Confirmed it was the button. The girls checked and didn’t realize it.

As far as not using Venmo that’s easier said than done when everyone who has to pay you uses it. I’m not about to make girls weekend any harder. Because girls weekend means guys weekend as well.

$600 is a pretty low threshold. Mistakes happen, but if you split a few lunch bills, or have a roommate pay you their half of utilities, internet, rent, etc... and they make a mistake once or twice, you're might be on the hook for taxes if they mistakenly selected that button.

I have a Venmo account that I seldom use, but I'll probably stop using it now. I buy and sell snowboard gear for my 2 kids on Craigslist every year as they grow out of their stuff so fast. This year I sold 2 of their old snowboards with bindings and 2 sets of snowboard boots. I also sold some other random stuff on CL we had no use for. About half of those payments were with Venmo. If the buyers select the goods & services button by mistake, I may owe taxes on that "income".

I did some reading and it seems selling stuff on Craigslist/NextDoor, etc... is exactly the type of transactions the IRS is looking for.

Venmo is owned by PayPal. During 2021, Venmo became popular enough that PayPal finally decided that they should start charging people to use it. The two big changes I noticed to the user agreement last summer were:

1. Venmo would start charging for 'goods & services'. Like PayPal, if you want to avoid fees, you have to be careful about selecting whether or not it's for 'goods & services' before transferring funds.

2. Venmo wanted members to confirm their accounts by providing their SSN for tax purposes. If you refuse to provide your SSN, you can still use Venmo but w/ fewer user privileges.

As Venmo becomes more like PayPal, I wonder, what's the point? It's like PayPal but with fewer user protections.

If your bank is part of the network, I recommend Zelle. Funds transfers are immediate, and there are no fees.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:

Your post 2 posts above?
...new $600 IRS reporting requirement.
Is 1 reason for me.

Supposedly, that will only apply to "purchases" or for vendors, not payments between private individuals.

Now, whether to trust that assertion is another matter.

It's pretty easy, apparently to fat finger the app into thinking it's for goods and services, as occurred above. $600 is a pretty low threshold.

Also, the app, and others like it don't offer much in the way of protections. Might be OK in terms of personal use, but it may be best to just avoid the whole mess.

quote:

Originally posted by the_sandman_454:
It's pretty easy, apparently to fat finger the app into thinking it's for goods and services, as occurred above.

You base this opinion on some of frayedends' wife's friends' confusion?

The button defaults to "Off." It's clearly labeled "Turn on for purchases," along with a description of what it means, is at the bottom of the screen, and is well-separated from anything else.

If you're reimbursing a friend you're not making a purchase. Pretty easy, really.

quote:

Originally posted by the_sandman_454:
Also, the app, and others like it don't offer much in the way of protections.

Which they make very clear from the start.

quote:

Originally posted by the_sandman_454:
Might be OK in terms of personal use, ...

It's great for personal use. E.g.:

Friends with whom I golf. Often one pays everybody's greens fees. If that one uses Venmo or PayPal I can simply "text" them my share. Don't have to write a check. Don't have to have the exact amount, under-pay, or over-pay. Easy peasy.

I placed a combined order of mags and mag loaders for a friend and me. He was too busy to deal with it at the time and it saved us on shipping. He wasn't going to be around to pick his stuff up for a while. He paid his share via Venmo. Easy peasy.

quote:

Originally posted by the_sandman_454:
...but it may be best to just avoid the whole mess.

Perhaps... if you're easily-challenged by touch-screen buttons, find technology scary, or your tinfoil hat is wrapped a bit too tightly

quote:

Perhaps... if you're easily-challenged by touch-screen buttons, find technology scary, or your tinfoil hat is wrapped a bit too tightly

Of course, it's not your ability with touch screen buttons you need to worry about, though, it's the abilities of your friends to use touch screen buttons, and to comprehend what options they're selecting which could cost you actual money and actual scrutiny.

VEN-NO.