New Federal Tax Legislation Modifications Influence Market Sellers

There has been a change to Federal Tax reporting which is set to affect online marketplace sellers everywhere including eBay and Amazon. The change will mainly impact those smaller sellers who previously have managed to fly under the radar of the IRS along as they had fewer than 200 transactions annually and less than $20,000 in sales annually.

The good news is that this change will come into effect for your 2023 tax filing and not your filing for 2022. Below you can see the full announcement from eBay regarding how this change will impact their sellers.

eBay Federal Tax Change Notification

“We wanted to share an update about a change to federal tax reporting legislation that will impact people who sell on any online marketplace, including eBay.

Here’s what’s changed

As of January 2022, the IRS will now require all annual online sales over $600 to be reported using Form 1099-K. This requirement previously only applied to sellers with at least 200 transactions and over $20,000 in sales each year. This change will impact your 2022 sales and your 2023 tax filing; it will not apply to your 2021 sales and 2022 1099-K tax forms.

Here’s how this change will impact your 2022 taxes

Many sales on eBay aren’t taxable, so if your sales are over the $600 threshold it doesn’t necessarily mean you will be taxed on those sales. Only goods that are sold for a profit are considered taxable, so you won’t owe any taxes on something you sell for less than what you paid for it. For example, if you bought a bike for $1,000 a few years ago, and then sold it on eBay today for $700, that $700 you made generally would not be subject to income tax.

But you will now need to report these sales as part of your federal tax return and we’ll continue to share updates that will help you prepare for these changes.

Here’s what we’re doing

This change will impact millions of casual and small business sellers on eBay. It has raised concerns in our selling community and we’re working to bring these concerns to Congress. We believe this new legislation will cause confusion, over-reporting of non-taxable income, and privacy concerns for millions of Americans who are just trying to get by. We are continuing to highlight the undue impact this increase will have on small sellers on eBay and are urging an increase to the reporting threshold.

Here are some of the issues we’re working to address in our conversations with Congress:

Overly complicated federal tax forms for smaller transactions.
Targets casual sellers who are not set up to handle this kind of tax reporting.
Doesn’t take into account the selling of used goods, which are rarely taxable income as they are sold at a price below the original purchase price.

Here’s what you can do

We invite you to join the conversation on eBay Main Street, where you can contact Congress on behalf of our community of sellers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs.

We will continue to keep you updated as this legislation evolves. Going into 2022, we’ll also share more detailed information that will help you understand what’s changed so you know what to expect in the upcoming tax year. We’ll keep you posted on how we will support you, and what steps you need to take. In the meantime, we want to remind you that this change will impact your 2022 sales and your 2023 tax filing; it will not apply to your 2021 sales and 2022 1099-K tax forms.

Thanks for being part of the eBay community.”