What is BYO-Postage and why?

[heroinbob]

BYO-Postage is a method by which to cover your own postage fees and negating the chances of being scammed (sender not delivering free goods after being gifted funds to cover postage).

Link on paypal to purchase postage outright -
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

Free stuff:
- An owner (person A) has an item s/he wants to gift to a recipient (person B), but the shipping charges need to be paid by the recipient (person B)

Example - a free keyboard, but the shipping charges are $16-$18

Traditionally, Person B would provide funds via paypal to person A (either by gift or by "invoice for postage reimbursement" sent by person A).  Gifting and Invoicing each add their own complications - gifting can be justification for paypal to shut down your account (seizing funds), and invoicing adds to unnecessary tax-time complications for those of us that report our income.

How it works:

Owner (person A) boxes up the item to be gifted (a keyboard in this example), and provides recipient (person B) the weight  Recipient should add an ounce or two to the weight provided for variance in scales if shipment is anything other than flat-rate.

Recipient (person B), then goes to paypal and purchases the shipping label themselves based on the method of shipping they desire (First-class vs. priority vs. flat-rate).  The source address and destination address are their own address.

Recipient (person B) saves the .pdf file and emails it to the owner of the item being gifted (person A).  The shipping label is non-transferrable (can't be exploited/stolen by person A) - reduces risk of theft of funds (which sometimes happens by shady folks when funds are gifted via paypal). 

Owner (person A) prints the label, sticks it on the box (with the keyboard in it), and mails it out.  Recipient (person B) can track the location of the package in shipment via the USPS website.  DONE DEAL.

If for any reason the owner (person A) does not send the item as promised, the recipient (purchaser of postage) can cancel the postage and get a refund.



Another scenario where useful - for return postage when shipping an item for service
ex. I need to get my keyboard repaired, so I negotiate terms for services-only with a service provider and ship them my board.  Upon completion of services, I send BYO-Postage to the service provider for return-shipment of my repaired board. 


Paul (HB)

[hwood34]

Unless you're gifting absolutely massive amounts paypal won't even blink. And you don't need to report your ****ing paypal transactions unless you literally have a business here, which again would take incredibly large amounts to require reporting. Then you have the problem of putting the same address on both the destination and return addresses, which is absolutely idiotic. And on top of that, you then have to take the time to save the label file and email it to them.

All in all one of the dumbest things I've heard in my time here.

[Melvang]

Unless you're gifting absolutely massive amounts paypal won't even blink. And you don't need to report your ****ing paypal transactions unless you literally have a business here, which again would take incredibly large amounts to require reporting. Then you have the problem of putting the same address on both the destination and return addresses, which is absolutely idiotic. And on top of that, you then have to take the time to save the label file and email it to them.

All in all one of the dumbest things I've heard in my time here.

Technically, you have to report all income made from a hobby to pay taxes on it.  Granted while still as a hobby, you can claim any losses for tooling and such up to the income amount, but iirc, you can't technically claim a loss like you can with a legitimate business.  Granted paypal may not send you a W-2 until you hit a certain dollar figure, but by law you are on your own for reporting.

[ghostjuggernaut]

Will USPS online even allow you to use the same address on the return line?  I can't say I have tried, but I know it checks the address for validity.

[hwood34]

Unless you're gifting absolutely massive amounts paypal won't even blink. And you don't need to report your ****ing paypal transactions unless you literally have a business here, which again would take incredibly large amounts to require reporting. Then you have the problem of putting the same address on both the destination and return addresses, which is absolutely idiotic. And on top of that, you then have to take the time to save the label file and email it to them.

All in all one of the dumbest things I've heard in my time here.

Technically, you have to report all income made from a hobby to pay taxes on it.  Granted while still as a hobby, you can claim any losses for tooling and such up to the income amount, but iirc, you can't technically claim a loss like you can with a legitimate business.  Granted paypal may not send you a W-2 until you hit a certain dollar figure, but by law you are on your own for reporting.

Alright, technically maybe. But how many here have really done that? Even after either GBs I've done I didn't have to bother

[hwood34]

Will USPS online even allow you to use the same address on the return line?  I can't say I have tried, but I know it checks the address for validity.

This. And even if you for some reason can, you have a completely worthless return address.

[Melvang]

Unless you're gifting absolutely massive amounts paypal won't even blink. And you don't need to report your ****ing paypal transactions unless you literally have a business here, which again would take incredibly large amounts to require reporting. Then you have the problem of putting the same address on both the destination and return addresses, which is absolutely idiotic. And on top of that, you then have to take the time to save the label file and email it to them.

All in all one of the dumbest things I've heard in my time here.

Technically, you have to report all income made from a hobby to pay taxes on it.  Granted while still as a hobby, you can claim any losses for tooling and such up to the income amount, but iirc, you can't technically claim a loss like you can with a legitimate business.  Granted paypal may not send you a W-2 until you hit a certain dollar figure, but by law you are on your own for reporting.

Alright, technically maybe. But how many here have really done that? Even after either GBs I've done I didn't have to bother

My tax guy asked about income from paypal last year when we did our taxes.

[silenceofthesamz]

Found you.

Can I get a couple of samples to try them?

Ill pay shipping of course