Just another random half thought from yours truly.
This would also seem to hurt the bottom line of the suppliers we use for the co-ops. Like mouser and the pcb manufacture that RJ uses. Seem like they would want to help us with this problem. I am pretty sure either Bill and/or RJ could directly talk to the sales rep of each company for help.
Cheers
Rick R.
The ability of us Little People to get together and combine purchases to take advantage of volume discounts should not cause us a tax problem (IMHO).
I have looked, albeit briefly, at the IRS website on the Taxation of Hobbies. Perhaps, PAYPAL would be so kind as to add a category that declares this transaction is "HOBBY" related and we can register as "HOBBY" users.
Won't checks have the same issue? I'd guess banks would have similar reporting rules.
/mike
Why not go direct to the company's. Have them use there own Paypal account. We can still run the process but use the companies paypal.
The problem with doing that is that it would limit the value of doing coops at all. One of the primary benefits of the coop is that the large volume related to a significant savings on the cost of parts. If you limit the size of the coops down to low then those cost savings disappear and it just becomes a lot of work for the coop manager for nothing.
Until I can talk with the CPA, I think RJ is onto something with vendors kitting projects for us. Perhaps a new business model which allows vendors to bid on the sale of say 100 kits (the coop manager would contact the vendor with the # and parts list of a sure sale). This new law has to hurt them too. Mayhaps our congress people can do something good for us.
Not if the sub managers send the payment to the manager by check.
I have looked, albeit briefly, at the IRS website on the Taxation of Hobbies. Perhaps, PAYPAL would be so kind as to add a category that declares this transaction is "HOBBY" related and we can register as "HOBBY" users.
The only problem I could see and Paypal would not be opt to go this route is anyone could claim "hobby" to avoid reporting.
And sadly with the crooks out thier looking for ways to bypass tax paying and reporting I could see this being used by shady individuals as a method to get around tax reporting themselves. Which sucks as the good people that we are could be ruined by such individuals. Its for this reason I don't see Paypal granting such an option. :(
Cash or checks might be the only option again unless anyone else has a different idea? ???