Etsy's unreasonable demand is the final straw for me

fernwood
Beth, paying by mail by check hasn't been possible on ebay for at least 15 or 20 years. I remember getting cash in an envelope for payment occasionally when I started on ebay, not at all like today. When they started EBay definitely was like the "community" they still pretend to be. I noticed that they now have their own internal payment setup but will still allow use of PayPal and possibly other electronic payments, so far.
I have bought a few things on Etsy, in fact Rockoonz was our Etsy name we settled on in frustration when everything related to our real business name was already taken. We posted a few items once, discovered the original bizarre system and all the extra work to get noticed, and walked away, other than as buyers. I'm pretty happy we never got tied into them as sellers.

"Also, did anyone else catch the fact that this requirement is for Etsy’s US sellers only? It’s our recently enacted tax laws prompting this."

khara You make a good point. Ever since Covid and the shutdowns in March 2020 internet buying ramped up tremendously. Was this trend known or expected prior to Covid ? Soon after the Covid shutdowns internet tax scrutiny discussions have increased greatly. Taxation thru internet marketing sites is much easier to accomplish with specifically trained IRS agents as opposed to tracking craft show circuit income.

Last year I grossed over 400k on ETSY and had to pay the largest percentage federal tax by a long shot ever in many years of self employment. In addition to increased raw materials and shipping and **** and **** and ****...costs.

Us craftsman and artisans are under the exact same attack as all small businesses are. We are being raped by government and big corporate America and there is not a damn thing we can do about it. For one, we are difficult to tax, for another we are competition. However the retail buyers in this country yearn to buy our high quality products but there is nothing they can do about it either. They are complaining too. I know this because people also pick up my product at my property(and not thru ETSY) and complain about the disappearing handmade product market. They look at me like a deer in the headlights in total disbelief that I make these my products right here in my backyard. As if this practice is no longer...a dying breed.

As far as companies like Plaid it comes as no surprise that they are allowed to put small businesses in 'digital financial security jeopardy'. Could it be that they are allowed to operate in such a way ? It sure seems like it. Maybe this is paranoia speaking, and maybe not.

I think I am a fairly seasoned and savvy businessman and sense there are some odd forces working against small business America. Yes of course I would rather have a corporate sized order of 100 units instead of selling one off's and reduce administrative demands by a factor of 90 to 95 % if just pursuing raw income. Corporate America thinks the same way because they look at profits.

There are also a lot of seasoned and savvy business people on this thread making comments on this Plaid subject. They are perplexed and uncomfortable and thinking this issue makes no sense. Probably because there is some form of maliciousness. Tracking a security breach is difficult at best. We can theorize all we want. It takes a high level computer technician to prove this possibility. Maybe we should consider there might be something diabolical at work here.

Well, that's my rant.

Signed Mr. Cynical, cynicism is prerequisite this day and age.

The bill that caused all this (H.R. 1319) was one of those so-called “attachments”, that was added to the American Rescue Plan of 2021. Not that it matters. The fact is, for years now and spread over multiple Washington Administrations, the Feds have been looking for a way to “get in” to the whole online buy/sell world so they have the means to tax all this, it certainly isn’t a plan that has been supported only by either one of the ruling parties in this nation. One very important thing for everyone to remember: the form 1099-k reports gross income from web merchandise sales, but it does NOT keep an account of your costs incurred to sell on the web. It is really important to keep a good and precise picture of how much money you are spending to get an item uploaded on to a site such as Etsy or eBay. If you sell at $50 but it costs you $27 to just get it there, it’s up to YOU to keep records of that sort of information. The cost of rough, cutting and polishing machines and supplies, the tank of gas you use driving to go on a buying trip, and the time of your own labor to make that cab are all parts of your expenses incurred. There are plenty of other costs that can be legally written off. You need to keep good records of all this info. Also know there are a number of active protests going on over this new IRS regulation, actually eBay is among the bigger ones trying to fight against this. Imagine the (more or lesss) new office building full of a whole new division of bean-counters they now need to provide all this info to the Feds, so they aren’t too happy about this law either.

Etsy is a bargain compared to consignment shops Tela. You are lucky to find a consignment shop that will ask less than a 40% split.
Many require a 50% split. EBAY can be tough on their sellers, as can be Houzz. ETSY quite lenient on sellers in that they just don't seem to care to get involved or spend money on policing customer/seller squabbles. ETSY is not easy to communicate with for a reason. This is actually a good thing when selling thru ETSY. ETSY buyers are for the most part cool peoples. Houzz on the other hand...

Houzz will about force you to take back(pay shipping to return your product and give a full refund)your product at the customer's whim if said customer has a ridiculous complaint and demands a return. As if the customer can window shop at the comfort of his home.
Houzz buyers are arrogant and entitled.

The government is smart when it comes to taking our profits. So much tax money is now where the internet sales are. Surprised the gov't. has been so slow to act on this fact. Well, Covid induced increased internet shopping woke them up.
For the reasons you list geoff59 it is much more efficient to sell products that cost say $300 to $400 and up on ETSY.
Preferably products that average about $1000 per unit. $50 products are now approaching the break even point when time is considered.
And better if they are not one off's but the same product over and over so you don't have to make a listing for each unit.
Increased costs has accelerated the losses of selling lower cost one off's.

Gov't. internet tax scrutiny will only increase with time.

Finding a vein of thousands of 10 pound dead clear amethyst crystals would be a game changer Henry.

jamesp "Finding a vein of thousands of 10 pound dead clear amethyst crystals would be a game changer"

It's a good thing I left those in the ground until I figure out all this tax business!!!!

Post an ad for them on RTH, sell them like crazy, and tell the tax man to kiss your butt.
If they want to play the extreme cat game we can play the extreme mouse game.

And that’s exactly the intent. It’s the discouragement of business. Make it such a hassle people don’t want to do it anymore. It’s such a shame. The killing of the great American dream.