You only need to report personal items that you sold if they were sold for more than what you originally paid. Let's say you purchased a vintage nut grinder for $5 in 1972 and recently sold it for $75 at a yard sale. In that case, you'd have to report the $70 profit as an investment sale.
Personal items sold at a gain
If you made a profit or gain on the sale of a personal item, your profit is taxable. The profit is the difference between the amount you received for selling the item and the amount you originally paid for the item.
If there's no profit, there's nothing to tax. Many states don't require you to collect sales taxes on items sold at a yard sale, particularly if you don't have more than a certain number of sales per year. Check with your state taxing authority before proceeding.
Additionally, you must report the sale of the home if you can't exclude all of your capital gain from income. Use Schedule D (Form 1040), Capital Gains and Losses and Form 8949, Sales and Other Dispositions of Capital Assets when required to report the home sale.
Whether your small business focuses on real estate or sold unneeded property during the tax year, a copy of form 1099-S, which is sent to both you and the IRS by the closing attorney or real estate official, reports the gross proceeds from the sale.
If you're the beneficiary of an estate and you sell items within the estate during an estate sale, there are specific tax guidelines to follow. If the goods are being sold on behalf of the estate of someone who has passed away, then the sale is reported on the estate income tax return of the deceased person.
Whether you sell items exclusively online or not, the IRS and most states consider any income you earn from these sales taxable. Whether or not you will owe taxes for selling personal items, goods, or services online will depend on several factors, including whether you made a profit.
With proper planning and garage sale pricing, though, you can potentially earn between $500 and $1,000, depending on how much you have to sell.
While you might need to pay some extra property taxes for the value you've added to your property in the form of a detached garage, that bill might not be as bad as you fear.
If the car was a personal asset, report the sale on an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1040, Schedule D. If you used it for business purposes, report the sale on Form 4797 or Form 8824. Again, using a certified public accountant or professional tax preparer can help ensure you're filing correctly.
Key Takeaways:
Gifts of up to $19,000 in cash are exempt from reporting in 2025. Those who have household employees must report cash payments that exceed $2,800 in 2025. All cash income should be reported on federal tax returns, regardless of whether a person receives a W-2 or 1099 Form from the entity that paid them.
In the rare situation where you sold a personal use asset for more than what you bought it for, then you would report the sale on your tax return and you would report capital gain income for the amount you sold the asset above what you paid for the asset.
A garage sale (also known as a yard sale, tag sale, moving sale and by many other names) is an informal event for the sale of used goods by private individuals, in which sellers are not required to obtain business licenses or collect sales tax (though, in some jurisdictions, a permit may be required).
Do You Have to File Taxes If You Made Less than $5,000? Typically, if a filer files less than $5,000 per year, they don't need to do any filing for the IRS. Your employment status can also be used to determine if you're making less than $5,000.
In this scenario, the tax rules generally treat you as a real estate dealer. That means your entire profit — including the portion from pre-development appreciation in the value of the land — will be treated as ordinary income subject to a federal income tax rate of up to 39.6%.
Baby & kids clothing, toys, and gadgets sell super well as well as kitchen stuff (dishes, cookware, etc). Adult clothing can sell, but it's generally not as popular as kids clothing. If you don't have many of the best selling items, a garage sale might not be worth your time.
Perhaps the biggest pro of all, even more so than the extra cash, is the chance to declutter your house. You can finally get rid of those toys and clothes your children have outgrown, the games you don't play with, or the printer you no longer use. What other yard sale pros and cons have you heard?
Do I have to pay tax on the amount that will be reported in 1099-K? It depends. If you've sold an item and made money on the sale (whether in your business, hobby, or a capital gain on your personal items), then you may owe taxes. However, you likely won't pay taxes on the total amount shown on your 1099-K.
Remember that all income, no matter the amount, is taxable unless the law says otherwise – even if you don't get a Form 1099-K.
Individuals who fall below the minimum may still have to file a tax return under certain circumstances; for instance, if you had $400 in self-employment earnings, you'll have to file and pay self-employment tax. If you have no income, however, you aren't obligated to file.
Taxpayers who don't qualify to exclude all of the taxable gain from their income must report the gain from the sale of their home when they file their tax return. Anyone who chooses not to claim the exclusion must report the taxable gain on their tax return.
Another key difference: While there is no federal inheritance tax, there is a federal estate tax. The federal estate tax generally applies to assets over $13.61 million in 2024 and $13.99 million in 2025, and the federal estate tax rate ranges from 18% to 40%.
Upon selling an inherited asset, if the inherited property produces a gain, you must report it as income on your federal income tax return as a beneficiary. An inherited property's basis from a decedent is one of the following: The property's fair market value on the date of the decedent's death, or.