AMEN Droneted, et al.!!!!! I have been repairing & selling DJI drones & mostly cameras for 10 years & never got near the $20k threshold. This whole thing came out of the PPP rules that went into effect because of Covid. Pretty sneaky way to get us little guys to help pay for the crooks that have used their PPP money for Lambos, etc.
I will now have to keep track of the obvious costs, but the part that really bunches my panties, deals with the reject parts I have to eat because the overseas sellers don't want to pay for return shipping, (that's another topic for discussion; huge discounts for overseas sellers to get their crap to us). The sellers have been duped by their distributors into believing the gimbal parts they are selling, are "NEW" AND "tested", which we all know they aren't. Even the "new" P4 yaw motors, which ARE new, are quality control rejects from a DJI contractor, and require modifications to get them to work properly, (sometimes just junk). Sometimes these reject parts don't rear their ugly heads until months after purchase, which makes it difficult to get a refund from sellers & eBay's policies. I have to purchase parts in advance of needing them or I can't make timely repairs. The other issue is charging labor on repairs, or even calculating it into cams I sell. A lot of the time it takes waaay longer to fix a troublemaker cam than I can charge. Sometimes I make a whopping $3 hr. Some may say, "so why are you even doing this?" Well, at my age, (1 year younger that Ted), I consider working on these cams as "dementia prevention". They are VERY challenging & sometimes very frustrating, but keep the neurons active.
I have been writing up details on every cam I fix, but now I have to add eBay seller fees, postage, tax, losses from rejects, original cost, (if purchased for my self), space used for this "hobby-turned- business" , (% for home based business), % of utilities, rent for the space, anything related to printing labels, etc. I had a sailboat rigging business before I retired, along with a full-time job & always received a refund for the rigging business for 26 years. SO, IRS, you are going to find out you have stepped into some doo doo with this decision to go after the small business entrepreneur. Mark my word, many home-based business folks are going to talk to their attorneys & accountants & this craziness is going to bite the IRS in the butt. It will turn the dream of having your own business into, what I call Entramanureshi..... Enough of this, I have 8 cameras to fix.
