IRS wants eBay to turn on its customers
Like the unchecked voracious and virulent Borg of a cancer that it is, the IRS is metastasizing:

(from AOL)

Perhaps the budget deficit is getting too large. The IRS is trying to get eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) to turn over records on its customers, especially the larger ones, so that the IRS can go after those who have not paid taxes on their auction transactions. What fun. Getting a company to rat out its own.

eBay is fighting the move, but the government seems determined to go after merchants, especially those who have transactions of over $5,000 a year.

The government may have a point; tax evasion is a serious business. And so why shouldn't eBay potentially poison its relationship with thousands of customers? It would be, after all, the patriotic thing to do.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.