Congress has introduced a $1.7 trillion spending bill to fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year. The whopping price tag is outmatched only by its length: an eye-popping 4,155 pages. Despite all of the lobbyist priorities, goodbye giveaways to departing lawmakers, and woke earmarks, Congress missed an opportunity to provide tax reporting relief for households.
By not repealing or delaying President Biden’s new IRS tax reporting requirement on online sales, Congress failed to help regular taxpayers — especially moms and minority families — who are set to get a tax headache for Christmas.
Absent from the tax provisions in this mammoth bill was any effort to address a real tax nightmare for millions of Americans. In 2021, liberals in Congress lowered the threshold that triggers income reporting for third-party transactions on IRS Form 1099-K from $20,000 in sales and 200 transactions to just $600 through any number of transactions.
As a result, some 30 million to 50 million IRS 1099-K forms will be sent to households across America to report any income earned from selling items online. These are sales of used kids clothing on eBay, old sofas on Let Go or concert tickets on StubHub. Payments from babysitting the neighbors’ children or tutoring students, and even reimbursing friends for dinner out, could all trigger the reporting requirement if the payments were made on platforms such as Venmo, PayPal and CashApp.
…
Furthermore, disproportionately more Black and Hispanic casual sellers depend on online selling to fund necessary expenses. The left claims to represent the interests of racial minorities and working-class families, but limiting legitimate income-generating opportunities for them is a funny way of showing it.
…