Goods and services is the only way to buy unless you are certain you know and trust the seller. That being said…
I’ve seen folks say this before. How does goods and service protect the seller? I can’t think of any advantage gained.
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As someone who does payroll and tax - can confirm it’s often negligible.
I have to enter transactions over the year for sales tax and it’s generally like $50 -$100 or so.
My concern comes more with having so many and figuring out cost basis I get audited
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I can reply to that:
As a seller on ebay (petrified wood) you soon realize not all buyers are honest. Paying with G/S binds the buyer to provide a correct address for the item to be sent. Once I send the item to that address with a confirmed delivery; it is much more difficult for the seller to claim fraud. Ebay will investigate the claims of the buyer and demand proof.
Without GS, the buyer needs only to say the package was never delivered and ebay will deduct the funds from your account without further investigation.
This why I NEVER sell ouside of the US. Very few foreign postal-services provide confirmation of delivery that will be recognized by ebay. If they do; the postage is usually prohibitive.
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I’ll try to be more concise next time… 
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Not to be argumentative but if the buyer pays FF the seller has no downside, address or not. So GS at best puts you on a par with FF, there’s no extra “protection” that’s better than FF. Right?
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Yes you are right. But in that case; the seller could always just say they sent the package and it never arrived (sound familiar? Haha ;-)). So using GS protects both parties from the other one being dishonest.
In our case - it all worked out. As I remember - we did use GS so we were both protected. You got your money from me and I would have got my money back from Paypal if USPS had not delivered the package to you. Fortunately, it worked out and the package did arrive to you. If you had not courteously refunded my prior-refund (or; you were not honorable - which you were) - I could have lodged a request for a refund from Paypal. By providing the proof of delivery - which I received; Paypal would have refunded my refund to you.
Footnote to readers: I sold some high-end yo-yo’s to Vegabomb (more than a couple of $) a few years ago which were lost in the postal-service for about three months. During that time; I made inquiries , filed a lost-mail claim with USPS and refunded Vegabomb their purchase price. The package did eventually arrive and Vegabomb made a quick re-payment to me. My faith in both the USPS and humanity was reinforced that day 
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When I was younger, I bought things on Paypal credit, and made minimum payments, and this continued for long enough for them to turn the $4k I spent between my card and my wife’s into 8k or more before I paid it off.
And I don’t feel bad about that, they did me a service by loaning me money, and I paid them back with plenty of interest.
So while I see the point of the post, I’ve paid my share, and I won’t blink an eye or lose a wink of sleep for considering us all friends and family. Should you do the same? Dude, that’s up to you, I’m not going to judge you either way. It would be disrespectful for me to do so, as I don’t know your circumstances.
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Being that this monetary sytem is digital, there are computer programs tracking it. If you were doing a 100 transactions in previous years and 70% of them were G&S and now a rule change is implemented and your annual 100 transactions now only fall under F&F you don’t think the data analytics will show this across the system for multiple users? I feel like @yoyodoc 's point was that we should stop lying to ourselves and each other. Who wants to live like the old Rockwell song “Somebody’s Watching Me”. Now with all of these supposedly new IRS agents, why be consumed with paranoia.
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Literally sold 3 yoyos in the past three days exceeding this amount. It is extremely easy. The $600 limit is for the entire calendar year.
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I’m well aware of that…
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I guess, as somewhat of a new BST’er, I didn’t realize that Tax played into the whole situation. I thought G&S was more for protecting the buyer and seller. I’ve been excepting F&F if there is a reasonable level of trust. Most of the time here on YYE there is.
Please forgive my lack of understanding, is the $600 per year only applied to G&S? If I go over on the buying end, I should be taxed and receive tax documents? Or does the G&S service fee act as this tax?
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Any “pay services” are required to send out a 1099k to individuals who receive 600.00 or greater in payments from individuals in a calendar year. This is a combined number, so for example I sell 3 yo-yos this month, for 50.00 a piece I am at 150.00 and I have 450.00 that I can receive in G&S payments before I get a 1099k.
Again I am just stating facts, I am not getting into the whole argument as to what is better to do in the BST.
But there are gonna be a lot of people opening up that PayPal e-mail trying to figure out “how did I get this” with so much misinformation going around.
I just say prepare and be aware of what tax laws are for federal and also your specific state. Some states were already requiring this.
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Buyers will not receive a 1099 even if they go well over $600. Only the person that receives payments in excess of that amount is subject to the 1099 form.
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I have not studied the conditions of tax liability like many of you obviously have….So I have a question for you.
Some time back when we were all slapping this topic around, didn’t somebody mention that the seller is only responsible for sales where the seller sells for retail or over retail?
Because they cannot justify taxing you on sales where the seller actually loses money?
If…… if, that is actually true, then everybody very active as a seller, just needs to set up a program listing the yo-yos they sold… the original retail price of the yo-yo and how much profit they didn’t make when they sold it.
Any thoughts?
PS… I’m trying to stay on topic here. I actually typed this entire post with the tip of my nose so it would take about as long as some people think it takes me to type a post.
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You are very correct @yoyodoc
The way it works is - PayPal sends a 1099K for “Gross” profits meaning you can deduct things like - “shipping” or “how much the item cost you to buy”
Basically it can turn an easy standard deduction tax return into an itemized return if you want to fool with going the long route.
There is also just the other option as claiming the “gross” amount as just income and moving on.
Again I am not getting into the weeds of how one should do business on the BST that should be left between the buyer and seller in each transaction. Just trying yo provide a little clarification to what may be some confusion.
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This seems like a lot of hassle right? For ex I have sold more than 35 throws in the past year. Id have to fill some sort of form with all of these retail values and how much I sold each one for etc etc.
Or am I missing something and its actually an easy process? Taxes suck but filling out taxes suck even more😑
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Sorry to necro this - but there is so much confusion over this tax-issue. it should be emphasized that this tax only applies when you sell a yo-yo for more money than you originally paid. Since this rarely happens to me - I do not care much about this change in tax regulations.
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If you receive more than 600 bucks g&s in a year (regardless of how much you bought a yoyo for and how much you sold it for), you have to fill out a separate tax form proving that you did not make a profit which is usually the case. People arent trying to evade a tax here. People are trying to not have to fill out a form proving that they arent evading taxes.
Its a hassle I dont need.
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To me thiseems like hyperbole. If the case is you made no net-gain - this is a one-liner. The reporting authority will be paypal. What tax paper-work will I need to file? A one-liner saying no net-gain from sales?
That seems a small price to pay for risk-control against fraudsters and those that misrepresent their merchandise. To me this is a non-issue. You are free to feel otherwise.
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Read the replies above yours mate. Im not gonna be talking to paypal. Paypal will just hand me a form if the value is above 600. Im gonna be filling out some form for the irs which includes all my purchases and sales. Its gonna be closer 40 lines for me no if ive made 40 sales?
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