Ebay sales and fees and shipping credit

[cougarred]

Hi all, I received a 1099-K just selling on EBAY some things in my house this year because we want to downsize. It was around 5200, but the report I received showed I only needed 4400 after shipping and ebay fees.

I entered the 5200 on 1099-K in Turbo Tax as hobby sales. Is there someplace I can enter the net mount I received (or the deduction for fees and shipping costs) in Turbotax as a hobby?

[cougarred]

Or should I do as Personal Sales. I really don't have any way to determine if I lost or made money on the items.

[DianeW777]

No.  When hobby income is reported there are no expenses that can be deducted from it.  You have two options.

1. Leave the income as hobby income (not recommended)
2. Enter personal sales for those items that were sold at a gain (sold for more than you paid for them).
3. Keep a record of all sales so that you can show which sales of personal use items were sold at a loss.
   1. See the information below to understand the IRS rules for sales of personal use items.

Enter two separate 1099-Ks as though you received two, one for your personal items sold at a loss and one for the personal items sold at a gain.  Keep in mind you can separate it into two categories.  

One category would be all items sold at a loss and the other category would be all items sold at a gain.

Personal Items Sold at a Loss.

The costs associated with the sale of personal items can be used to offset the income from those items.  If these times were sold at a loss, you can simply track this information and keep it with your tax return (you need this in any event) without reporting it.  Otherwise you report the income and cost at the same amount because a loss is not allowed for this transaction.

Personal Items Sold at a Gain.

One personal item or a group of personal items sold in one transaction or many that results in a gain requires the gain to be taxed. 

It's not necessary to enter each individual sale as long as you have the detail to show how you arrived at your return data. It's up to you to have the records of your cost for each item or a reasonable method of how you arrived at your cost.  The IRS will require you to provide the cost.

You can use the 1099-K entry for more than one sale if necessary using the same 1099-K and breaking it down. See the image below for assistance.

[cougarred]

Thanks. These items were years old and I have no record of what I paid or even remember. So, it's just a gross amount I pay on unfortunately.