Sorry another ebay/paypal question

[jessegirl]

Hi All, Sorry for another ebay/paypal question, but was just reading and now realizing something. We sold 2 dirtbikes in June for a total of approx. 2400.00. We used the money to stay afloat to pay bills and live on. Now we also sold in June a 60 inch TV that was 7 years old for 215.00. I honestly never gave it a thought until i just read on the thread about ebay. So now is the trustee going to give us a problem? We have already used the money. We also, sold another motorcycle. We orignally had it listed on ebay but it didn't sell on ebay and we sold it after to someone else. We used the money to paypal off the motorcycle and the rest abiut 3500-4000.00 we used to again stay afloat paying our bills and living expenses. Will this pose a problem. We did acutally mention the 7350.00 sale of the motorcycle to the attorney which he said don't worry about it. I didn't mention ebay cause although it was listed on there, it closed without no buyers and then someone contacted us about it and it was sold privately. Do they just pull your paypal/ebay account? I never gave it a thought until reading others. Also, how far do they look back. I was selling alot of purses maybe 15 a month on ebay maybe profiting between 10-60 dollars on each purses. Although, i had to pay listing and selling fees out of that money too. I think that was Jan. 2008. I also sold alot of used clothing, concert tickets (oriignally purchased as a gift for hubby) but then sold cause we needed money. Do you think all of this will be a problem? Is it 3-6 months before file? I feel like i have a watermelon in my stomach over this.

Hope you all can understand my rambling... sorry

[jktrading]

Why would a trustee give you a hard time for conducting business? A lot of people sell on ebay. Why is this any different than a regular job? As long as you're not hiding anything and answer any questions truthfully, what are you worried about?

I'm sure a trustee can ask for a variety of documents if they're looking to uncover assets you may have. I'm just not getting what you think your problem is?

[Priceless ProSe]

I had a similar problem in that, I forgot to list my paypal account as I hadnt been using it much. Being that it is a "bank account", I ammended my schedules to show the paypal account. I also listed all money I had made on ebay as business income. Personally I wanted to be as honest as possible about everything, if they know about one (ebay or papal) and request documents they will inevitably find out about the other. For example, if you list paypal as a bank account (which you should) and the trustee requests your bank statements then he/she would see the ebay transactions and visa versa. The trustee didnt mention any of it at my 341 though. It is more likely (1000 times more likely) that if they do want info they will request it from you as opposed to trying to gain access to your accounts.

If it were me I would list any amount of profit (the sale price of the bike minus the purchase price) as income, just to be as honest as possible (but then again you probably didnt make a profit).

[jessegirl]

We purchased the one bike privately and when it sold we took a 100.00 loss on it. And the other bike we purchased brand new around 6 years ago (so book value was probably what we got for it). The reg. bik we sold was purchased about 3 years ago and naturally it sold for less then what we purchased it at, lthough my husband put a ton of extras on this biike. I will tell my attorney about the paypal account, good thing i was reading on these threads, I just never gave it a thought and she never asked about ebay/paypal. and I never gave it a thought that it was like a bank account. Now all I have to do is print out an acitivity report from paypal? How long do I have to go back?

Jktradng - I didn't list this as income, as I never gave it a thought. I am still thinking ebay is like a garage sale, now do you have to list a garage sale as income?

I do not have any receipts as the one bike was purchased thru a friend of a friend and the other was purchased 6 + years ago. The reg. motorycycle I might have some kind of paperwork. Thats if hubby don't chuck it. I really never gave it a thought that i would have to show documents on what was sold and what wasn't. Sorry, if that sounds stupid. The 2 were Off road dirt bikes and you don't have to register them or have ins on them in my state.

[jessegirl]

hmmmm, i just noticed that my thread isn't highlited after i answered it. hmmmmm

[AngelinaCat]

Hi jessegirl:

Have you filed yet? If not, I would wait at least 6 months to do so, to let the larger amounts drop out of the scene. We are not real active on eBay, just sell or buy a few small things now and again. We did not list the PayPal account, #1, we didn't think of it, #2, after we did think about it, we use it only as a transfer point to and from our regular checking account and there is rarely more than just two or three dollars at any one time.

The exception to that was $5,000.00 partial payment for a mortgage note that we sold. The funds were only there about 24 hours at the most.

When the whole matter of the sale of the mortgage note came to light--we weren't trying to hide anything; our attorney knew of this, but failed to list it, and we dumb as bricks, were trusting her lead--at our Rule 2004(b) Examination, everything came to light. There were no problems with the money being used for bills, etc. The problem was two reimbursements of $1320.00 to a SIL and $5,000.00 to a god-daughter that were seen as 'insider preferential payments.' The Trustee wasn't interested in anything else, including PayPal.

Good luck to you.

[jessegirl]

No i haven't filed yet. We were going to file sometime in Sept. I have to call my attorney and go in and talk about this situation. Thanks for all your help.

[jessegirl]

Hi Angelinacat - One question - what is insider perferential payments? And what happens with that? Do you have to pay the trustee? I don't understand that.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Jessiegirl: A preferential payment on any payment that you make abnormally high to one individual or more that you would otherwise pay evenly. In other words a card you wish to keep up but let the other cards go. An “insider” as a preferential payment would be a friend or relative over and above paying everything evenly. In other words, you are favoring one creditor over another and bk does not deem this fair. It can be done prior to filing or after. ‘Hub

[AngelinaCat]

It can be done prior to filing or after. ‘Hub

'Hub has not made this sentence clear. If you make a large re-payment to someone before you file, you best do it at least--bare minimum--6 months BEFORE filing. If you are suspected of "preferential insider payment" they can look back on your history for a year or more. After you file and are discharged and closed, then you can pay whatever to whomever you want.

We were working toward filing 13, and the attorney knew all this, and we sold the mortgage note in August, and filed 7--because I had lost my job, so we couldn't fund a 13--on Dec. 28, 2007, way too soon for any kind of filing. But we had had no real guidance from out attorney, nor had we found this site at that time. We could have saved ourselves a whole lot of grief if we had.

[AngelinaCat]

What an absolute absurd statement, if everyone followed your line of thinking? half the english speaking world couldn't file bk and most of the chinese as well. What does selling stuff on ebay do with haveing to wait 6 months. You're one of those crazy cat people that live like a hermin aren't you?

Most certainly not. But having had the experience of selling something and making payments too close to filing, has been a real eye-opener. The lookback guidelines and rules regarding BK aren't there for nothing.

[AngelinaCat]

Yeah but she was asking about selling her crap on ebay not about paying off her family that was your problem and you gave her the advice to wait 6 months..........meow, crazy

She sold a couple of items four 2K+ each. That's income. The advice is to wait until those two lump sums drop off the screen or else her income will be perceived to be higher than it really is.

We get a stipend from a trust once a year, and we had to wait 6 months after that to file--that advice per our attorney.

[Bandit]

What an absolute absurd statement, if everyone followed your line of thinking? half the english speaking world couldn't file bk and most of the chinese as well. What does selling stuff on ebay do with haveing to wait 6 months. You're one of those crazy cat people that live like a hermin aren't you?

You really need to stop the insults or I am going to report all your rude postings.

AngelinaCat is a very nice & respectful person.
There is nothing wrong with people waiting to file.

[gymbo]

Hi Jesse girl...
(BTW I am a HUGE RS fan - I'm guessing that's what is behind the name - if so - that's awesome - wish I had thought of it!)

Anyway - I would run it by your attorney (the $2400) ... just to make sure it does not create a problem... It definately could.

As for paypal - I was under the impression IT IS NOT a bank account, and you do not have to list it if you are buying and selling minor things and not running a big business.... but I could be wrong.

I don't have a cat but I do have a dog if anyone wants to throw out some personal attacks based on that.

[justplaintired]

Paypal can be associated with your bank acct and there lays the problem. If you used your bank acct to pay ebay fees, there is a problem. If you transferred money from paypal to your bank acct there is another problem.

The biggest problem with ebay is simply what did you pay for the item you sold and what did you make and what is your profit. That's what makes taxing ebay such a huge issue and don't you think the government would love to find a way to tax us for selling on ebay?

Far as I can tell it might be some large dollar items which I think I would definitely want my attorney to know. Small dollar items aren't a huge deal. If you have a paypal acct tied into your bank acct better to tell the attorney specially if they were high dollar items.

Oh and I have 3 dogs and since someone here seems to think pets are fair game, I thought I'd share that. But please don't pick on my 3 dogs (pugs) I don't want to lose my temper!