Canada to Tax eBay Sellers

[Thorin]

Yup, that's right, the Canada revenue Agency has managed to get a list of eBay sellers from eBay and will be auditing to make sure people are declaring income they make by selling items online: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/nwsrm/rlss/2009/m07/nr090730-eng.html.

But wait, you have to pay tax on money received when you buy something?  Even though you're buying it with money that you've already been taxed on?  How come you can't claim a loss when you sell something for less than you bought it for, then?

I hope someone challenges this taxation, as we don't get taxed on money received when we sell something privately, and many eBay sellers are selling privately!

As an example, if you sell a car in person you don't have to report the money received for the car.  If you sell it on eBay, this article appears to imply that do have to report the money received as income.

[Mr. Analog]

Well, that pretty well kills eBay as a selling tool for Canadians (as if it weren't awful enough already).

Guess all those people selling crap on Craigslist are next...

[Thorin]

My question is whether they intend to say that people engaging in private sale transactions need to declare income from said transaction, or whether they intend to tax people who are actually making a living from buying stock and selling it in an online "store".

Because you have to admit, there are professional sellers on eBay who are selling as their primary means of income, and they're not paying taxes from their unlicensed, unregistered, gray-market businesses.

[Lazybones]

I have purchased maybe two things from eBay.. and each was a painful test of patients to get a good price. Craigslist is the new sell your own crap web store. Everyone in Vancouver knows about it or has used it it seems.

[Mr. Analog]

I've had many good dealings on eBay over the last decade, mostly with other collectors but sometimes with more professional sellers but lately it's all just lost it's appeal, there are a lot of other sites like Amazon and Craigslist absorbing the fallout.