Tax question

[BULBUS]

Hi, any accountants out there? I sold some of my signed memorabilia collection through an auction house and received a 1099-Misc. I'm pretty sure i took a loss on the items, but I do not have records of most of my purchases (which were several years ago). How do I go about filing this on my tax return?

Thanks in advance!

[volunteer]

Re: Tax question

This sounds like pretty good advice from the IRS.

"You cannot deduct amounts that you approximate or estimate.
You should keep adequate records to prove your expenses or have sufficient evidence that will support your own statement. You must generally prepare a written record for it to be considered adequate. However, if you prepare a record on a computer, it is considered an adequate record."

[TwinLakesPark]

Re: Tax question

Do you mind sharing which auction house issued you a 1099?

[BULBUS]

Re: Tax question

I used Steiner to sell a bunch of autographed baseballs and such (approx. 30 items). They did all the work and got me decent prices. I do not have a record of everything I consigned. I do know that after all is said and done I did not profit on this stuff. I suppose that I cant use retail value? Retail value on just 3 of the Statballs was more than the check I recieved. I'm not looking to claim the loss I took, I just don't think I should pay taxes on the 1099-Misc I recieved.

[TwinLakesPark]

Re: Tax question

The reality is that the income from Steiner has been reported to the IRS, so unless you dig deep in your records to document your costs, you are going to be paying income tax on the amount.

[danesei@yahoo.com]

Re: Tax question

Hi, any accountants out there? I sold some of my signed memorabilia collection through an auction house and received a 1099-Misc. I'm pretty sure i took a loss on the items, but I do not have records of most of my purchases (which were several years ago). How do I go about filing this on my tax return?

You will probably want to seek the advice of a local accountant on this, but my understanding is that hobby income is offset by hobby expenses, so you could claim expenses generated in the past year (2014) against the income on the 1099-MISC. I'm sure this will be a far cry from your income generated, but without records of cost basis on the items you sold, the IRS assumes your basis to be zero. To be clear, hobby expenses would be just that: expenses derived from your hobby (displays, holders, desiccant, dehumidifiers, humidifiers, etc). It would not include money spent on other items, as those would have their own individual cost bases.

Again, talk to a local accountant, as the rules may be different for your state than other states, and the accountant will do a much better job in helping you define your expenses than anyone else could.

[danesei@yahoo.com]

Re: Tax question

Here's an answer form Intuit, and from the sounds of it, they can walk you through what would constitute hobby expenses:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1900335

[BULBUS]

Re: Tax question

Thanks for the info/advise guys. I guess I have some digging to do. I know I have records of the cheap prices of some of the stuff I sold. I printed out the EBay page because I was so proud lol

[Mark17]

Re: Tax question

If you used PayPal, go to their site and search your payment history. Their records go back very far.

[BULBUS]

Re: Tax question

If you used PayPal, go to their site and search your payment history. Their records go back very far.

Thanks! I'm going to use my yahoo email too, but that only seems to go back to 2005. I would say the bulk of the purchases were early 2000s.