If you sell your crap, is that INCOME?

[thechoson]

This is kind of dumb and off topic question, but to finance my move to whereever I will end up for law school, I am selling off a bunch of my crap on half and ebay.  Books, CDs, DVD, shoes, clothes, etc. etc.

Now, since at one point these things were paid for, and I am taking a net loss on these items, these aren't considering income , right?  So no taxes?

Thanks!

[martinibar]

Well, the answer to that question is yes and no. If you want to be completely law abiding than its my impression that your monetary gain is considered income. However, you don't have to report it if the amount is under a certain threshold. I believe its something like $500, meaning if you've made over that amount in any manner (wages, sale of stocks, interest, etc.) than you have to report the amount raised on eBay as income. During my undergrad I supplemented my income by eBaying old baseball cards and my father suggested I report my income to the IRS to avoid tax issues. But that was because he was concerned about financial aid issues that feds could bring up if they found out about the eBaying. Hope that helps.

[risk]

of  course,future lawyers should be honest

[jgruber]

Take the amount you make from selling your stuff

subtract the cost of advertising it for sale

subtract the cost of maintinaing for all the years you owned it

subtract the original purchase price

what's left is called profit and is taxable


Of course, I'm no lawyer, not quite a law student and never an accountant, but the above is from 8 years as an independent consultant and 30 years of running a household.

[xrayspec]

No, it's not income. The issue would be capital gain / loss. But there is no capital gains treatment on personal items. So no taxes.

[ajlynnette]

i agree w/x, it's like calling things you sell at a garage sale 'income'. and that's what things like ebay are, a huge, internet garagae sale. lol