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. Amazon is often cited as not generating a profit for many years, but is now profitable. For them, it was somehow okay to run a business making no profit! So like, how come small businesses can’t claim losses, but big corps can?
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.
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.
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
It’s hard to get a good read on these things. You’ll only see the perspective of the person that thinks they were cheated by the IRS. The IRS won’t make Reddit posts about people carrying out tax evasion.
Likewise you say the IRS dont think it’s a business. They probably carry out much stricter measures than that. Probably much stricter than the people complaining on Reddit. The people complaining also only “think” it’s a business.
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Amazon pays taxes. Less than what they should? Yes but they are paying https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/04/amazon-had-to-pay-federal-income-taxes-for-the-first-time-since-2016.html
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The difference may also be how the business is structured. Personal vs a corporation (LLC or otherwise).
Because big corporations are better at paying off governments than smaller businesses.
Governments aren’t the ones paying big tech, they protect monopolies if that’s what you mean. Even then that’s dubious with what’s happening recently in europe and America
No, I’m saying large corporations pay off governments, which is absolutely true.
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!
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. I’ve been a freelancer and a small business owner and even in my worst years I didn’t come anywhere near 50%, let alone 70%
Truly this just sounds like you are way overpaying. Do you get a sizable tax refund? Do you live in a state that has some sort of crazy law you fall under?
Well, I fell into a bracket that’s taxed (it’s not officially called a tax, but that’s what it is) by a certain fixed minimal amount. Thanks to my total revenue being relatively low, it makes an absurd amount percentage-wise.
That doesn’t really tell me anything and it doesn’t really sound like anything I’ve heard of. What exactly are these tax policies you’re falling under?
And it’s not tax policy but functionally is…? So it’s not actually a 70% tax rate? What are you talking about?
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.
