Selling Tickets Online in Massachusetts? Make Sure You Know This Law

It's the best time of the year for sports in Massachusetts. Baseball is into the postseason (sorry Sox fans) the Bruins and Celtics seasons are off to a great start and we're right in the thick of the NFL season.

Massachusetts residents are known to take their sports pretty seriously and that means most are willing to pay a pretty penny for tickets to see their favorite team hit the field, court, or ice. But what if you're trying to sell those tickets? A recent law that went into effect at the beginning of 2022 is changing the way things work.

As an avid Bruins fan, I was pretty pumped to score some playoff tickets earlier this year but was sorely disappointed when after two and half years of dodging it, I tested positive for Covid. After I stopped sobbing over the situation, I realized that I needed to at least recoup the money I spent on the very good seats.

I've been a huge fan for years and have dealt with buying and selling tickets not only through Ticketmaster but also through aftermarket ticket websites like StubHub and SeatGeek. So when I couldn't go to the game my immediate reaction was to get these tickets online, but as I did so I was met with new restrictions on online ticket sales.

I received a notification on Ticketmaster, StubHub, and SeatGeek letting me know that if anything I sold totaled more than $600, I would be taxed on it and was required to enter a tax ID number. Seriously? So if buy something, and pay local taxes on it, I then have to pay taxes on reselling it? Even if you're not making a profit, or even losing money on them, if your total payout is more than $600, regardless of how many tickets you're selling. It's pretty outrageous.

According to information provided by StubHub, starting on January 1, 2022, the IRS has updated its 1099-K regulations to require all businesses that process payments to file a 1099-K for all sellers with more than $600 in gross sales in a calendar year.