Those who made over $600 reselling tickets will now have to report their earnings to the Internal Revenue Services (IRS). The Chief Financial Officer of Florida says that this tax law is targeting Swifties.
Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis addressed the law in a news release titled “The IRS Is Targeting Taylor Swift Fans.” He said that the new regulation — which requires anyone who made over $600 from sites like Venmo, CashApp, Ticketmaster, and StubHub to fill out a 1099-K tax form — is an overreach from the government.
“Just when you thought Washington couldn’t further intrude into the lives of Americans more, the deep state has found yet another way to screw over honest, hard-working taxpayers by digging deeper into your wallets,” Patronis said in a statement. “While Biden said he wants to go after millionaires and billionaires, turns out he wants to go after moms and dads who can’t attend Taylor Swift concerts.”
While Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the change is intended to crack down on the wealthy and those who cheat on their taxes, Patronis and other legislators feel like the regulation is targeting individuals and small businesses. Patronis said “the land of the free and home of the brave is swiftly becoming the land of the forgotten middle class and the home of the overtaxed.”
“Taylor Swift is her own economic development engine and has done more good for the economy than Biden ever will,” Patronis said. “In this economy, people do everything they can to afford record-high inflation. If for some unforeseen circumstance occurs and you have to resell your concert tickets, you should be able to do so without any repercussions.”
During The Eras Tour, as well as Beyonce’s Renaissance Tour, tickets were listed on resale sites for thousands of dollars. For the first time, resellers saw a huge increase in fan ticket resellers this year; while resellers mainly consist of brokers, StubHub found that an unusually high number of fans were selling tickets. About 70% of The Eras Tour tickets were resold by actual Swift fans — double the proportion that the company normally sees. Amid the inflated prices and Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan fiasco, more fans than ever decided to resell tickets either for profit or due to changes in plans.
While there was a regulation in place per the IRS previously, resellers only had to report if they sold more than $20,000 in goods or made over 200 transactions. A bipartisan bill has been introduced in the Senate that would fall in between the former and current regulation with a threshold of $10,000 and 50 transactions.
Patronis pointed those who wish to fight back against reporting IRS activity to the IRS Transparency Portal.
