and local law proposed in Federal Way and the State of Washington. The proposed 45 day holding period I believe to be extreme and counter-productive. It puts the buyer (dealer) at great risk to fluctuations in the market forcing them to set buy prices at highly discounted rates and puts them at a competitive disadvantage to dealers in other jurisdictions.
The Senate has already repealed the provision and the president indicated he will sign the repeal into law after the House votes on it.
Technically, the Senate has VOTED to repeal the provision, like they have 5 or 6 other times already. It won't be taken up by the House until next month, and there is no guarantee that the House will vote for the same version of repeal legislation that the Senate did. I won't hold my breath on this one, but who knows? Maybe it will actually be repealed this time.
The garage sale exemption really only applies to sales tax, not income tax. Even in a garage sale if you make a profit on an item it is taxable to the IRS. The "exemption" coin collectors have been operating under is that it simply is too hard to force everyone to declare their profit. For some reason people think if they turn a profit on a coin that they don't need to report that profit to the IRS, like every other profit. Hate to say it, but coin collectors, (and a lot of other collectors and people), simply are tax cheats. Period.
When I was reselling stuff on eBay, I carefully recorded and reported all my profits and costs. When I stopped doing that, but still sold a few "odds and ends I had around the house", I got more casual about it. I seem to remember seeing guidance in several places that you don't need to report stuff you've sold after owning it for personal use. I think the real message is "we're such nice guys at the IRS, if you buy something, use it for a while, then sell it at a loss, we won't make you go to all the trouble of reporting a loss." Actually, I guess selling something you've "used" for a while starts to touch on depreciation and so forth, which really is too complicated for many of us to bother with. I was pretty happy to get $1500 a year or two ago for a computer that I'd bought for $3300 in 1985. I'm pretty sure that I couldn't have reported that as an $1800 loss. I wouldn't know where to start figuring out the actual reportable gain/loss for something like that.
Thanks for the clarification on the 'garage sale' issue. As for the 1099 requirement and it's repeal, hell, I'd be happy if they just raised the reporting limit to at leat $5K and better yet $10K just like border movements. At $600 the paperwork will outweight the revenue gains. peace, rono
I seem to remember that the reporting was repealed, but I didn't see the details. Was a higher limit put in it's place? And, if so, is it indexed to inflation?
