They did it with SALT, so it isn’t unprecedented.
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When it comes time to audit, unless you just keep it as cash and never deposit it into a bank account, they’ll ask about every single deposit and where it came from.
My advice is honestly, if you want to skip out on paying taxes, don’t talk about skipping out on paying on a public forum. Yes, if the IRS audited you and saw you making statements on a forum on how you skipped out, you can’t plead ignorance of the laws.
IRS doesn’t catch everything unless you get audited. It’s a risk I would never take myself because even if you were ignorant of the tax laws, I knew someone who got audited and I think by the end of it all, he went from brown hair to salty brown with half his head gray from all the stress it caused.
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Oh I 100% agree with that. Once that form is issued, that’s it. Game over.
I was just a bit surprised that didn’t trigger something as it wasn’t $4. It was $40K.
This. Always pay yo taxes and don’t exclaim how you won’t.
I read through a substantial portion of this thread, and not sure anyone explicitly stated their skipping out on taxes. Personally for me, I have simply removed all my listings from all online platforms. No sales = No income from comic sales; and that will continue. So no issues.
My statements and claims have been about the utter unfairness. I’ve been quite clear with how Uncle Sam sees 100 boxes of comics as “$0 inventory” without receipts dating back to the 80s and 90s. That is just outright ridiculous and dumb. If it is unfair and unreasonable, I will not involve myself in something that is unfair and unreasonable if avoidable. When I mentions this I receive “go see a tax consultant”. Well I did… and got the same story - $0 inventory without receipts. Thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars spent over the years and it’s $0? C’mon.
So it would be really really helpful to see if there is any other advice that others have received for those old-timers that have inventory throughout many years and how they are handling this nonsense. I recognize it doesn’t impact those newbies who have started flipping in the last approx 10 years since records are far easier kept. But then there is still the avenues of purchases where no receipts are exchanged and in my opinion that is a significant personal monetary issue if one can’t claim those purchases. Conventions, garage sales, flea markets and other avenues don’t typically give receipts.
All this said, I’m simply looking for how other old time comic collectors are handling their $0 inventory and absence of receipts should they decide to begin selling. (without the response of go see a tax consultant… I did that)
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I have always operated this way @Bill, do not get me wrong, it sucks, but I operate as a cash in cash out business, in other words, only purchases made in a calendar year can count towards your expenses for income made in that same calendar year. Meaning, If I purchase comics this year, I can write off that expenses this year, but if I sell them two years down the road, I cannot write off those costs as they have already been used. I am always buying new stuff to sell so it does work itself out.
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Yeaa… unfortunately I purchase very few new comics per year. Incredibly few. Yea… ive begun crash course record keeping in 2020, but that doesn’t help from 1977 - 2019. Thus the steam from my head. I hold myself accountable for the latter 2000’s. Thats on me… But the 70s, 80s, 90s, early 2000s? It’s just bulls%t and fumes from my head.
Honestly I truly do feel bad for the millions of Americans unaware of this new b.s. of $600. Granny selling her China from the 40s for $1k is going to be hit in 2023 unknowingly and my heart goes out to the uninformed. All on here are set because we’re savvy. A substantial portion of America is not and I do feel bad for those folks that will be impacted
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I totally get why you are upset. I do and have reported all sales in my taxes for years because I have hit the reporting threshold for many years. I do buy a ton of comics to sell and flip though.
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Is it risky to just file yourself using schedule c? I’ve heard that if it’s not professionally prepared, it will throw up red flags.
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For the last 35 years, I’d have answered this calmly and logically.
But I’m really not the one to comment/respond based on the last year/this year.
The answer will not be a nice one.
I’m not really sure what you mean but that’s cool if you don’t want to talk about it. I just don’t see the point of paying an accountant to fill in a few boxes when I can easily do it myself.
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I apologize… I’m just aggravated & furious over the whole thing.
Nothing was meant toward your question; just malice at this new policy/law.
The whole thing is one big scheme… and an increasing scheme.
Tax experts are “creative”; but we the people are “not payers”.
Just not having their b.s.
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I got over it a while ago. Politicians see how much money they are missing out on and can’t help themselves. It’s really only fair that online sellers pay taxes like everyone else.
I agree. It should also be made fair. And $0 inventory is not fair
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You can’t claim purchases made during the tax year as inventory?
I believe you can.
My inventory in my particular case dates back to the 70s and 80s.
I guess I could always claim cover price of $0.25 even though I often paid more than that.
But no receipt even in the 80s = $0 in the eyes of the $%&#'s at the top
That would be a lot of taxes they would miss out on. Physical stores probably can’t do that either, so it’s a level playing field.
Yea… I don’t know the particulars with stores.
They probably just do cash in; cash out with inventory. I dunno.
But for me I simply collected for so so many years. Never considering selling unlike a store.
And yet, here I am with 100 long boxes worth “0”. 
The thing with cash stores is they don’t have to even report the cash they get. They can make it look like the business makes no profit and only pay taxes on the salary they take. So the owners can just pay cash for stuff they want and the irs won’t know about it. Doing all electronic transactions will be hit really hard if you don’t have a lot of deductions.
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