The taxman cometh ...

[zarzuella]

http://weberbooks.com/selling/2007/05/irs-wants-amazon-and-ebay-to-report.html

[zarzuella]

And Canada won't be far behind.

[fenian]

If Canada goes the same route, then the federal request to eBay might be for gross sales amounts exceeding $30K, as that's the level requiring GST registration. Unreported income and the tax thereon is the big part, but there is also the uncollected/unremitted GST. Once eBay has to send in Form XYZ, then a simple data match against GST numbers will spit out all the unregistered folks, who will likely get "C'mon down for a chat" letters. As there is considerable info sharing between the Feds and the Provinces, the next obvious step will be a data match against folks registered to collect Provincial Sales Tax. If you're in the business of selling anything other than the old socks you inherited from your grandfather, that could result in "chat" letter # 2. Like most of us, I can name numerous sellers who do (between eBay, flea markets, antique shows etc) $50K - $100K a year in sales, who aren't registered and who declare nothing. One day the paper trail will bite them in the b*m. >>>>> Fenian

[katiusciav]

How would Amazon and eBay do this? They'd require us to provide our Social Security number (or employer tax ID) as a condition of selling on their site.

good. have this done for buyers as well to eliminate multiple id fraud.

[tea_past_times]

Well, this has to do with the AMERICAN government and THEIR lawmakers. Not Every stupid thing the Americans do is automatically followed by Ottawa. For example, the US went to Iraq and we didn't, Americans have a right to carry a gun and we don't, Americans can't go to Cuba and we can, Americans have to pay for their own health care and we don't.
Think of this though, what if the Americans do have to pay taxes on Ebay sales and we still didn't?? What an advantage we would have. Only real legitimate sellers alllowed on Ebay US - how marvellous!! Put 3/4 of those American ID's out of business. I'm all for it.
In the worst case scenario and let's say it happened here, I already have a GST and PST number and have had for years. As to taxable income and the $5000, I have six kids, who would instantly have ebay memberships earning $4999.99 each!!
Very Interesting Topic.

PHIL

[westernstargifts]

Sorry to tell you this Phil, but my husband read an article in the newspaper a couple of months ago that our Federal government was looking at putting together a team to see how they could monitor our sales on eBay. When an opportunity comes to collect more taxes from us Canada will be right there.
But if they are slower to implement it we might have the advantage for awhile. That would be nice!

[whoscloset]

Doesn't matter much to me. I've been keeping accurate records and claiming everything for years. It's not worth the risk of not doing so.

[bestshowtime]

Well, this has to do with the AMERICAN government and THEIR lawmakers. Not Every stupid thing the Americans do is automatically followed by Ottawa. For example, the US went to Iraq and we didn't, Americans have a right to carry a gun and we don't, Americans can't go to Cuba and we can, Americans have to pay for their own health care and we don't.
Did we go in Afganistan?
Did Alberta wants to have privet Health care?
And Did one Canadian die in Iraq?

[toolrackca]

Revenue Canada has developed software to monitor e-commerce sites such as ebay to check for compliance. They are in the process of testing and fine tuning it now.
As I understand it, the main trigger will be activity. Which will trigger more in depth investigation. Such as values, stores ect.. From Paypal (which is not a financial institution) or ebay they can get any records such as banking they want. Revenue Canada can then access your banking records without you ever knowing.
They then simply match it up to your tax file and decide if a audit is warranted.
Like any government undertaking it will probably take years for them to properly implement it.
A heads up is in order.

[tea_past_times]

Proof??

[tea_past_times]

Sounds like nonsense to me. Unless you have something to point to. What's your source of information??

[duujogl]

You want proof before you take proper precautions??!!!! You'd be much better off to just keep a set of books, up-to-date and with receipts for backup, and all taxes paid up-to-date, to be on the safe side. Power-sellers on eBay are NOT too small to attract the attention of Revenue Canada and an audit, ANY audit whether it's Revenue Canada or PST, is a pain in the "you know where"!

[whoscloset]

Lots of PSer's have posted on this forum about being been audited in the past. Revenue Canada loves to audit on-line sellers. I'm actually surprised that I've made it 3 years without an audit. I make sure to track and claim EVERYTHING.

[toolrackca]

Revenue Canada. I was recently audited. Not for ebay activity. But it came up in the audit and the rev can auditer made me aware of it.

[tea_past_times]

So you have no proof??

[tea_past_times]

Anybody ever hear war of the worlds on the radio??

[tea_past_times]

Caused a lot of panic too!!

[tea_past_times]

Thanks anyway benchmark, I'll take that under advisement.

[cello10]

Hey Folks!

Don't want to scare anyone here, but ebay is our full-time business and we were recently audited for our gst/pst. The agent told me that they are checking out ebay sellers quite a bit now. The guy I dealt with was very "ebay" knowledgable and knew the insides and outs of ebay and paypal (he was 24!). Of course we showed up quite clearly because we are registered with gst/pst. If you aren't registered you won't show up of course until if and when ebay is required to submit info. It's going to happen sooner or later so you're crazy if you don't take the steps to get organized. You could be liable for undeclared income AND uncollected gst/pst. And remember if you end up getting audited for one or the other..they'll probably end up checking both if something is not kosher. What a nightmare that could be.

Personally I don't see why you wouldn't register and report everything. I'm sure most of you are like us in that most of your sales are outside of Canada and outside your own province. Our gst/pst deductions far outweigh the tax we collect and therefore every three months when we report our gst/pst we get a nice refund. Those refunds, plus the business deductions you get from being a registered business should offset quite a bit of the income taxes you'd pay on your declared ebay income. So it's really not worth the risk.

Being organized in that way is definately worth the effort. Our audit was a short one because our records are excellent and here's another tip...we always send a little bit more that we actually owe..just to be safe..so when our audit was complete, the government owed us money!! And at the same time I am sure because of this we won't see another audit for quite some time.

[tea_past_times]

God bless those who pay taxes. Long may they live. More for the Liberals to steal. Maybe you could head for Quebec and golf on a private course there paid for entirely by your tax dollars. And hey, if your relatives own an ad agency in Quebec.... all the better. You must be real pleased with rising gas prices and the added taxes that creates. Nothing but nothing better to do with money, than give a full pension to someone with only 4 years of service in Parliament. Hey if we all pay more taxes, maybe we could get ourselves in the middle of another senseless war, that wasn't our fight to begin with. Taxes and government. RA RA RA !!