LeftyBassist.com

If so, share in my confusion/irritation. I sold $3301.33 in gear in 2021. But after their fees and tax remitted, I only earned $2678. Yet their 1099k is claiming I earned $3054.98, as it appears that all they did was back out the tax remitted.

Somebody explain to me how I am liable to pay taxes on $3054.98 when I only got paid $2678.19 from them and the rest went to their fees?!

Do you have anything that states the fee amount? When subtracted from $3301.33 does it equal $2678.19? If so, (I'm by no means a tax expert) you should be able to subtract the fees some where on the tax forms.

WTF? Private sellers have to pay taxes over their sold items in the USA?

Yes they do, and next year will be worse because ALL income earned over a $600 threshold total for the entire year will need to be reported. it used to be you needed to make over $20,000 and have over 200 transactions to report. Not anymore. This is why cash is still king, so avoid Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, etc. if at all possible.

Here's Reverb's page regarding taxes, but bottom line: they want me to report my earnings AND their fees as my total earnings. So why am I paying taxes on money they made?

I've been doing my own taxes all my life, so I know how to itemize and file as a musician. This is the first time I am utterly confused. The IRS designs it as such.

https://help.reverb.com/hc/en-us/articl ... I&solved=0

Yes, I will itemize out the fees as I always do, since I itemize every year, but the 1099k makes no mention of the fees, it only shows earnings per month inclusive of their fees, meaning they're treating THEIR fees as MY reportable income. I'm calling them today.

I don't think we should have to pay income tax on the selling price. But probably on any net profits from the sale (i.e., the sale price minus what we paid for the item originally). It's just a drag to have to fill out a bunch of extra forms (or hire an accountant) just to show that, surprise surprise, our hobby is a net loss in income terms

Unless there is a new tax regulation, you should be able to deduct the fees which you may have to calculate yourself from information on Revebs website.
You also can deduct the original purchase price of the items sold. They probably are not required to do it. It will be interesting to find out what they say when you contact them.

If I have to pay taxes on a bass I sold for $900, I should be able to write it off as a $400 loss because I paid $1300 for it to begin with.

Yes, that would be correct, but the new laws basically force everyone to itemize now if they pass the $600 threshold and want to offset the taxes owed.

So I heard back from Reverb. This is the nonsense they replied:

"Hey Peter,

We send and report the amounts as per guidance from state and federal regulations. At this point you need to contact a tax professional.

Have a great day!"

Still doesn't explain to me why they're declaring they paid out over $600 additional to me when they didn't and the difference is their fees that they collected from me even before my payment was disbursed.

Wow! Nice response. They obviously have decided that it's worth saving labor cost at the expense of customer service. That usually doesn't turn out well in the long run.