Working at Home on the Internet

Work at Home Mom Could be Fined $10 Million for eBay Business

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 Well, Former Work at Home Mom. You see, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has driven her out of business. (Now she works as a Dental Hygienist and it’s possible she could lose her license to practice because of this fiasco.)

Although there are no laws on the books in Pennsylvania (or any other state as far as I know) governing online auctions, the Department of State has decided it needed to set a precedent. It chose Mary Jo Pletz.

Picking on the Little Guy?

The Peltz’s daughter, 6 months old at the time, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2004. Mary Jo knew she couldn’t work full time outside their home and take care of the baby, but she still needed an income. That’s when she decided to start D&J Virtual Consignment selling things on eBay.

It seems she got very good at it and would sell things for friends, neighbors and eventually built the business into something to help small onetime sellers who had no online presence for a fee.

She even declared the income from the business on her taxes.

In Comes the DOS

A couple of days after Christmas in 2006 a guy from the Department of State paid a visit to Mary Jo and told her the business was being investigated for violating state law. It seems she didn’t have an Auctioneers License and each violation was a $1000 fine.

With 10,000 sales through eBay it’s easy to figure out, even without a calculator: $10,000,000.

She shut down.

What’s the Point?

I don’t really know. Figure 10k in sales at a 30% fee couldn’t equal very much money over 2 years, at least not enough to attract the ire of the Government. Especially when she paid taxes on the income. I doubt it was even enough to pay for the baby’s medication, doctors visits and tests (she seems to have stabilized  now).

I guess there are really two point to be made here…

1. A perfect reason to become a Work at Home Mom
2. When the Government gets involved, you’re screwed.

What do you think?

Mary Jo, if you happen to read this, I’d love to do an in-depth interview with you to make sure we all get the story straight from you, with no middle guy.

As of this writing the Department of State has Not dropped the complaint.

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

January 30th, 2008 at 05:10pm | Posted by Joe | Attitude, Rants, Work at Home | 9 reader remarks | Print This Post