Your Auction Business & Taxes

by V. Raposo

Taxes is an issue when running an Auction Business. But is there a grey line when it comes to declaring it? It's really within reason if you're going to do a huge amount of it, a small amount is negligible. Some people want to have a small business for write-offs, you might want to consider taking it to the next level and be able to write off some of your expenses like your computer, office space, supplies, etc. Each state and each province has their own amount of sales you can do without declaring, & charging taxes. Check with your state to see what amount you have to do before you start taking taxes. The BC goverment (where I live) gives you an allowance of $30,000 before you have to charge for sales tax, that's for someone who legally has a business. There's definate advantages of having a business license, declaring your income and being able to have write-offs. That being said, legally you have to declare taxes if you're profiting from it. Are You Holding Onto Too Much Product? We all love to make money but after a while when you get too much product built up, you can start losing money. Why would we do that? What happens is we get in a mindset on the value we feel our items are worth verses, what we can get for them. That's why when purchasing items it's important to keep in mind that you make money when you buy, Not - When you Sell. But we also get into the territory where you feel you should get a certain price for something. And that's what we need to shake.... immediately. You need to be watching your products and if something isn't pulling in the money anymore, you need to blow it out. Product on the shelves is not money in your pocket.... it's out of your pocket. When we relate this to your eBay business, the same goes for what you have in your eBay store. Keep it fresh and alive. Have special offers, only for those who are buying an auction AND a store item. Make it something that they want and give them a deal. Blowout product that you've had for too long. This will give you money up right away and gets you product you can actually do well with. So, get out of the mind frame that to you need to make "X" amount from certain products, if they're not pulling it in, then "X" them out and move onto newer hotter products! About the author: Vera Raposo has been making a living with online auctions since 1997. With thousands of completed auctions under her belt, Vera is now sharing some of her best auction strategies in a free 90-minute interview at http://www.auctionstrategists.com/special