[Gusturd]

Originally Posted by BobC

I didn't say it is always true, and it additionally depends on the state you're in and their specific rules. Also, you were originally talking about sales made on Ebay, a very well-known online marketplace, now you're talking about garage sales, which is distinctly and entirely different. Some states do have rules regarding occasional or casual sales where the party selling does not normally sell things as part of their business, and in such cases those sales may be exempt from sales tax in those particular states. And in that case, a garage sale by an individual would likely meet the casual/occasional sales exemption. And you're right, most states don't have the personnel to go out and track down sales taxes from things like garage sales, so they end up putting such laws in to exempt them from sales tax so they never have to waste the time. But you mentioned someone selling 10-20 items a year maybe, and doing so on Ebay, which is an online marketplace. That is not the same as a garage sale type of casual sales activity. And even though the number of sales you mentioned aren't that many, I don't believe states that allow such a sales tax exemption for casual/occasional sales actually have defined what qualifies as such using a specific number of sales or dollar amount.

Plus, don't forget that it is online sales that triggered this whole sales tax thing coming from the Supreme Court's ruling in the S Dakota vs. Wayfair case back in 2018. So the authorities are saying online sales platforms are most definitely generating business sales, especially since records of the transactions and the parties involved, as well as dollar amounts of all sales, are maintained by the party providing the online platform and can be accessed if need be by tax authorities. That info and data would likely never be kept by someone doing a garage sale. So your question/point is a possible grey area and may or may not be arguable, depending on what specific state you are in.

Well the whole thing is very convoluted. On the one hand, your saying sales tax shouldn't be triggered unless you exceed $100K and 200 transactions (I realize it may vary by state) and on the other your saying every sale made online is a business sale and should have tax collected. If the government really wanted to boost tax revenue for this country, they'd simplify or at least clarify the rules so people knew what they were supposed to do. The whole thing is one big gray area that simply compels people to pay tax 100% of the time, whether it's really required or not. Maybe that's intentional.