So it sounds like starting in 2011, all sales on ebay and payments through paypal will be monitored and I guess subject to taxation. Or am I misreading the last paragraph?

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Washington, DC - Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: "This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay's PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America's small businesses are breathtaking."

[...]

A de minimis exception for transactions of $10,000 or less and 200 transactions or less applies to payments by third party settlement organizations. The proposal applies to returns for calendar years beginning after December 31, 2010. Back-up withholding provisions apply to amounts paid after December 31, 2011. This proposal is estimated to raise $9.802 billion over ten years.

http://www.freedomworks.org/newsroom/pr ... ss_id=2571

wtf? they just gotta get in on the action everywhere!

It's gonna get to the point that when you want to buy some vinyl (or whatever) from someone, its going to have to be a cash transaction, a meeting set up in an unsuspecting place somewhere, all done in code language. This is a bunch of crap!

My wife is an accountant... everytime I make an ebay sale, she always says to me: "you should be taxed on that"... then I buy her dinner.

i thought you could still get audited from transactions on paypal... or they cant?

so hypothetically:... if i took in $20K, I won't get dinged if i were to not report it like a lawbreaking jerk of a citizen? also, is it a different scenario if i move the funds from paypal to my bank account?

it was just a matter of time..it sucks.....on another note I just found out you cant leave negative feedback for buyers..that is lame especially if they leave you negative feedback

the man is behind the times and pissed off........

Bummer <sigh>!

Oh, this is nice. Honestly, I can't believe it took them this long. I just got a notice from the city that my property taxes went up 30% this year, too. Just go ahead and add in what I'm paying in gas every month just to get to work to all my other new expenses, and now these paypal/ebay transaction taxes, and I'll go finance myself a nice cardboard box under the bridge. Maybe I can sell my collection off to pay for a sleeping bag and a can of sterno to cozy the ol' box up.

I'm more concerned about the governments monitoring who is buying what. Funny how the current administration is always saying that the government needs to not control when it comes to big business, yet they feel it is the role of the government to get into the lives of private citizens.

if you're worried about that.. just buy everything on prepaid credit cards

if they are gonna spend so much time and money to track your paypal so hard they should at least give you interest on your balance...

Here's something just as fun for you to consider, perhaps it'll happen down the track with eBay US.

Soon eBay Australia will only permit auction payments to be via their own payment system Paypal. The competition watchdog (ACCC) has denied their initial attempt but they are appealing the ACCC's decision (after a confidentiality leak regarding one of the complaints against eBay's policy change turned out to be Google).

Sigh, paying fees then paying % on received payments? BOO.