I’ll start with the usual disclaimer that this isn’t tax advice and I’m not a professional in the tax industry. Funny enough, the tax advice that’s saved me the most money is from people who aren’t tax professionals. Most CPAs know broad rules and may be missing nuance or deductions that apply to your specific situation. So it’s always good to have these conversations, soak it in, and ask your CPA if certain things may apply to you. You could save tens of thousands in tax liability.
I’ve received 1099s from various platforms since 2015. The tax professionals I’ve used through the years have allowed me to deduct things beyond the original purchase price whether I was an LLC or sole proprietor.
No matter how deep your hate for scalpers is, they are allowed to deduct mileage when doing things related to whatever profit they’ve made, cell phone if used to sell the goods, shipping supplies, etc.
In my opinion LLCs are only reasonable in 3 situations.
Trying to obtain a reselling permit so that you don’t pay sales tax. If you are purchasing something as a business with the intent to sell it in the future you should not be paying sales tax in most states. Walmart does not pay distributors sales tax when they buy pokemon, why should you? Sales tax is intended for the end consumer. Check with your state. In my state, for certain platforms that don’t accept reselling permits you may be able to file for a sales tax refund. I got just under $2000 back through my state filing for a sales tax refund. Unfortunately, my state doesn’t honor the pokemon center because of some of the language on their site.
Trying to shield personal assets from a lawsuit against the business. Outlandish example, but say you sell an ETB and a child chokes on one of the dice. It’s actually pretty common practice that the personal injury lawyer includes EVERYONE involved in the sale. For example: insert your ebay store name here, Ebay, and The Pokemon Company would all be included in the lawsuit. You can laugh, but this is a real thing that happened to sellers on Amazon. Now all Amazon sellers are required to carry general liability insurance once they reach a certain sales threshold.
Forming an S-corp to lessen your social security tax burden.
Oh, yes, it seems you can deduct business things like travel and other things as a sole proprietor. It seems my understanding was wrong. Not really worth figuring these things out at my selling level, I think, but good to know!
Out of curiosity, and you can speak generally, of course, what’s a situation in which this can occur?
Edit: Oh, I just thought of something: maybe if you end up driving an hour out to buy something and deduct the travel on top of the acquisition price.
Mileage when doing things related to selling. For example: Mileage for trips to the post office, trips to get office/shipping supplies, mileage to an LGS if you are purchasing to resell. If you are driving and you think your driving is related to an income the IRS wants to tax you on, ask your CPA if the mileage is deductible. One thing to note, is it’s my understanding, you either 1. deduct at the current nominal rate for mileage (example: .55c/mi) or you 2. expense the vehicle, maintenance, and parts. You cannot do both. Meaning you cannot expense your fuel cost, wiper blades, oil changes, AND take the per mile deduction. I do #1, so I’m not as familiar with #2, but I believe if you do #2 it’s more restrictive as far as mixing the vehicle between personal and business use. I’m sure if you’re a large corporation with a fleet of vehicles #2 starts to make more sense, but I’m sure 95% of ecommerce sellers are doing #1.
The stock market in the US has been a bit turbulent lately! Speaking generally, what’s your strategy when there are relatively abrupt market movements downwards? I have a feeling most will have the same response, but it may be a beneficial response to see for anyone lurking or who isn’t as comfortable with the ebbs and flows
There is a lot of discussion on EU market forums / reddit threads about repositioning from a US based allocation to a more EU based allocation. Really a lot of people seem anxious and dont have a good feeling about how markets in US (due to policies etc) will pan out. There is also a pro EU sentiment specially with regards to EU defense market due to whatever happened in the last 2 weeks. (Wont go into details to keep it on topic.). I personally dont find the EU market a great investment compared to the US or even the Asian emerging markets.
My pesonal strategy is to still DCA into ETF’s (currently it is 60% US market allocation) since my horizon is probably 15-20 years. I think short term volatility is understandable but I am assuming history shows us that on a longer term these short bumps should not matter. I also think selling and repositioning will be really expensive, specially if the markets do bounce back in a few years and the policies align favourably for EU.
This is why I have Pokemon! The market is booming in the graded card space
In all seriousness (and not entirely unrelated), diversification is huge and can help with these downturns, whether that is real estate, physical collectibles, a variety of stocks/funds/bonds, etc. Also for me personally, my investment planning goes out about 3 decades, so a temporary dip doesn’t change anything for me. While the market is lower right now, it’s still not even close to some of the major falls the US market has seen in the past. Don’t panic and stay the course
Since we’re already living in EU, I don’t like overexposing myself to the same market where I live or have a job. So, I would definitely keep those US etfs. Hope this helps!
Strategy: do nothing different. That’s the way to avoid mistakes. Boring? Yes. Foolproof? Basically. DCA during the year into 65% US, 25% Intl, 10% bonds. I’m a bit young for the bonds, but that’s ok
No change. 15% of my paycheck into a selection of mutual funds. Historically the market has had numerous dips and dives. There is nothing particularly unusual about this one that’s worth worrying about.
At my company (I work in finance/software/consulting), a couple analysts here had the view of 5%+ US10Y bonds 2025-2026. In other words, less or possibly no rate cuts that people were expecting like last Fall going into 2025. We seem to be entering in a period of stagflation, which is also what the commodity market has been reflecting (Gold, etc). In other words, cycles of growth & tightening, or inflation & deflation back and forth. We will get some clues next week from the Fed, but I think it could be very neutral and/or bearish.
Last Fall, many people became extremely bullish. I would say too bullish, that the Fed and other banks were going to go back to heavy money printing, and that we were going to enter another pre-2020 growth phase. I think we did initially go into this phase, but there was still that risk in the bond market that many analysts seemed to ignore, and it now seems to be playing out with the policy changes coming into play in government, etc.
I own 3 stocks currently. I am personally beginning to buy a little here the past couple days, on the ones that have dropped the most in my portfolio. I took a lot of profits off a short term play in Dec 2024, as I nearly 2x my investment in ~9 months, and I wasn’t comfortable holding it longer term due to it’s crazy volatility. I am now beginning to put these profits to use, slowly, 1 week at a time.
So anyway, be patient with it. It will pay off in the long term. My fav chart of all time is the $S5FI, in my experience it has been perfect at calling market bottoms and tops. If I buy it near the bottom trend line, I have always been profitable after. But as always, do your own research
Sure , I actually live in Canada, and so my portfolio is built around that for tax purposes, but it’s still fairly relevant even in the US and I follow both markets quite closely.
Constellation Software (CSU.TO, CNSWF in the US). My best stock of all time. Basically a major compound growth stock built around software businesses. Very low volatility, has returned 25%+ annually since like 2010. It’s one of the top positions in the legendary Sequoia Fund ETF in the US (one of the oldest ETFs in the entire world): Performance - Sequoia Fund
CGI Inc (GIB.A.TO, GIB in US). Another tech firm, built around consulting & IT management services. My 2nd best performer, 18% annually since 2010. Started paying a small dividend finally. It’s been down lately since they have a US division that may be impacted by the DOGE fallout, but I have been buying some shares lately as a result as it’s been a top performer overall.
Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.TO, WPM in US). 16% return since 2010. Precious metals streaming company (NOT a mining company, which are impossible to invest in for me). IMO it’s been undervalued for years and still is. Recent record earnings this week, and I honestly think it will compound a lot over years due to the global debt problems and the increased metals demand for AI hardware + EVs and other growing tech demands. It’s grown a lot since 2020.
I’ve dabbled some in cryptos and other stocks at times. Shopify was one that interested me for a while, but it’s ridiculously volatile, that I’ve only done short-term trades with it and haven’t kept it long-term (it also collapsed in 2022). Same with crypto, I only maintain a small position overall.
I kind of feel like since last week has been a decent buying level on quite a few stocks at least, but could still be more downside in play yet it seems. BTC still looks foggy to me (bear flag down to $72K range?), and the moving averages on major indexes still look a little soft to me as well and so maybe we’re not out of the storm yet. The Fed will either make or break things the next couple days it seems.
Also, watching the DOW. Looking like a Wyckoff forming on the 4H chart, so maybe headed down to 39Kish?
Inflation report came in here this morning, which doesn’t surprise me honestly .
I always get concerned when the candle closes below the 200 SMA on major indexes, so I’m remaining a bit cautious for now, and only buying small increments on the worst days.
I hope this doesn’t sound too technical , I was an analyst for a few years before I moved into another position the past while.
, I actually live in Canada, and so my portfolio is built around that for tax purposes, but it’s still fairly relevant even in the US and I follow both markets quite closely.
here 
this morning, which doesn’t surprise me honestly 
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, I was an analyst for a few years before I moved into another position the past while.