An online marketplace is a selling platform that allows sellers to post descriptions of the items they are selling on the Internet and buyers to purchase those items with credit cards or other forms of electronic payment and have them shipped to a physical location. In just 15 years, online marketplaces have transformed the way business is done. Online shoppers easily can locate exactly what they want, compare prices, find retailers stocking the items, and have purchases conveniently delivered to their doors. Collectors and hobbyists no longer have to drive all over the country to browse through antique shops and garage sales. They can buy what they are looking for online from sellers anywhere in the world. Individuals with unique items to sell can join forces on online marketplaces with hundreds of other retailers to attract the attention of potential customers and receive credit card payments through third-party services such as PayPal.
Traffic on online marketplaces will continue to grow as people do more of their shopping online. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 4.4 percent of all U.S. retail sales in the last quarter of 2010 were online sales. Forrester Research predicts that this figure will grow to 8 percent by 2014.
The two largest online marketplaces, eBay and Amazon, started operating in 1994. Amazon began as an online bookseller but soon expanded its sales to many types of merchandise. In 1996, Amazon launched its Associates Program, which pays commissions to individuals who refer customers from their websites. In 1999, it set up an Amazon auction site and Amazon zShops to allow individual sellers to sell their products at fixed prices online alongside Amazon listings. One year later, zShops became Amazon Marketplace, the online selling program still in place today. At the 2010 Amazon Annual Shareholders Meeting, Jeff Bezos remarked that third-party sellers represent 30 percent of Amazon’s marketplace revenue and that Amazon has 2 million active sellers.
EBay made its name as an online auction in which buyers from all over the world eagerly competed to place the winning bid in the last seconds before an auction closed, and sellers could advertise all sorts of interesting and unusual items. It is gradually shifting from an auction to fixed-price sales, as more large and mid-size retailers sell their merchandise on eBay. In April 2011, eBay remained the largest online marketplace; it reported 95.9 million active users. During the last four months of 2010, which included the Christmas holiday season, eBay realized $1.52 billion in revenue from $15 billion in sales of merchandise through its online marketplace platforms, which include www.eBay.com, www.Half.com®, www.Shopping.com, and www.Rent.com®.
Today, individuals sell items on hundreds of online marketplaces, many of them specializing in a particular type of merchandise, such as hand-crafted goods, fine art, electronics, or used clothing. Items listed on Amazon and eBay are exposed to millions of potential customers, alongside offerings from wholesalers and major retailers. Smaller online marketplaces offer limited exposure but often for lower fees and to a more targeted audience. In addition, some major retailers, such as Sears®, Buy.com, and Walmart®, have opened marketplaces that allow individual sellers access to their online customers. Sellers also can reach customers all over the country by listing their items on classified ad sites such as Craigslist. Although many customers find the auction format exciting, the trend is toward marketplaces that allow items to be purchased immediately at fixed prices.
Taxes and the Online Marketplace — What This Means for You
Many people jump into online sales without giving much thought to keeping records or paying taxes. The publicity surrounding the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act, which prohibits taxation of Internet access, and the discussion of whether and when sales tax can be collected on Internet sales, has given many people the mistaken impression that profits from online sales are not subject to taxation. In fact, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers cash generated from online sales taxable income. Many online sellers never have considered reporting proceeds from Internet sales on their tax returns, either because they are unaware of federal tax laws or because they think they are better off hiding this income from the IRS.
Recent changes to the tax law might have serious implications for individuals who do not report income from online sales on their tax returns. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, scheduled to take effect in 2011, will make it easier for the IRS to identify online sellers and make sure they are correctly reporting their taxable income. One of its provisions requires processors of third-party payments and settlements, such as PayPal, Visa®, and MasterCard, to report to the IRS businesses and individuals who receive at least $20,000 a year in charges from 200 or more transactions.
PayPal will begin reporting information about high-volume, high-revenue-generating online sellers to the IRS. The IRS will then be able to check that information against the sellers’ federal income tax returns to make sure the sellers reported the money generated from online sales correctly and paid taxes on that income. If a seller’s tax information does not match the records, the IRS may select that individual for an audit. During the audit, the IRS will demand records and documentation related to the online sales, and the seller’s entire tax year will be under scrutiny. Taxpayers who are unable to produce documents to support the claims on their federal tax returns might see their total tax liability increase. In cases where an individual is unable to produce receipts or other evidence that he or she was entitled to take certain tax deductions, taxable income may increase. A person unable to defend the claims on his or her tax return might also be liable for penalties and fines that will further increase his or her tax burden.
Though the new legislation will directly affect only those sellers who generate at least $20,000 from at least 200 transactions a year, it serves as a warning to everyone that the IRS expects online sellers to comply with federal tax laws. The IRS wants to ensure taxpayers report all income from every source. Even sellers who do not meet the $20,000 benchmark for reporting their transactions legally are required to comply with federal tax reporting requirements. If a seller’s income meets the benchmark for reporting at any time in the future, the IRS may check whether that individual accurately reported all of his or her income in previous tax years. Failing to report income amounts to tax evasion, and tax evasion can incur severe penalties and fines.
You might balk at the contention that you should voluntarily provide the IRS with information that might result in your paying more taxes than if you had simply tried to hide your online sales. It is true that complying with the regulations explained in this book might result in your paying more taxes, but if you believe you can get away with not reporting the income from your online sales to the government, you might be in for a rude awakening. The IRS has every incentive to monitor online sellers and make sure they are correctly reporting their income. The IRS’s job is to generate revenue for the federal government by collecting all taxes due. With Internet commerce rapidly expanding, the IRS will take a strong stance on reporting all online income. The existence of an electronic record of every online transaction dramatically decreases the chances you will get away with failing to report the income from your online sales. If you are thinking of ignoring tax laws, consider that when you are caught, the price you pay will be much higher than the amount of your past-due taxes. The IRS imposes high penalties and fees, and individuals who intentionally fail to report taxable income and pay the required taxes can face criminal charges.
How penalties and fees can add to your tax burden
The Internal Revenue Code (IRC) contains several penalty provisions. The amount of a penalty can range from 0.5 percent of the tax owed on an individual’s tax return to 75 percent of the amount that an individual failed to report on his or her tax return. The following example is an illustration of how you can be penalized for intentionally failing to report income on your tax return:
Mary Ellen works as a mechanic and runs a profitable business selling antique dolls on eBay. In 2009, she made $12,000 net profit from the sale of antique dolls through her eBay business and took home $35,000 from her work as a mechanic. On her 2009 federal tax return, Mary Ellen reported the $35,000 of income from her work as a mechanic but did not report the $12,000 from her eBay sales. She knew that she should have reported the $12,000 but left it off the return because she figured the chances of the IRS finding out about that amount were slim, and she did not want to pay taxes on the amount. Unfortunately, the IRS audited Mary Ellen’s 2009 tax year and discovered that she attempted to conceal the $12,000 in profit from her eBay sales.
Because Mary Ellen intentionally left the $12,000 off her federal tax return in an attempt to pay less tax, the IRS levied a fraud penalty against her. A fraud penalty is imposed by the IRS against a taxpayer who commits fraud by intentionally underpaying his or her taxes. When a taxpayer purposefully decides to leave income off a tax return, he or she pays less tax than if he or she had included the income. The fraud penalty is 75 percent of the amount of the fraudulent underpayment.
Assume that Mary Ellen is in the 20-percent tax bracket. This will be explained further in Chapter 4. By intentionally failing to report the $12,000 of income, Mary Ellen underreported her taxes by $2,400 ($12,000 of income x 0.20 rate of tax = $2,400 tax liability). This is the amount of the fraudulent underpayment. The fraud penalty will be 75 percent of the fraudulent underpayment, which in this case would be $1,800 ($2,400 x 0.75 = $1,800). Mary Ellen will be responsible for the fraud penalty ($1,800) in addition to the $2,400 of tax she must pay on the $12,000 of income. This results in a total bill of $4,200. Compare this to the tax bill of $2,400 if Mary Ellen had included the income on her return.
The IRS requires you to pay income tax on your profit from online sales, but it also allows many tax deductions for owners of small businesses and for people who work out of a home office. By organizing your online sales operations as a business and by keeping proper records, you can take advantage of these deductions to reduce your taxable income. Take some time to learn about operating a business, and plan carefully right from the start, so you can receive the maximum benefit while complying with federal tax laws. A good system of keeping records and accounts not only helps you avoid an audit by the IRS; it is essential for running a profitable business. When you regularly track your sales and expenses, you will discover ways to shave costs, cut your losses, increase sales, and expand your business with new marketplaces and successful new products.
Failure to report taxable income on your federal tax return is not the only way you can run afoul of the law with an Internet business. In many areas, you must pay state and local income taxes in addition to the federal tax. If you are selling to retail customers, you are also expected to collect and pay sales tax. Cities and counties have laws and ordinances requiring local business owners to register their businesses and follow zoning restrictions. Internet marketplaces have their own sets of rules regarding what can be sold and how transactions are carried out. Not complying with these requirements could result in fees and penalties, and you could even be forced to shut down your business.
When you sell something that you bought and no longer need, you do not need to pay tax on the income because you are selling it for less than what you originally paid for it. That is considered a personal loss.
This book is your guide to navigating the complexities of tax laws and business regulations. Here you will find all the information you need to avoid getting into trouble with the IRS and state and local taxing authorities and reap the maximum benefits from tax deductions. Understand the logic behind tax codes. Learn to set up your online retail sales operation as a business so you can claim tax deductions to reduce your taxable income. Find out how and when sales tax is collected on Internet sales, how to file tax returns, and how to calculate and pay sales tax. Review basic accounting principles and the software programs available for bookkeeping and recordkeeping. Learn how to calculate your profit on used books, antiques, and collectibles that you find around your home or at garage sales and flea markets. Finally, learn what to do if you are selected for an IRS audit, or when you find that you owe sales taxes or taxes on income from previous years.
At the end of the book, you will find a list of useful websites where you can find additional information and a glossary of commonly used terms.
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