SSi and Ebay $ question

[revjack]

What is the name of your state? PA

As a related question to my other post, I was thinking about selling my handcrafts on ebay, and not to the locals around here.
I called the SSA office and my worker said she does not know how to classify money made from occasional sales on Ebay, and she would have to call me back later this week.

The worker could not actually define what the booklet means when it says SSi does NOT count ;
"small amounts of income received irregularly or infrequently"

I asked her if selling one or two items a month on Ebay would be considered "small amounts of income received irregularly or infrequently" or not and she did not know. I asked her what would income (if it can even be called income by definition) from occasional ebay sales that would probably never add up to more than about $50 on a good month, from sales that would not be consistent (one month might be one sale, next month no sale next month 2 sales, the next month or 3 maybe no sales at all) was counted as or called.

She said "I really do not know, I will have to check and call you back".



Has anyone here, sold irregularly on ebay and how do you report that money, or do you have to at all?

I'm not even sure how to record those kinds of moneys, I suppose, by my bank statement or maybe printed ebay invoices from ebay as I sold something?

The worker did tell me this morning not to worry about the balckmailers, that as long as I have records of all the crafts i sold and do sell now and then, I have nothing to worry about.

That made me feel much better.

 

[BL]

I expect it will not hurt your SSI payments .

Well you are suppose let SSI know of any income , these amounts are trivial .

Personally , I would not even report it .

For all SSA knows you bought them with your SSA money , and then sold them .

 

[revjack]

You mean if you sell stuff you already own, thats not countable?

 

[BL]

You mean if you sell stuff you already own, thats not countable?

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/ssi/text-understanding-ssi.htm

The limit of resources for one SSI recipient is any amount of certain assets over $2,000.00 .

Obviously if they sold items for over $2,000.00 in one month , they would not qualify for that month .

Unless these items are reported or recognized as income , there are no SSA police .

Unless the recipient is really committing fraud to that level and it can be proven , SSA isn't going to police these trivial matters .

 

[revjack]

oh, thanks! I see now in the handbook it says they dont count money from the sale of things you own.

there is no 'business' and no real 'production line' making items for resale. I am going to guess if there would be any question at all in what I would do, it would have to do with producing crafts and then selling them, not selling 'items you own' like an old set of golf clubs or some dishes.

I wonder how do they view a person making copies of a handcraft and selling the same item repeatedly? Would they consider that as a home business?
But there is no business or tax ID#.

I know these questions are probably trivial, but they do stress me out.


I will call the local office tomorrow and ask them, with the info you pointed me to in the booklet. Surely they will be able to say one way or the other, or at least, it will be on record I did ask and try to be honest about it.

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it.

 

[revjack]

I talked to another worker today and asked the same questions but referred to the handbook in the conversation. They told me that again, they have to get an answer for sure but, most likely is considered money they wouldnt count, as in selling things you own or, at worse, it would be counted but under the max allowed per month limit.
So at least thats off my mind.

 

[revjack]

Interesting end of the line answer from the head office.
Selling stuff on ebay that you own, is not a countable income, regardless of how much the amount is you sell an item/items for. The catch is
1) you have to keep a record of the sale, report it when your review comes up (yearly in my case).
2) you MUST spend the money before the month is out or, it is counted as a resource (as savings or assets). They said simply showing a bank account that money was put into, and then checked out of along with a record of the sale is more than sufficient reporting.
3) If you make a HABIT of doing this, they may consider it a 'home business'. They said "it would only stand to reason, after so many months of selling your own possessions via ebay or yard sales, at some point, your house will be empty. Long term habitual or regular sales of personal items can be viewed as "reselling" items you have acquired solely to resell."

Which when you think about it makes perfect sense. This falls under that line in the handbook "small irregular sums of money" that they don't count.


So if anyone was also wondering about this one, if you are on SSI, sale of your own possessions is income they do not count, so long as it is spent in 30 days, and don't make a regular habit of doing it.

They told me handmade crafts even sold only now and then, can and may be considered a home business, depending on the amount of money and the volume of the sales.
Definitions of what the amount and volume is, they could not/would not tell me.

They did tell me what I was doing is not even close to being considered a business or regular. the nice fella at the SS office told me to go home and don't worry about it just keep my receipts and bank statements in order and I have nothing to worry about.