Capital gains tax changes a bit for 2018. Additionally "an ass ton" is different numbers for different people. Finally, the standard deduction changes. I'm going to make some assumptions. You can pretend this is about someone else if I'm wrong. We'll assume you're married filing jointly. Your standard deduction changes from $12,700 to $24,000. We'll also assume that you're in the 22-24% tax brackets (you and dala have a taxable income together between $38k and $148k). Long term capital gains are taxed at the same rate as your income (but are not added to your taxable income). You now have double the standard deduction - that means the amount you can deduct without having to itemize. Let's assume you are ragged edge of having to itemize in 2017 (you aren't) and nothing changes for 2018 except the liquidation of your holdings. The difference in standard deduction is 11,300. If you make less than $50k or so on your sales, the amount of capital gains tax you would pay would still be within your standard deduction. If you net more than that, you would pay capital gains tax on the remainder (I think - not a tax professional). So let's say you sell $75k worth of comics. First off, nice job. Second off, you would pay between 22% and 24% of $75k-$49,130(ish) or $6000(ish). You're still netting $69k after taxes. Charitable donations don't really gain you that much. The reason you do it is to sneak into another tax bracket. Audits: The current audit rate is something less than 1%. If they're going to audit, they'll generally put their efforts into places they can make real money. If you're in the land of standard deductions and 1040EZs, you're more likely to get hit by a bus than audited. The two people I know who have been audited in the past ten years own multiple properties overseas, shelter their earnings through multiple pass-through corporations and have aggressive accountants whose attitudes run towards "bring it - the worst you can do is make me pay what I actually owe."The higher your income, the more likely you are to be audited. The IRS audited 1.7 percent of returns that reported more than $200,000 in income. Agents audited 5.8 percent of returns that reported more than $1 million in income.
. . . If you make less than $50k or so on your sales, the amount of capital gains tax you would pay would still be within your standard deduction. So, I think what I'm reading, both from the two links and your response, is that even though I probably won't be taxed on what I make, I still need to report it? Edit: I'm more confused than ever because the Wikipedia article I linked to leads to Capital Gain which leads to Capital Asset. From the Capital Gain article I read . . . and from Capital Asset I read . . . Any movable property (excluding jewellery made out of gold, silver, precious stones, and drawing, paintings, sculptures, archeological collections, Dinosaur bones, etc.) used for personal use by the assessee or any member (dependent) of assessee’s family is not treated as capital assets. For example, wearing apparel, furniture, car or scooter, TV, refrigerator, musical instruments, gun, revolver, generator, etc. is the examples of personal effects. (But see IRS publication 544 chapter 2.) To cut to the chase, I'm selling pretty much all of my old electronics and my comics, but I doubt I'd be making much of a profit (if any) off of them and I doubt they'd be considered a capital asset. I feel dumb and lost here.Long term capital gains are taxed at the same rate as your income (but are not added to your taxable income). You now have double the standard deduction - that means the amount you can deduct without having to itemize.
A capital gain refers to profit that results from a sale of a capital asset, such as stock, bond or real estate, where the sale price exceeds the purchase price. The gain is the difference between a higher selling price and a lower purchase price.
Excluded from the definition of capital assets
Let's pretend that in 1982, you purchased a thousand copies of ET The Extra Terrestrial for the Atari 2600. You would have spent about $40k doing so. Let's pretend that you intend to sell them in 2018. They currently go for about $6. You're going to pay about a 30% overhead unloading them on the world, so you're going to make about $4k. That $4k is not a capital gain. That $4k is a capital loss because you purchased the games for investment purposes and lost a shit ton of money. If you wish to get tax credit for those losses, tough titty. Doesn't work that way. Let's instead pretend you bought 100 Lego Millennium Falcons for $800 (somehow) in September. Your investment is $80k. You're going to sell them after next september (which makes them long term rather than short term capital gains) for, oh, they seem to be about $3k right now. Minus your 30% ebay bullshit fee, you're going to clear $120k. That $120k is a capital gain because the value of your capital... gained in value. Capital is shit you own. If that shit loses value, it's a capital loss. If that shit gains value, it's a capital gain. If you profit off of it, you have made a capital gain. Let's say your grandfather gave you eight copies of Superman number 1. One of those went for like $3m a while back; you're sitting on $24m in capital. However, you have not experienced a "capital gain" until you sell them. You would then pay capital gains tax, and then some. You also would have likely paid an inheritance tax when you received them. This is the sort of thing that makes Republicans mad: how dare you tax me for shit that I didn't work for! Obviously, none of these circumstances have anything to do with your universe. Most of your stuff has lost value. The stuff that hasn't is a long way from $50k in capital gains. The "standard deduction" is what the IRS is willing to spot you precisely so you don't have to itemize and those receipts only come in handy if you itemize and if you get audited. Capital gains is rich people problems. Those of us who liquidated $30k in Ethereum in order to buy Porsches might have to worry about it, but we're not and the standard deduction this year is half what it'll be next year. Chillax.