Question

Hi, Sierra,

1. As your CPA, I'm happy to respond to your request for clarification of the tax status of profits from eBay.
2. Or one of the other online sellers such as Etsy, Amazon, and Bonanza.
3. As you are probably already aware, you can use eBay or one of the other sellers to clean out your closets or to run a small business.
4. Tax liabilities should definitely be clarified.
5. Although no clear line separates fun from profit or a hobby from a business.
6. One thing is certain: the IRS taxes all income.
7. A number of factors will help you determine whether your hobby is a business.
8. To use eBay safely, the following questions should be considered:
9. Do you run the operation in a businesslike manner?
10. That is, do you keep records, is your profit and loss tracked, and how about keeping a separate checking account?
11. Do you devote considerable time and effort to your selling?
12. If you spend eight or more hours a day trading on eBay.
13. The IRS would tend to think you are in a business.
14. Some people depend on the income from their eBay activities for their livelihood.
15. Do you?
16. Are you selling items for more than they cost you?
17. If you spend $5 for a garage sale vase and sell it for $50.
18. The IRS would probably consider this a business transaction.
19. All profits are taxable.
20. Even for eBay sellers who are just playing around.
21. If you wish to discuss this further, please call me at 213-456-8901. Justin Corona

Answer 1

Question requires that you find five sentence fragments, one dangling modifier, one passive-voice sentence, and one parallelism fault.

Sentence Fragment

A sentence fragment is so because it is either missing a subject, or a verb, and/ or a complete thought. It is therefore an incomplete sentence.

• 5. Although no clear line separates fun from profit or a hobby from a business.
• 12. If you spend eight or more hours a day trading on eBay.
• 17. If you spend $5 for a garage sale vase and sell it for $50.
• 18. The IRS would probably consider this a business transaction.
• 20. Even for eBay sellers who are just playing around. (not a proper sentence)

Dangling Modifier

Attempts to modify an unclear word in the sentence

• 19. All profits are taxable.

It is unclear what profits the sentence alludes to.

Passive-voice sentence

In Passive voice, the subject of the text is the one that is being acted upon.

• 13. The IRS would tend to think you are in a business.

Parallelism Fault

This occurs when the sentence is not grammatically parallel. In other words the sentence does not follow as it is not using the same structure.

• 3. As you are probably already aware, you can use eBay or one of the other sellers to clean out your closets or to run a small business.