Submitted 2 months ago by Buttflapper@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Uber has never once turned a profit, and is allowed to continue running their business. If you’re a small business owner running an ebay or ecom business, and you claim losses for 3 out of 5 years in a row, it’s likely that the IRS will audit you, and could deem you a hobby. It’s honestly so discriminatory and scummy. How come small businesses can’t claim losses, but big corps can?
I’m not up to speed on how US tax laws work. What does getting deemed a hobby entail?
Think of someone who makes small crafts and sells them on some online platform. Someone who does this as a business will keep track of their materials costs, and subtract them from their sales cost, only paying taxes on their actual profit.
But the IRS will only let you do this if they determine your intent is to make a profit. If they think you are purposely just selling enough to cover your materials, but using most of the materials for yourself, they can tell you that you never had an actual business in the first place, and that all that deducting of expenses never should have happened.
Seems like it’s completely subjective, too. I’ve seen many posts on reddit about people being shafted by the IRS and forced to pay back a ton in taxes even though it was a legit effort to run an actual business, simply because they don’t “think” it’s a business
The difference may also be how the business is structured. Personal vs a corporation (LLC or otherwise).
Yes there is a difference, but LLC is a legal concept, not a tax one. The IRS taxes sole proprietors the same whether or not they have an LLC.
Tax entities include sole proprietorship (default), partnerships, s corps, c corps. Any of those can be LLCs, but they don’t have to.
Yes the main appeal of a LLC is that you aren’t liable if your LLC gets sued. As a sole proprietor if someone slips and falls in your store they can recover damages from you personally. As an LLC they can only get the business’s funds.
This means that even if awarded damages from a civil case tanks your business your won’t be out of a home and your personal bank accounts are safe (not considering the burden of lossing your source of income).
Small businesses absolutely can, and should claim any valid expenses. In theory audits are not punishments. They happen to large companies too. But in practice small businesses often don’t have full time accountants keeping their records and some receipts are lost after the cost has been reported.
Like many compliance regulations bookkeeping has costs that larger business are easier able to bear. Small businesses do get some aid notably a lot of money went out during covid, but big businesses have the people and resources to take advantage of that aid more than a solo proprietor who wasn’t even aware. Although small businesses never seem to get those “to big to fail” bailouts.
To touch on the hobby point if you run a business 40 hrs a week and lose twice what you make a year the IRS probably won’t mind. But if you’ve got 3 businesses you use to right off expenses (like craft brewing equipment, leather working tools, or art supplies) and you only have ever sold a single belt on Etsy over the span of a year they’ll probably have an issue.
But in practice small businesses often don’t have full time accountants keeping their records and some receipts are lost after the cost has been reported.
Not to mention large businesses can spend more money on lawyers that are able to drag out court cases through delay tactics and are far more likely to get the government to settle.
IRS will audit you, and could deem you a hobby
Are there any negative consequences? I’d prefer to be downgraded to a hobbyist. Instead, the government has increased my taxes to around 70% of my yearly revenue. Social democracy, fuck yeah!
Profitability is just a proxy for whether someone is legitimately running a business, or just trying to save money on their hobby. Businesses can deduct expenses, hobbies cannot.
So if you are running an etsy store or an engineering company and buy a 3d printer to make parts, the cost of that 3d printer is subtracted from revenue for tax purposes. If your “business” is actually a hobby, it’s not legally a business expense and therefore it’s not deductible
This is a great explanation for why business deductions are stupid in the first place. Why does being profitable justify being even more profitable by paying fewer taxes?
What country is this?
70%? The fuck? What do you do for a living/do you have an accountant? That doesn’t make any damn sense. Like truly I do not understand how this is possible
In the USA, there are tax breaks regarding expenses. A big one is that, because the USA does final sales tax instead of VAT, a business can buy goods without paying sales tax as long as they aren’t the final point of sale.
alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Because they manage to attract investment.
As long as investors are willing to give cash in exchange for equity, a company can operate on that cash and run at a loss.
QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 2 months ago
To clarify further, the IRS cares about the big businesses too and they get audited, at least, yearly by law. Also, small businesses can still operate if they have the capital to do so. The IRS is concerned about ensuring no laundering or otherwise nefarious activities are going on, which is why they get the spotlight when running in the red consistently.
lemmyman@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The IRS doesn’t audit annually, companies hire 3rd party auditors. And it’s not a tax requirement, it’s a public-company requirement.