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…
- A perfect reason to become a Work at Home Mom
- 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
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Wow! I just can’t get into how ridiculous this all is. There are different instances where the govt or whwever feels that it needs to make an example out of people and it really hits those people hard.
It really makes me shake my head…
Input by Brooke | January 30, 2008 @ 6:02 pm
Hey Brooke,
Me too, you would think the gov’t would have better things to do than chase down those big bad work at home moms, huh.
Input by Joe | January 30, 2008 @ 7:01 pm
Oh. My. God. That’s absolutely ridiculous. Theoretically, anyone in Pennsylvania who ever used ebay to sell an item would be at risk of breaking this ludicrous law. I imagine the only reason she was targeted is that she actually reported the income on her state income tax return. I really hope, for her sake, they drop this complaint. How is it justice to try to destroy a person like that?
Input by Gina Maria | January 31, 2008 @ 4:53 pm
Hey Gina,
My server went down right in the middle of the reply
Anyway, I think you’re right about her getting busted for trying to do the right thing by filing taxes, they may have never known about her business if she just ignored them.
I’m hoping that this gets some legs and we might be able to get the gov’t to fix itself on this one at least.
Input by Joe | January 31, 2008 @ 5:33 pm
How the heck does this work? What specific law is she violating? Is it just that auctioneers are required to be licensed? Wow. That’s rough. Have any other states tried to punish Ebay users?
Input by Cory Huff | January 31, 2008 @ 8:23 pm
Hey Cory,
A far as I know Pa is the only state that has pushed it this far. There could be others I think it depends how things turn out with this. The law is an old Auctioneers License requirement, but still on the books.
Input by Joe | January 31, 2008 @ 9:27 pm
Scary…
Given that I’m NOT a lawyer and have no experience with American law, my first thought is…
Does she actually need an auctioneers licence as technically she’s NOT the auctioneer - eBay is, how is what she’s doing different to anybody actually going into a tradtional auction house and asking to use the auction house services to sell items for a profit (minus the auction houses cut).
I wonder if eBay has an auctioneers licence - now THAT would make for an interesting case, still it sucks when some little jumped up official get’s their knickers-in-a-twist (or panties-in-a-wad for you Yanks) and decides to take it out on the little guy (or gal)…
Jon…
Input by Jon | February 1, 2008 @ 4:52 am
Hey Jon,
I agree, it is scary. This is how it starts, go after the little guy, charge them for a license, put them out of business. I think it is actually the “Auctioneers Lobby” that is pushing this because they don’t have and want a piece of the pie. But that’s just my opinion.
Input by Joe | February 1, 2008 @ 9:05 am
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