Tax time is quickly approaching. If you are an at-home eBay seller, you'll want to familiarize yourself with deductions you can take for operating a home business. Bankrate has created a helpful list titled, "A Dozen Tax Deductions for Your Small Business."
eBay sellers often forget to deduct their mileage expenses. The IRS announced on November 27, 2007, that the standard mileage rate for business miles for 2008 will 
increase to 50.5 cents per mile, from 48.5 cents per mile in 2007. Be sure to keep a log of the miles you drive this year to thrift stores to buy inventory, to the post office, or any other driving that pertains to your eBay business.
My mileage for eBay related driving in 2007 was 2,200 miles. Keep track of your mileage, it adds up fast. Every deduction helps.
Great tip! I agree - those miles really add up! Make sure all of your trips are documented, but you don't have to keep the actual odometer reading for each trip. In other words, if I made 100 trips to the post office this year to ship packages and have that documented on my calendar, and I know that it's 5 miles round trip to the post office, I can claim 500 miles for those trips. The IRS prefers original documentation, not something that is re-written and copied neatly, so I keep my calendar where I recorded each trip and file that with my copy of my tax return.
There's more about ebay and taxes on my ebay blog. Click on the "taxes" tag.
Posted by: Susan | January 8, 2008 9:26 AM | Permalink to Comment