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Comment by bthrn | Hacker News Reader

If I sell my old couch at a loss for $600, and get paid with Venmo, the default behavior now is to have a form sent to the IRS. The burden is on me to prove it is a loss and have the documentation to back it up, or risk having $600 of taxable income in the eyes of the IRS. At this small threshold, it sounds like a burden to me.

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That's not true. The system only triggers for commercial transactions.

the loophole is that we just send via "friends and family".

And that's not a commercial transaction??

No, its a personal one.

Separately, even though selling used goods at a loss is deductible on income tax, you can still get chased own for sales tax, thanks to USA's absurd non-VAT sales tax system.

>even though selling used goods at a loss is deductible on income tax

Not if the goods were for personal rather than business or investment use. Losses on sale of personal-use assets are non-deductible for income tax purposes.

Every part of your statement is wrong.

1) Selling used goods at a loss is not deductible on your tax return unless you are in the business of selling used goods.

2) Unless you are selling a lot of tangible goods (i.e., you have a business selling things), you aren't even eligible to register for sales tax in most U.S. states.

3) If tax applies to the sale of a used good in this situation, it would be a use tax that is the responsibility of the buyer to report and pay.

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