Les Jones

New Law Adds IRS Paperwork to Practically Every Gold Coin Sale

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 | Economics |

ABC News - Gold Coin Sellers Angered by New Tax Law:

Section 9006 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will amend the Internal Revenue Code to expand the scope of Form 1099. Currently, 1099 forms are used to track and report the miscellaneous income associated with services rendered by independent contractors or self-employed individuals.

Starting Jan. 1, 2012, Form 1099s will become a means of reporting to the Internal Revenue Service the purchases of all goods and services by small businesses and self-employed people that exceed $600 during a calendar year. Precious metals such as coins and bullion fall into this category and coin dealers have been among those most rankled by the change.

This provision, intended to mine what the IRS deems a vast reservoir of uncollected income tax, was included in the health care legislation ostensibly as a way to pay for it. The tax code tweak is expected to raise $17 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Most people are reacting to the fact that this will affect gold sales, which really does stink. Worse, though, this is a paperwork nightmare for a huge fraction of commercial activity - “all goods and services by small businesses and self-employed people that exceed $600 during a calendar year” covers a lot of ground. Filling out all of those 1099s is going to increase accounting costs for practically every business in America.

Tags: gold

1 Comment to New Law Adds IRS Paperwork to Practically Every Gold Coin Sale

Chris Range
July 22, 2010

I already dislike doing art shows in my home state because of all the paperwork I have to do. Seriously you wouldn’t believe what I had to go through to cut a $12 check to Nashville for 1 piece of art I sold.

I don’t make a huge margin selling art, I mean after all there’s a reason they call it “starving artist”. Now there’s even *more* paperwork I’m going to have to keep track of?

Taxation and regulation have this way of robbing the fire from a little endeavor you might otherwise enjoy more completely. Now to me that’s merely an irritance. Imagine what it’s like for real businesses that do things like - oh say - Employee people.

All this crap has a real chilling effect.

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