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

[Fern]

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.

100% correct.

The government (IRS) can already get this info. But now instead of going to each taxpayer, they'll it get in a more efficient manner. Should be mightily helpful to the IRS in knowing who to target for audits.

The only thing new here is that there putting a reporting requirement burden of Ebay etc., and closes a loophole in reporting requirments. Currently individual purchasers are required to report. Now these big companies will handle it for them.

Fern

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: SlickSnake

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.

You need a whole new sarcasm meter.

 

[SlickSnake]

Originally posted by: bamacre

Originally posted by: SlickSnake

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.

You need a whole new sarcasm meter.

Yea, my old meter I bought used on Feebay broke. Guess it's time to resell it as new to some lucky buyer!

 

[ScottMac]

Illinois has been chasing Internet-related tax losses for a couple years now.

I guy I worked with got a tax bill of $600.00 for cigarettes that he'd bought over over the course of several years via the Internet.

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: Pabster

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.

qft.
And when online retailers have to charge the same sales tax as brick and mortar stores, than local businesses like mine will not be DISCRIMINATED AGAINST.

 

[SlickSnake]

Bump for the repost impaired.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: techs

Originally posted by: Pabster

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.

qft.
And when online retailers have to charge the same sales tax as brick and mortar stores, than local businesses like mine will not be DISCRIMINATED AGAINST.

I hope you enjoy the extra costs involved in reporting all your sales to the IRS.

 

[dmcowen674]

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...

Don't forget the kids lemonade stand on the corner

 

[AlienCraft]

Big Government = Big Business

 

[Bowfinger]

Originally posted by: bamacre

Originally posted by: techs
qft.
And when online retailers have to charge the same sales tax as brick and mortar stores, than local businesses like mine will not be DISCRIMINATED AGAINST.

I hope you enjoy the extra costs involved in reporting all your sales to the IRS.

Umm, you are already required to do this today for income taxes. Again based on the summary from the OP, this bill doesn't change the reporting requirement for sellers (though some may be illegally underreporting sales today to evade taxes). It requires the companies that service credit card transactions do additional reporting, companies like MasterCard, Visa, and the "third party settlement organizations" that enable smaller merchants to accept credit card payments.

 

[StageLeft]

I am not sure I will be buying anything from Amazon if this is forced on only a few vendors and they're one of them, honestly I will not, they'll lose a competitive edge.

Is this legal?

Does that matter anymore?

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".

Exactly, this is precisely what it is.

it does NOT track individual purchases

Cool, so until it does start tracking that, as it surely will in time, we can keep using the sites.

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.

The reality is that people put up with this law because they don't follow it. I imagine we could use your line of thinking to defend cameras along all roads that always monitor our speed and automatically send out speeding tickets if you do 51 in a 50. It's the law, right? People are ok with the law as is because its normal enforcement actually allows a painless stretching of the law (we do 55 without worry). If all laws on the books were 100% enforced, we'd be exceptionally oppressed and pressured from all sides.

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

Close, in NY State you need a license to have a garage sale, so you apply for and pay for a permit before having one, no fvcking kidding.