eBay responded to amendments to proposed legislation (H.R. 3221) that would require electronic payment systems to report the annual gross amount of reportable transactions to the IRS and to the participating payee. Reportable transactions include any payment card transaction and any third party network transaction.

According to the Freedom Works think tank, the provision would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government (http://www.freedomworks.org/newsroom/press_template.php?press_id=2571).

eBay spokesperson Kim Rubey issued a statement to AuctionBytes responding to the proposed legislation:

We believe that IRS proposals to collect additional information about electronic payments, including the "merchant card reporting" provision recently attached to legislation being considered in the House and Senate, should be crafted in a manner that does not discriminate between payments models and should not burden the smallest entrepreneurs with new tax compliance demands, nor inappropriately raise reporting requirements on persons who are not merchants. We are actively conveying our views to congressional leaders so that legislation does not overreach and negatively impact individual Internet users, the growth of small businesses, and entrepreneurial and economic empowerment.

http://rpc.senate.gov/public/_files/L62HR3221Houseamendments0618SN.pdf