Thogey wrote:It's not apples and oranges. It's simple record keeping! I thing you should have to file the $600 1099s. Just you. only you
Well that's not vindictive at all
In the normal course of running a legitimate business using standard accounting practices you already (or should already) keep all the records necessary to support the numbers on a 1099-K from a payment processor, in which case the 1099-K adds zero new record keeping to your business activities. It's simply a check. Your total business sales for the year must be equal to or greater than the number on your 1099-K, which it will be if you properly recorded all of your sales for the year. One new paper to keep in the file cabinet each year, that's it. No new administrative burden, no new burden to your customers.
Am I jumping up and down with joy over the 1099-K? Of course not. But it's really only a problem if you are trying to run a business without actually running a business (aka cheating on your taxes), or are trying to sell an awful lot of personal assets on eBay in one calendar year.
The $600 1099 requirement, on the other hand, adds brand new record-keeping and reporting requirements, information you would not otherwise be collecting and recording in the normal course of business. 1099-MISC were already required for payments for services totaling $600 or more during the year to an unincorporated business (sole proprietor, partnership, etc). The new law expanded that to include payments to incorporated businesses, and to purchases of raw materials and merchandise for resale. In practical terms for the coin/bullion market, that means every dealer-to-dealer relationship that exceeds $600 in a year. Buy two rolls of ASEs from a dealer at a coin show? Fill out a 1099. Order silver shot from APMEX? Fill out a 1099. Buy a half ounce of gold from an eBay Store? Fill out a 1099. The eBay Store owner refuses to give you their SSN or EIN, as we can reasonably assume many or most would? Now YOU are out of compliance and held responsible.
A 1099 has five copies. You mail one to the IRS, one to the applicable state tax agency, two to the payment recipient, and one you keep for your records. Then, at the end of the year, you have to summarize all of your 1099s on a 1096. Then you need to retain and store those documents containing sensitive information for several years. This adds a huge paperwork burden to the business that did not exist before, plus you'll be receiving 1099s from all of the businesses you sold $600 to and will have to reconcile and save all of those forms. All business now have to raise prices enough to cover all the new time spent filling out paperwork, all the postage used mailing forms all over, and to store copies of all of this stuff.
There is a measurable, objective difference in the added administrative burden these two separate issues place on legitimate businesses. Apples and oranges.
Thogey wrote:I disagree with withholding btw. Do you? I'll bet not.
Withholding what? Taxes from employee paychecks? Yes I disagree, I don't like anything that places the burden of tax collection on businesses (including 1099s, withholding, and sales tax). I'm an independent contractor and anybody that does work for me is also an independent contractor, so I don't deal with any withholding. I do, however, deal with 1099s and sales taxes. That doesn't mean I advocate for them. It just means that the smart business decision is to comply with the existing laws and continue to operate and grow my business, rather than get hassled by the IRS and go to jail. If a new law comes along like the 1099 changes that were snuck into the ACA, then you certainly fight back.
Thogey wrote:You guys are apples
I'm an orange. That's all I'll write about that.
All the rhetoric in the world won't turn an apple into an orange or an orange into an apple, and neither is inherently correct. But it seems to me that you aren't looking at the bottom line, the hours and dollars and cents of compliance, how a reporting requirement ultimately affects day-to-day business. Rather you seem to be painting with a rather large philosophical brush, saying that anybody who accepts or complies with any kind of taxation or reporting requirement is a government boot-licker, girly man, boiled frog, or whatever. That's akin to saying that the recipient of a parking ticket, and a convicted murderer, are both equally criminal and must be treated as such. It's an overly simplistic viewpoint and it's not productive.
Call me a pragmatist, but I can bring myself to fight the things that place an undue burden on my business or myself, while not making myself miserable sweating the small stuff.
Besides, you'd kick my ass in a physical fight 
