Canadian Government taxing ebay...

[JordanStaal11]

Anyone hear the story lately of the Canadian government taxing Canadian ebay sellers? If we don't pay the taxes on all our past "revenue" we face "penalties" or "prosecution".

I am not a big ebay seller (I mainly buy) but I just sent an email to my accountant and asked him what I should do.

So now to sell a hockey card I have to pay:
1. Insertion fees
2. Ebay fees
3. Pay Pal fees
4. Taxes

What would be the point of selling anything?

I always thought ebay was a giant garage sale....which BTW did you know that little old ladies that have a garage sale on the weekend are supposed to claim the "income"? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!!!

Has anybody else heard this or I have an opinion?

[twotoekenn]

sounds like good old fashioned american liberal taxes are creeping north

[todtz79]

i thought they were only doing that for the power sellers only maybe we should start saving all our receipts for our boxes and then we would get all our taxes back on a side note we get taxed on our pay as it is what a joke

[mrsteel]

"sellers who earned $1,000 a month for 3 consecutive months"

hopefully it will never effect those of us who sell only occassionally



http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/200.../ebay-tax.html

[bidds55]

Ok, so if we have to declare the income from selling cards on ebay, then we should also get to deduct the cost of the wax they came from, the cost of the shipping materials, paypal fees, ebay insertion fees, ebay final value fees, the financing costs on any vehicles we might use to travel to the post office, the costs of our computers used to list on ebay, the cost of our internet connection to any computer we use to list on ebay, and any other incidental "costs" associated with the "business activity" of selling cards on ebay. Sounds good to me.

I really think Stephen Harper should be spending his time on more important things than trying to get even more tax dollars out of people, just for trying to sell their junk on ebay.

[babying]

Yes let's start deducting all the costs from ripping wax. We will have a loss every year.

[RGM81]

Ok, so if we have to declare the income from selling cards on ebay, then we should also get to deduct the cost of the wax they came from, the cost of the shipping materials, paypal fees, ebay insertion fees, ebay final value fees, the financing costs on any vehicles we might use to travel to the post office, the costs of our computers used to list on ebay, the cost of our internet connection to any computer we use to list on ebay, and any other incidental "costs" associated with the "business activity" of selling cards on ebay. Sounds good to me.

I really think Stephen Harper should be spending his time on more important things than trying to get even more tax dollars out of people, just for trying to sell their junk on ebay.

Like coming clean on the wafer!

This is a by-product of governmental fiscal mismanagement. They're drowning in a sea of red and will be looking for almost any way possible to climb back out of the deficits they've created.

[cdnhulk]

This all started in 1988 with the first free trade agreement. Mulroney wanted so bad to push through his agenda that he did not think of the ramifications. In 1991 we got the GST to offset the taxes/tariffs that were lost because of this agreement. In 1994, Chretian and Clinton added Mexico to the list. Today, Harper has moved the GST to 5% (which is still mindblowing, seeing it is a tax for nothing...) and now the government is crying poor. So, because there are a few people who have worked the system to make thousands on eBay, people are being taxed. Power Sellers will be hit the hardest, obviously, as they will now need to declare all earnings. The little guys...I don't know. This has been 20 years in the making...it was a matter of time...

[RGM81]

It's not a tax for "nothing," quite the opposite actually: it's a consumption tax. Many countries have them in various forms. In Europe they've got a "Value Added Tax," referred to as the VAT. Government will get your money in some form or another, but a consumption tax is preferred by most economists over income taxes - better death by a thousand pin pricks than a big anvil every year, right?

[JordanStaal11]

Won't taxing Canadian ebay sellers make ebay.ca a ghost town? If this ebay tax is true....I'm done! We as sellers are being "raped" financially as it is. All it is fee's, fee's and more fee's...and now taxes!

Last week I put my Gretzky collection on ebay. I took it off yesterday when I heard this story. I'll be danged if I am going to sell one of my most prized possessions just to hand half of it over in fees and taxes.

Also...with the economy the way it is...people who have lost their jobs are probably selling their stuff (not just cards) just to make ends meet.