[home owner]

I don't really know what category this falls under, but here goes. In about a year, I am going to try my hand at a mail order Ebay business from my home, selling several hundred old magazines I have acquired over the last 40 years. I have several friends who had done this home Ebay business thing who go right by the book and get licenses, special tax things, etc. On the other hand, I have other friends who just sell on line auctions and never report anything. They treat them like garage sales. My business will be very small time since I am not entering this to make huge sums of money, but more to free up space in my house, and literally give me something to do with my free time. I am torn between just going out and doing it on my own, or going through regular channels which means setting up the business with tax stuff, prepaying tax every several months for money that I have not yet made, etc. I do not expect this to be taking up so much time that I will be doing it every day. Should I not want to do it for three or four months I want to be able to just not do it, and not be concerned with having to go in and pay some kind of required pre-payment on taxes for sales that will never be made since I want the time off. Can anyone give me any kind of advice on this. One of my main questions is does Ebay report their every transaction to the feds at all, or do they just do this for their high end sellers. I cannot believe some of the items I see on sale at their site, and my magazines are so small time. Thank you.

[excon]

Can anyone give me any kind of advice on this. one of my main questions is does

Hello home:

Sure, I can give you some advice. Fire your tax advisor! In my opinion, one ought not base one's decision to commit a felony or not, on faulty information.

Sole proprietorships cost nothing to establish, and don't pay their taxes in advance. Now, if you don't want to pay income tax, that's cool. But don't use that sillyass excuse.

excon

[home owner]

There certainly was no need for such a rude response. I was asking that I believed to be legitimate questions because I actually was not sure how to proceed. Your comments are well taken, but no need to be nasty about it. Thank you for your time.

[Fr_Chuck]

If you are selling your perosnal property, then it is not a business, you are just selling off your personal property and it is not income,

If you are buying things to sell, then it is a business.