Tax Experts Call for eBay Tracking

U.S. tax experts are urging the Internal Revenue Service to take a stronger stance on tracking profits and sales from online auction sites such as eBay.

While users of such Internet auction sites are officially required to report their profits, the current honor code system has some tax experts proposing that the sites simply provide the IRS with all sales data, the San Francisco Chronicle said.

By doing this, the experts contend the U.S. Treasury would collect millions in tax revenue that otherwise would never by reported by users of eBay and other online auction sites.

In 2006 alone, eBay facilitated the sale of $25.2 billion in merchandise and experts allege a very low percentage of required taxes were paid on such sales.

While eBay and its online peers are not currently defined as Internet brokers, meaning they would be required to obtain and report all users’ pertinent tax information, the government could change that classification.