Selling coins at auction.

They can be done like Doug says, but there are some special rules. Usually the loses primarily help to offset gains, but it can be a tricky little area.

My best advice is to always ask your tax man BEFORE you do something. Its amazing how people do everything without thought to taxes and then bring your paperwork in expecting your tax professional to help. Many times if you would have slightly changed what you were going to do you could have greatly lowered your taxes, but you never sought this advice BEFORE you did it, so now its too late. I know it sounds self serving as an accoutant, but it literally pays to consult your tax preparer before any kind of actions like this before you do it, since many times he can structure it slightly different and save a ton in taxes.

Chris

 

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Having done it doesn't make it legal, of course. So, what are the rules?

I have never looked into it. But I remember reading that you can't reduce the gain on the sale of one coin by the loss on another.

Is it possible only when they are somehow related, such as being part of the same transaction? Or are there some other requirements?
Lance.

 

cheating on taxes is as American as apple pie, Chevrolet, and Pizza ( pun).

Don't ever report anything you don't have to, buy your silver bullion in small pieces like 90% silver coins instead of 100+ ounce bars, so it can be sold for cash, buy tenth ounce gold coins.

The gov't is your enemy.

 

That can be depending on the state, as far as I know. Some states you can be a business without getting a license if you sell things, but I believe other states require you to get a license first, otherwise they won't class you as a business.

Many times states will class this all as a "hobby" and that kind of negates cancelling your losses tax-wise (IMO) but still allows the state to collect based on capital gains.

I am not a tax expert so I don't know the exact ramifications, so the best thing would be to consult with someone who is knowlegeable professionally in your state.

 

There is no record of your action at a casino ( other than what's on a comp card), unless you hit a jackpot of enough value or cash out enough checks.

You'd have to keep your own detailed log for this purpose as evidence.

 

To the OP, you didn't pay a sales tax since you do not reside in California where the sale took place when you bought the item from your computer residing in Georgia. That's the reason for that.

As for selling items, technically by law, selling something you own (regardless if you paid for it with money you were already taxed on) is considered income to you, so yes, it's taxable but like so many others have said, talk to an accountant that specialized in taxes. The keyword here is called capital gain. Say you bought one of those coins for $20 bucks and turn around and sell it for $100. That's considered capital gain and you report it under such section when you file for taxes.

The other kicker here is, if you bought that coin for $20 and then ended up losing money by only getting $10 in the sale, the IRS is not gonna bother or care if you put that on your tax return or not, since you lost money. It's like garage sales, the IRS doesn't usually care if you have 1 or 2 a year, no need to report the income because they realize most people are selling used items for way less than they originally bought them for. But if you tried to get away with having a 100 garage sales a year and you got audited and the IRS saw you just depositing tons of money that were not on any W2 or 1099 forms from an employer, then it's gonna raise some eyebrows and you'll likely be paying taxes on such income, etc.

 

Doug, I was only asking about the tax law, not what any of us has done and not had questioned.

What are the regs? Businesses write off gains against losses. Can a hobbyist do the same? Hey, someday I might have a gain!

I know this has come up before ATS but the brain-dead forum software at PCGS/CU won't allow searches with the latest web browsers. Grr.
Lance.