[LINK] US Treasury and eCommerce

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

The (US) Center For Democracy and Technology
Policy Post 13.07, May 04, 2007

<http://www.cdt.org/publications/policyposts/2007/07>

IRS Proposal Could Impact Millions of Internet Users

The U.S. Treasury Department -- in an effort to track down unreported 
small business income -- is seeking legislation requiring brokers of 
personal property, such as auction houses and consignment stores, to 
collect personal data on their customers and share it with the Internal 
Revenue Service. 

It appears that the real targets of the proposal are Internet-based 
businesses, including eBay and Amazon. It seems the IRS believes Internet 
companies should be enlisted in tax collection due to the apparent ease 
of collecting and transmitting information over the Internet..

The IRS proposal calls for "brokers" of transactions involving tangible 
personal property to file income statements about all sellers who conduct 
100 or more separate transactions that generate $5,000 or more in gross 
income. 

The IRS form required under the proposal would include the name, address 
and Social Security number (SSN) or Taxpayer ID Number (TIN) of each 
seller. In order to comply, brokers would likely need to keep track of ID 
numbers and other information on all sellers, even those that do not meet 
the sales threshold (since they won't know until year's end who meets the 
threshold). For small sellers this will almost always be an SSN. 

The proposal is in the President's budget and, while no lawmaker has yet 
come out in support of it, the measure could easily find its way into a 
larger legislative package..

--
Cheers all ..
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia