If you resold Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets, the IRS is watching — A new rule from the IRS is punishing those who resold tickets for more than $600 in profit with a tax penalty

gizmodo.com If You Resold Taylor Swift Eras Tour Tickets, the IRS Is Watching

A new rule from the IRS is punishing those who resold tickets for more than $600 in profit with a tax penalty.

If you resold Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets, the IRS is watching — A new rule from the IRS is punishing those who resold tickets for more than $600 in profit with a tax penalty::A new rule from the IRS is punishing those who resold tickets for more than $600 in profit with a tax penalty.

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Somehow I doubt this will affect Ticketmaster, the biggest scalper of all
- er, by default any profit is taxable for them while as a lemming you get a tax free $600 profit before it impacts you
  
  but fuck ticketmaster anyway
  
  I'm pretty sure they pay effectively zero tax because they found some interesting ways to make their profit appear 0 on paper.
- I don’t understand what your point is. Of course this doesn’t impact Ticketmaster. They already pay taxes on income generated from selling tickets, so nothing changes. I can’t tell if you’re just saying dumb shit to get upvotes from other idiots or truly don’t have a clue.
Fuck scalpers
But fuck fixing taxes to make billionaires and churches pay taxes.. eat the people as they say.
- If you resell tickets for 600$ in profit, you’re not “the people”, you’re a scalper and I have no sympathy for you. This is a good rule.
  
  Agreed. Obviously, the tax code should be better enforced against wealthy people, but you can support one action without it meaning you don't support another.
  
  That's just capitalists capitalizing. The IRS just wants a cut, not to stop it.
  
  On the other hand, if it's worth your time to scalp tickets then you aren't part of the upper class.
  
  Edit: but I do agree, fuck scalpers
- For real, most of the comments are about the scalpers but this is the only thing that stood out to me. The IRS has consistently shown they would rather net the little fish that can't fight back than take down the whales. Another example of being beyond the law in this country if you have money.
  
  It's super easy to implement, comply, and enforce this. Like almost automated levels of easy. It's significantly more complex and requires tons of resources and expertise to go after the whales as you say. Resources they just don't have. Resources that might be wasted if/when it turns out the taxpayer is fully compliant within reason.
  
  It's not about double standards, it's purely logistics and resources - at least on the IRS side. Congress is responsible for their funding, or lack thereof, and it doesn't take long to figure out who's responsible for the lack of it. So I'd encourage you to focus your ire on the response political party, not the IRS itself.
  
  Yeah, it's cheaper than the big fish and the GOP has continuously underfunded the IRS. Their whole 2024 strategy is to make it look like the extra IRS agents from the Inflation Reduction Act are going after small folks instead of the big fish. Without those agents, lawyers, and staff the rich will always win with bigger guns.
- All that happened here is they lowered the reporting threshold to cast a wider net and force people to reported income they otherwise could have just not mentioned. It's not quite like flipping a switch but it's relatively easy to comply with, and relatively easy to enforce. "Fixing taxes" is significantly more complicated, to say the least.
- Whataboutism
The IRS doesn't care if you do crime or are exploitative or are morally bad

They just want their cut

Edit: grammar
- The IRS will report a crime if they suspect one, but they don’t make the laws. You’re barking off the wrong tree if you think they should be the moral authority.
- Edit: grammer
  
  Edit2: grammar
- You're saying that if they suspect someone of profiting off of let's say, human trafficking, they'd just ask for the taxes and not report the violation?
  
  No, its still a crime to do a crime, but if you profit from your crime and dont report it, its now a double crime! All sarcasm asside, this is what the feds used to nab Al Capone. It also makes it easier for the feds to seize things that may or should have been owed. Remember, even the Joker pays his taxes.
  
  Human trafficking is profoundly illegal, whereas scalping is not (in most states (all but 16)) so this makes your comment pretty silly. Not to mention the massive gap in how bad those two things are...
people who resold tickets bad, ticketmaster who fixes prices good! win-win situation ?
- Law enforcement exists to protect the status quo. Corporation profit good. Individual profit bad.
maybe they could go after ticketmaster's near monopoly and constant breakage of agreements with gov. branches? just a thought
- Why would the IRS be doing that
  
  cause that would actually do good for the world
Scalpers are predators, and captive markets like Ticketmaster give them a hunting ground.
- By design. If it weren't easy for scalpers and bots to scoop tickets in the first seconds they're on sale, tours and venues wouldn't be assured their sales are met. Then bot resellers start the actual sale, where the scalpers come in...you, the attendee likely getting sloppy 4ths.
Wait, someone paid more than $600 for a fucking concert?
- Yes and often times way more than that. I checked prices for a Tool concert at a venue near me a few weeks ago and the section closest to the stage had tickets reselling for thousands of dollars. Obligatory fuck Ticketmaster...
- They could have sold multiple tickets
  
  Ah good point, that makes more sense.
- Well as per article yes, but 600$ is the reporting limit. If Ticketmaster, stubhub and so on has a reseller account with sales income of more than 600$ per year, they have to file it to IRS. Whether its single sale or thousands of separate small sales doesn't matter.
  
  Completely normal tax procedure. Pretty much all big such platforms of various fields stock exchanges, commodity markets etc. have such obligation ledges on them for avoidance of tax evasion.
  
  Nor as second note is anyone being "punished". Punishing is what happens on breaking law. This is business taxes, you make profits selling stuff, income taxes start applying. Normal cost of doing business in society for the services society provides (national military keeps the Mongol horde from wrecking your business and so on, transport atluthority builds roads to run business trucks on so the music tour entourage can get to the arena, so one can sell tickets to that conce for profit and son on).
  
  Yeah this is completely normal and not at all anything to flip out about. Honestly I'm surprised the reporting threshold was ever $20k to begin with. The 1099 reporting threshold for contractors has been $600 for over a decade now so I would've assumed the same for scalpers.
- This was me a couple years ago but apparently scalpers resell tickets for THOUSANDS. My SO managed to snag a few for their MSRP which is reasonable but they sell out instantly and apparently there's a market for them at those highly scalped prices. I don't agree with it but 🤷‍♂️
  
  I'm not gonna say that should be illegal, but, like, a thousand dollars feeds my family for nearly a year.
I mean, technically there's no new tax or anything here, they're just forcing companies to report the income so people can't get away with not paying their taxes on the profit. Now if only they'd enforce the tax laws on rich people, they'd easily make way more than this whole scheme will make by targeting a single billionaire.
Scalpers are absolutely the worst.
I pay my taxes and you should, too. I have no sympathy in general for people not reporting income from PayPal etc, but I'm struggling to think of a less sympathetic subgroup of tax frauds than ticket scalpers. They're not getting special treatment here, it's any 1099 income via the payment apps, but I really wish that wasn't the case. These crooks should be taxed out of business.
Punishment? Huh, didn't know the tax man doesn't want me to make money.
- Do you even know what the IRS is doing here? They aren't punishing anyone. This is them literally making sure people pay the proper taxes on the profit.
  
  Did... did you read the title?..
modern problems, modern solutions
Wtf! People actually pay top $ for this? Fucking stupid 9-5s !! Just my 2 cent: 9-5 aka regulars are really important for the economy , without them the economy will crash but also 9-5s are not important because paying them living wage or paying them more can actually shift the balance of power.
- Bro what
  
  Lol the concept is really deep.
Fuck the IRS, use monero. Or implement the single tax and disband the IRS. we all know that ~30+% of our money goes to taxes and that if you file incorrect you will go to jail. Just tax all purchases at 20% and be done with income tax, etc
No they won't unless you were selling in bulk.
Fuck scalpers, but I refuse to look at the $600 tax rule as anything other than a way for the government to squeeze money from and spy more on the common people.

Edit: to clarify I'm not rooting for the scalpers, I just don't want this governmental overreach to be put in a positive light just because its also affecting people we rightfully hate.

For those that don't know. The $600 tax rule is a requirement that Zelle, Venmo, etc must report transactions over $600 to the government so they can be taxed. Get a $600 graduation gift from grandma? Taxed. Get $1000 from your roommates to pay rent? You now have to document and show that so its not taxed. Sell a bike (that you ALREADY paid sales tax on using money you ALREADY paid income tax on) for $800, would you look at that its going on the tax form.
- Why? Isn't the person selling the tickets for a $600 profit there one squeezing money from the common people?
  
  If corporations paid the way they should the country would be in a lot less money issues than it is.
  
  Here in the UK it's often talked about and people get angry about Bob the builder doing cash only work and not paying his taxes. Just another plan from the government and media to cause in fighting rather than look at the real issue, big corps.
  
  But also fuck scalpers so I'm torn.
  
  Yes? I'm against both of the parties in my comment. Maybe I made it sound like I'm in the scalpers side with my tax complaints, I'm not. I just don't want this government overreach to be placed in a positive light just because its also affecting people we hate.
- It's not just transactions. $600 is the lower limit on taxable income. I used to do food delivery and if you make under $600 for the year it's not reported and not taxable. You're supposed to report any income over $600.
- Already paid tax thing is not applicable, it's literally how taxation works. The government gets their share at each point. Everytime a taxable good changes hands, with exception, the tax is applied again.
  
  I know that's how it works. I'm complaining because the way it works is bullshit.
- people would downvote u with no counter-argument to present. Lemmy is full of single digit iq NPCs
  
  I think most of those people don't understand what the $600 rule is and instead thought I was saying scalpers shouldn't be taxed on their ill gotten profits.

105 comments