Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to Government.

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
5,237
2
0
Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government

BTW, how many times do they think they can keep taxing the same dollar you already earned and payed tax on and still expect that same dollar to be worth anything when you try to spend it again? Ultimately, this is what this tax part boils down to. The congress is ONCE AGAIN not serving the best interests of the voters who put them in office on this bill, as usual.

They are not so much interested in the fact you are most likely only reselling personal items you already paid tax on your income to buy initially (like reselling used and unwanted items on Ebay) or you already had to pay tax on at the state or local level to purchase. And most likely a large Ebay powerseller is ALREADY incorporated and paying business and personal taxes! This is merely used as a false justification to try to get this added at the last minute and this sweeping credit card tax bill passed in an unrelated housing bill. How typical of congress lately. But this is the ridiculous crap these congressional tax peddling shysters want you to think is the "real reason" for this hidden rotten pork in this unrelated bill they want to sneak by us.

The credit card reporting part they attempted to hide in this recent rotting pork bill about housing legislation is really about one thing.

What they really want is to track EVERY CREDIT CARD TRANSACTION into a CENTRAL GOVERNMENT DATA BASE without any VALID OR CREDIBLE JUSTIFICATION for doing it. They want to know exactly WHAT EVERYONE is buying and selling so they can feed that purchase data into a massive data base and forward it to other government agencies. Then they can play go fish for a possible "terryist" or use it against you later without any reasonable probable cause or justification what so ever for doing so. Do not be hoodwinked at yet another attempt to wrestle your rights to privacy away under the false notion of national security because the fed needs yet another way to tax you 1 million ways before you finally go broke from over taxation one day.

One way around this new congressional boondoggle will be a financially drained tax weary public that finally stops using U.S. companies for credit card transactions at all and instead starts using secure European companies who refuse to provide this unnecessary over accounting of all credit transactions to the privacy hating and tax hungry government. And also what's to stop the greedy fed from selling this private purchase data to private companies to devise buying habits and trends for private coporations? Not one thing, that's what. Talk about a data gold mine for big business and big government.
 

fleshconsumed

Diamond Member
Feb 21, 2002
6,485
2,363
136
Originally posted by: SlickSnake
What they really want is to track EVERY CREDIT CARD TRANSACTION into a CENTRAL GOVERNMENT DATA BASE without any VALID OR CREDIBLE JUSTIFICATION for doing it. They want to know exactly WHAT EVERYONE is buying and selling so they can feed that purchase data into a massive data base and play go fish for a possible terryist without any reasonable probable cause or justification what so ever for doing so. Do not be hoodwinked at yet another attempt to wrestle your rights to privacy away under the false notion of national security because the gobblement needs yet another way to tax you 1 million ways before you finally go broke from over taxation one day.

I don't think anybody with more than an ounce of brain sees it as anything other than groundwork for taxing out of state purchases over the internet. Once they can get the data in they can easily match the taxes paid to IRS in April to the amount of your CC transactions and if there is discrepancy fine you for "tax evasion". This is what they mean by the "big government", a government that is big to control every aspect of your life.
 

Engineer

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
39,234
701
126
Originally posted by: bamacre
Is this legal?

Ah, just chalk it up to the give up a little monitoring for our safety....what can it hurt if you're not doing anything, right?

bah.....
 

Pabster

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
16,987
1
0
If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear.

eBay 'Powersellers' amongst others have been playing the system for some time. It's only fair to pay taxes and I applaud this move.

</sarcasm>
 

Bowfinger

Lifer
Nov 17, 2002
15,776
392
126
Based on the Senate summary in the OP's link, it sounds to me like this doesn't affect buyers at all. It appears to be targeted at sellers, ensuring their credit card income is reported. Contrary to some of the breathless hyperbole, it does NOT track individual purchases ("required to report the annual gross amount"), nor does it apparently affect individuals and small businesses who make incidental credit card sales ("A de minimis exception for transactions of $10,000 or less and 200 transactions or less applies to payments by third party settlement organizations"). Instead, this appears to be specifically targeted at businesses and "power-seller" individuals who receive substantial credit card sales income, to prevent them from hiding this income from the IRS.

While I agree this represent further government intrusion, it doesn't seem nearly so egregious as some suggest. It's on par with reporting employee income and 10-99 contractor payments.
 

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
5,237
2
0
Originally posted by: fleshconsumed
Originally posted by: SlickSnake
What they really want is to track EVERY CREDIT CARD TRANSACTION into a CENTRAL GOVERNMENT DATA BASE without any VALID OR CREDIBLE JUSTIFICATION for doing it. They want to know exactly WHAT EVERYONE is buying and selling so they can feed that purchase data into a massive data base and play go fish for a possible terryist without any reasonable probable cause or justification what so ever for doing so. Do not be hoodwinked at yet another attempt to wrestle your rights to privacy away under the false notion of national security because the gobblement needs yet another way to tax you 1 million ways before you finally go broke from over taxation one day.

I don't think anybody with more than an ounce of brain sees it as anything other than groundwork for taxing out of state purchases over the internet. Once they can get the data in they can easily match the taxes paid to IRS in April to the amount of your CC transactions and if there is discrepancy fine you for "tax evasion". This is what they mean by the "big government", a government that is big to control every aspect of your life.

Anyone with more than an ounce of brains would see this for what it really is. Of course a die hard Republikrat who thinks Nero can do no wrong while he fiddles deafly and blindly away while congress sleeps and Rome burns would naturally disagree.

This is just another razor sharp rung on the Patriot Acts circus ladder leading to a complete loss of personal and financial privacy without a just and probable due cause.
 

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
5,237
2
0
Originally posted by: Bowfinger
Based on the Senate summary in the OP's link, it sounds to me like this doesn't affect buyers at all. It appears to be targeted at sellers, ensuring their Internet income is reported. Contrary to some of the breathless hyperbole, it does NOT track individual purchases ("required to report the annual gross amount"), nor does it apparently affect individuals and small businesses who make incidental credit card sales ("A de minimis exception for transactions of $10,000 or less and 200 transactions or less applies to payments by third party settlement organizations"). Instead, this appears to be specifically targeted at businesses and "power-seller" individuals who receive substantial credit card sales income, to prevent them from hiding this income from the IRS.

While I agree this represent further government intrusion, it doesn't seem nearly so egregious as some suggest. It's on par with reporting employee income and 10-99 contractor payments.

The fact of the matter is: It is already a law that this income be reported and anyone making a large income and not reporting is going to be flagged by the tax laws already in place. You can not track JUST the sellers and hope to expect the buyers personal information will remain private. Otherwise you are not going to be able to properly pursue any of the transactions in the first place. Since the actual pork and beans is 630 plus pages long, I have not read it. But my claims were made based on the link listed. If it is factually wrong, then that's it then. But the fact still remains it is just one more unnecessary financial intrusion on privacy for anyone involved in the transactions.
 

Xavier434

Lifer
Oct 14, 2002
10,377
1
0
Originally posted by: fleshconsumed
Originally posted by: SlickSnake
What they really want is to track EVERY CREDIT CARD TRANSACTION into a CENTRAL GOVERNMENT DATA BASE without any VALID OR CREDIBLE JUSTIFICATION for doing it. They want to know exactly WHAT EVERYONE is buying and selling so they can feed that purchase data into a massive data base and play go fish for a possible terryist without any reasonable probable cause or justification what so ever for doing so. Do not be hoodwinked at yet another attempt to wrestle your rights to privacy away under the false notion of national security because the gobblement needs yet another way to tax you 1 million ways before you finally go broke from over taxation one day.

I don't think anybody with more than an ounce of brain sees it as anything other than groundwork for taxing out of state purchases over the internet. Once they can get the data in they can easily match the taxes paid to IRS in April to the amount of your CC transactions and if there is discrepancy fine you for "tax evasion". This is what they mean by the "big government", a government that is big to control every aspect of your life.

Well, it is already a law that one must report such things to the IRS right? Doesn't that mean that they want to do a better job at enforcing that law? What's wrong with that?

Keep in mind that I do not agree with the bill, but if I was 100% guaranteed that the only ways that the data would be used is to enforce laws which already exist then I would support it.
 

DealMonkey

Lifer
Nov 25, 2001
13,136
1
0
While this is the sort of privacy-busting nonsense I generally hate, I'll just claim that each and every ebay sale resulted in a loss. Considering that GeForce 6800 GT video card was nearly $300 when I bought it, and it sold for around $50 when I sold it on ebay, I want my GD tax credits, thank you very much!
 

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
5,237
2
0
Originally posted by: DealMonkey
While this is the sort of privacy-busting nonsense I generally hate, I'll just claim that each and every ebay sale resulted in a loss. Considering that GeForce 6800 GT video card was nearly $300 when I bought it, and it sold for around $50 when I sold it on ebay, I want my GD tax credits, thank you very much!

Yet another good point.
 

Bowfinger

Lifer
Nov 17, 2002
15,776
392
126
Originally posted by: DealMonkey
While this is the sort of privacy-busting nonsense I generally hate, I'll just claim that each and every ebay sale resulted in a loss. Considering that GeForce 6800 GT video card was nearly $300 when I bought it, and it sold for around $50 when I sold it on ebay, I want my GD tax credits, thank you very much!
:)

Good luck with that. I suppose you could actually do it as long as you properly depreciated the card over the time you used it, but that's too much paperwork for me. In any case, unless you're selling 200 of them a year, you're below the $10K reporting floor.
 

Pabster

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
16,987
1
0
Originally posted by: Bowfinger
Based on the Senate summary in the OP's link, it sounds to me like this doesn't affect buyers at all. It appears to be targeted at sellers, ensuring their credit card income is reported. Contrary to some of the breathless hyperbole, it does NOT track individual purchases ("required to report the annual gross amount"), nor does it apparently affect individuals and small businesses who make incidental credit card sales ("A de minimis exception for transactions of $10,000 or less and 200 transactions or less applies to payments by third party settlement organizations"). Instead, this appears to be specifically targeted at businesses and "power-seller" individuals who receive substantial credit card sales income, to prevent them from hiding this income from the IRS.

While I agree this represent further government intrusion, it doesn't seem nearly so egregious as some suggest. It's on par with reporting employee income and 10-99 contractor payments.

My god, I can't believe this. I agree 100% and couldn't have written it better myself.

Seems that this is really being overblown.
 

Jaskalas

Lifer
Jun 23, 2004
33,699
7,733
136
Once again it is hidden in a pork bill. So instead of opposing this abuse of power, if you oppose this bill you?ll be labeled as opposing healthcare, education, or some s***.

At what point do you believe me when I tell you secession from a unrepresentative and distant government is the only solution?
 

Bowfinger

Lifer
Nov 17, 2002
15,776
392
126
Originally posted by: SlickSnake
Originally posted by: Bowfinger
Based on the Senate summary in the OP's link, it sounds to me like this doesn't affect buyers at all. It appears to be targeted at sellers, ensuring their Internet income is reported. Contrary to some of the breathless hyperbole, it does NOT track individual purchases ("required to report the annual gross amount"), nor does it apparently affect individuals and small businesses who make incidental credit card sales ("A de minimis exception for transactions of $10,000 or less and 200 transactions or less applies to payments by third party settlement organizations"). Instead, this appears to be specifically targeted at businesses and "power-seller" individuals who receive substantial credit card sales income, to prevent them from hiding this income from the IRS.

While I agree this represent further government intrusion, it doesn't seem nearly so egregious as some suggest. It's on par with reporting employee income and 10-99 contractor payments.
The fact of the matter is: It is already a law that this income be reported
It's already a law that people need to report their employment, interest, and dividend income too, yet all get directly reported to the IRS. This is the same, no better, no worse.


and anyone making a large income and not reporting is going to be flagged by the tax laws already in place.
Really? How? Unless sales are reported to the government in some way, its entirely on the honor system. Yes, the IRS can find it if it audits, but that's a small percentage of returns.


You can not track JUST the sellers and hope to expect the buyers personal information will remain private. Otherwise you are not going to be able to properly pursue any of the transactions in the first place.
The private credit card companies and settlement companies already have records of each individual transaction. That's how they know who to bill and who to pay each month. They are not providing these details to the IRS. Instead, as I already told you, they are "required to report the annual gross amount." That's it.


Since the actual pork and beans is 630 plus pages long, I have not read it. But my claims were made based on the link listed. If it is factually wrong, then that's it then. But the fact still remains it is just one more unnecessary financial intrusion on privacy for anyone involved in the transactions.
My quotes also came from your link, from the little factual piece at the very bottom, after the long, emotion-laden rant.

 

Dufusyte

Senior member
Jul 7, 2000
659
0
0
The first step is always to gather information. For example in Germany, the first step was merely to have the Jews register themselves as being Jewish. Similarly, the first step in taxing water use from private wells is to collect information from farmers on how much water they pump from their own wells (you may have heard about this). Similarly, gov wants to collect information on internet credit card use.

The second step, once you have collected the information, is you devour the victim. Jews are incinerated, farmers are taxed on water drawn from their own wells, and internet credit card purchases are taxed and and tracked, removing your last illusion of privacy, and your last avenue to buy something (often a used something) without the gov getting a cut.

Next up: gov requires all garage sales to report their transactions...only for information gathering purposes...
 

bamacre

Lifer
Jul 1, 2004
21,030
2
61
Originally posted by: Dufusyte
The first step is always to gather information. For example in Germany, the first step was merely to have the Jews register themselves as being Jewish. Similarly, the first step in taxing water use from private wells is to collect information from farmers on how much water they pump from their own wells (you may have heard about this). Similarly, gov wants to collect information on internet credit card use.

The second step, once you have collected the information, is you devour the victim. Jews are incinerated, farmers are taxed on water drawn from their own wells, and internet credit card purchases are taxed and and tracked, removing your last illusion of privacy, and your last avenue to buy something (often a used something) without the gov getting a cut.

Next up: gov requires all garage sales to report their transactions...only for information gathering purposes...

Yeah but there's really no sense in doing anything about it until it's too late.
 

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
5,237
2
0
Originally posted by: bamacre
Originally posted by: Dufusyte
The first step is always to gather information. For example in Germany, the first step was merely to have the Jews register themselves as being Jewish. Similarly, the first step in taxing water use from private wells is to collect information from farmers on how much water they pump from their own wells (you may have heard about this). Similarly, gov wants to collect information on internet credit card use.

The second step, once you have collected the information, is you devour the victim. Jews are incinerated, farmers are taxed on water drawn from their own wells, and internet credit card purchases are taxed and and tracked, removing your last illusion of privacy, and your last avenue to buy something (often a used something) without the gov getting a cut.

Next up: gov requires all garage sales to report their transactions...only for information gathering purposes...

Yeah but there's really no sense in doing anything about it until it's too late.

And when would that be? Once the peso and every other currency is worth more than the dollar?

They are trying to pin future tax revenue on a vanishing dollar that they are doing nothing about other than printing more shrinking dollars to support thanks to the worthless privately run Federal Reserve. Meanwhile the costs alone to achieve this piece of fatty pork will most likely exceed any possible revenues in the short term, if ever. Making this just another stupid piece of yet another worthless toilet paper bill not even fit to wipe your ass on. Makes perfect sense to me. If you happen to frequent the congressional out houses in D.C. that is.