If you are earning an extra buck through a side hustle,
maybe you'd like to refinish furniture and sell it on Etsy.
Maybe you're like this artsy, craftsy kind of guy kind of person, and
it's just a fun way to make some money on the side.
Well, the IRS is now targeting you to ensure that you pay your taxes.
And while this is happening, let's just be abundantly clear that the very
individuals, who have gotten away with paying almost no taxes.
The millionaires and billionaires in this country will continue to do so,
because there has not been a passage of a wealth tax.
There has not been an increase in the corporate tax.
There has not been an increase on any type of tax,
that would impact the wealthy and privileged.
But we do need to make sure that we go after those damn Etsy vendors because,
they could be making more than $600 a year from their side hustle,
and that's unacceptable.
Now, starting this month, users selling goods and
services through such popular sites as Venmo, Etsy and Airbnb.
Will begin receiving tax forms, if they take a payment of more
than $600, the threshold used to be much higher.
So apps, marketplaces, and payment providers,
have long had to report certain payments to the Internal Revenue Service.
For any user that collected more than 200 transactions that totaled more
than $20,000 in value in a given year.
So that threshold of $20,000 for
your side hustle, has now been lowered to $600.
So listen, I believe everyone should pay their fair share in taxes.
But the fact that the attention right now is being
focused on independent vendors, on Etsy and Venmo.
While the rich still failed to pay their fair share in taxes, is beyond maddening.
And by the way, this is also in the context of lawmakers incessantly
talking about, how much they love and support small businesses.
Small businesses, it's the heart of the country, it's the heart of the country.
When we're talking about these independent vendors,
I mean you can't get smaller than that.
These are literally people who are making extra money through a side hustle,
through something creative.
Something that they can offer in the form of a product,
with the case of Airbnb of course, they're literally renting out their home.
Airbnb, I don't have as much just keeping it real,
I don't have as much sympathy for.
But really you're gonna, you're gonna target grandma, for selling her beautiful
beaded necklaces on Etsy, that's where you're going to collect the tax revenue.
Let me give you more well,
this is a obviously sparked some outrage on social media sites.
In fact, one tax attorney said this, maybe it's a boon to the IRS, but
it's not coming from the billionaires.
It's coming from the smaller businesses, it's much harder to go
after billionaires, it's much harder to go after Amazon.
If you have someone who makes a mistake,
a small business, it's very easy to go after them.
And by the way this is not the bug,
this is the feature, this is very much intentional.
And it is the result of GOP lawmakers, succeeding in cutting funding to the IRS.
Because let's keep it real, it's very easy to go after an independent vendor on Etsy,
to ensure that person is paying taxes on whatever they're making.
It's a lot harder to do an audit for instance,
on some billionaire who's dodging his or her taxes through a complicated system.
Whether it's shell corporations, tax shelters, there's all sorts of
complicated, takes more resources to audit that individual.
And so corrupt lawmakers who have been bribed by corporate interests, have made
sure that the IRS is toothless. When it comes to the real tax dodgers in this
country, and the real tax dodgers in this country by the way, have been doing real
well, during the pandemic. Why don't we take a quick look at this
fairly recent headline from Americans for tax fairness.
US billionaires,
wealth surged by
70% or $2.1
trillion during
the pandemic,
they are now worth
a combined $5
trillion. And
when you look at the percentage of their wealth,
that gets taxed compared to what grandma gets taxed on Etsy. And by the way,
I apologize for the stereotype, it's just there's a lot of great vendors that I love
on Etsy, and they happen to be grandma's. It's maddening to know that right now,
the focus is on this, on people making
a a couple 100 bucks on these platforms. And
by the way to add insult to injury, this is this is what really got me.
The new $600 threshold arrived last year as part of the American rescue plan.
Which the White House billed,
as a way to provide relief to small businesses hit hard by the pandemic.
How laughable is that?
The lower threshold also comes as more and more Americans, bet on themselves
a record 5.4 million adults applied to form their own business last year.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, and I don't blame them.
I mean we obviously have read the stories, we've heard the stories of all these
workers, who have decided I'm gonna reprioritize my life, my interests.
The great resignation occurred, people are leaving their corporate jobs, and
they would rather work for themselves.
They would rather go after, whatever dreams they have,
put their creative abilities to use.
There's also the case of hairdressers who have decided to leave these salons,
where they make commission to go work for themselves.
They'll do house calls, and the way that they can get paid is through Venmo or or
through PayPal.
However they get paid, my point here is, we're talking about people who
have not really been at this, like privileged place in our economic system.
In fact, we're talking about people, who were really harmed by this pandemic.
While the wealthiest people in this country collected another $5 trillion for
themselves, I mean, just let that sink in.
It just adds insult to injury, and to have this be part of the American rescue plan.
And say that, it's all an effort to help small businesses when in reality,
it's just a way to go after independent vendors on these platforms.
It's insulting, and again, couple that with the Biden administration's failure
to do anything substantive, in ensuring that the rich pay their fair share.
How do you look at that administration?
How do you look at Congress, and really think that they work for you?
How do you make an argument that a Democratic administration,
is really any different substantively from a Republican administration,
on these types of issues, on economic issues?
It's really hard to make that argument, rhetorically they might be different
effectively, substantively.
Lot of similarities there.