IRS advisory committee wants online auctioneers to have to pay taxes

0 Comments | USA TODAY, November, 2006 | by Kevin McCoy

Attention online auction sellers: An IRS advisory committee wants you -- to pay federal income taxes on your profits. Anyone who sells goods online should first be required by law to submit a federal tax identification number, a change that would enable the IRS to track the transactions and seek any taxes owed, the committee recommended in a new report to the federal tax-collection agency.

The recommendation is similar to an enforcement option raised in August by the staff of the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. The IRS advisory panel of tax specialists, citing the rapid growth of Americans selling via eBay, uBid and other online sites, said it's likely that "a significant number of those users either choose to ignore income reporting requirements or are unaware of...