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To all our valued customers and readers of this newsletter: I have made a very difficult decision to leave numismatics and pursue another professional opportunity. As a necessary step in this move, Telesphere Numismatics will discontinue Internet sales on August 28, 2010.
Prices on most of our remaining inventory have been slashed for clearance. A substantial portion has already been sold, but we still have about 1000 different collector coins and notes now at bargain prices. Prices on most numismatic reference books and supplies have been further reduced as well. You can browse our close-out specials by clicking the buttons at the bottom of this page. Please note that we are no longer purchasing coins and paper money. Merchandise will not be re-stocked, and once each collectable offered on our web site is sold, it will be de-listed.
I want to thank everyone who has helped make our 17 years of buying and selling coins, paper money and related numismatic products online a wonderful experience. Your business has truly been greatly appreciated, as are the friendships that have been made with many of you.
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Chuck D'Ambra
Owner and President of Telesphere Numismatic Corp.
While I'd rather not include bad news in the final issue of our newsletter, it's important that you learn (if you haven't already) of a new law that will burden business and intrude on most every collector selling a significant portion of his or her holdings. On a more positive note, there's reason to be cautiously optimistic that this provision will be repealed before it takes effect.
Section 9006 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (part of the health care reform legislation enacted earlier this year) requires businesses to report purchases of goods and services of $600 or more from each source made during a calendar year beginning in 2012. Multiple purchases that cumulatively reach the $600 threshold are included. Businesses will have to track their purchases from other businesses and the public alike and to collect and store related info, including tax id numbers. At the end of the tax year, each business will have to send 1099 forms to both the IRS and to each business and individual from whom they made the purchases. As a one ounce gold bullion coin currently trades for far more than $600, selling just one to a coin dealer would trigger the reporting requirement. A collector who upgrades a silver dollar in her collection and sells the lower grade coin to her local coin shop could find the shop asking for personal information, in case additional purchases later in the year trigger the reporting requirement.
The rationale behind this law is to cut unreported income and therefore uncollected taxes. It's estimated to increase Federal tax collections by $19 billion over 10 years.
Needless to say, many business groups consider that amount to hardly be worth the cost of compliance. The Industry Council for Tangible Assets (ICTA), a trade association of dealers in precious metals and other assets, points out that the law would be particularly burdensome on numismatic businesses, because dealers buy from the public as well as from other businesses.
Efforts to repeal the reporting provision are underway in both houses of Congress. S. 3578, the Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act, seeks to repeal the reporting requirements. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), issued a press release stating that the mandate "forces businesses to waste staff time and resources on paperwork that even the IRS says will likely be of little value." An attempt to work the repeal into the small business jobs bill now under consideration is in limbo, as the Senate went on recess without acting on that legislation. H.R. 5141 has similar language and has nearly 1/3 of all House members as co-sponsors.
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