Now Joe says: “Cash back from my shopping actually is 100% tax free, it’s not income, its money that I already paid taxes on.”

You did not specify that the cash back on YOUR OWN shopping was tax free. See… It’s little “oopsies” like this that are used to mislead potential recruits. I’m not sure how STE tracks if the shopping on your site is done by you or someone else, but yes, it would be tax free personally.

Unless, of course, the business purchased the items and deducted the cost of the items on its tax return. Then the “cash back” actually belongs to the business and SHOULD be reported on the tax return. You can’t have the business pay for the items but then personally keep the cash back and have it be tax free.

Tracy wrote:
Your “cash back from shopping” is absolutely NOT tax free because of what you’re involved in. Please understand your own program before spreading this misinformation.

Cash back from my shopping actually is 100% tax free, it’s not income, its money that I already paid taxes on. This I am sure of. This is common knowledge. Just like you don’t pay taxes on your $50 Verizon cell phone rebate when it comes in the mail, or your Ford or GM rebate, or your Credit Card cash back. C’mon now, you know better than that!

I’ve done nothing but tell the truth and report the facts as I have experienced them to date. You’re allowed your version from outside looking in, but I am involved, I own a web-site, I am making money, I have people thanking me for showing them this model, and therefore only people like me really know how this works. If you joined 4 months ago, then you could become a better source of info. As of today, it all sounds like sour grapes.

The beauty and attraction of an on-line MLM is that you do NOT need all the overhead. It is indeed a new progressive, busines model for easy entry. I have started and sold a few businesses in my time. I created a business in 1997 that had over $500 millionin sales, I sold it to a VC group in 2003 (and yes I did pay some serious taxes that year).
I have spent millions on insurance, payroll, rent and other overhead over the years. The last thing I want to do is open and run yet another convetional business. This is truly a breath of fresh air.

Maybe STE is only for people that shop more than $10,000 a year on line, so at 4-5% they get their $448 back? If they spend $50,000 a year they make out very well. Then the next year they can re-new for much less and actually even more money.

Personally, I have never “recruitted” (your words not mine) anyone that couldn’t easily afford the $448. I have probably told as many people NOT to do this as I have showed it to. I have many contacts that want in on the next big thing I get in on, but if they don’t shop on line or don’t ever follow through, I tell them not to do it. I sleep like a baby at night . . . Or should I say, like an MLM millionaire on a Monday morning?

Do you really think your investing to open your own business? do you have a federal tax ID? do you pay quarterly taxes? do you have a business permit or required certificates to be a business? do you keep comeplete records of all transactions, income, and spending? do you have the required business insurance?

ScamToEarn doesn’t give you a website either, it’s their site, they jsut open a new sub-folder with a page that is named what you want.. it’s their’s not yours, they own it, they run it, it’s their affiliate program with all the ’stores’ you can shop at, which anyone can sign up for, it costs nothing, and you control the pricing of the products over the base price, and keep the markup you place.
ScamToEarn marks everything up considerably to coevr the upline, even with the cashback, you’re paying more for everything that if you just went directly to the store.

It’s amazing how many clueless idiots there are who fall for these scams and enver really investigate what they are getting into. Good job Joe, you probably think PRes’ Bush did a good job for 8 years as well.

Your “cash back from shopping” is absolutely NOT tax free because of what you’re involved in. Please understand your own program before spreading this misinformation. You should also know that you could get cash back from shopping online without being part of a MLM.

You can say whatever you want about how fabulous STE is. The fact remains that like other MLMs, 99% will likely lose their money. OF COURSE you’re going to promote the idea that the shopping is the real deal, but that’s not true. If it was, you’d simply be trying to find people to shop at your site. Instead, you’re busy trying to recruit people to sign up and pay to play. No amount of blathering by you about shopping will change this fact.

Ultimately I can see that the shopping will result in some nice residual money. Since people do need to shop and the people who bought this product tend to shop on line a lot and liked the idea of saving time, money, gas and getting cash back too. They also tend to be Green people and use the Earth products as well. Atkins, Zoned, Avalon Organics, Cliff Bars, Joe Weider etc.

Small business owners like me spend more than $5,000 a month at stores like Staples and Office Max for reems of paper, folders, fax machine, ink cartridges, PC’s . My company is obviosuly already a registerd super preferred customer getting the lowest prices available at these very stores – but now I also get an additional 5% back in cash. That’s $3,000 a year for stuff my staff needs to buy anyway. The cash back on shopping is obviously TAX-FREE – not bad for the $448 purchase price no? I know lots of people like me. Any office such as Law firms and CPA firms will have big bills like this and can take advantage of this service.

There are also lots of home improvement guys and small builders that spend a lot at Home Depot, now they order on line at night through their customized Shop to Earn web-portal, get 4-5% back, and go pick it up in the morning at Will Call. No need to walk up and down the aisles and wait in line at the cash register. Time is money.
These people can spend 100’s of thousands a year at Home Depot. (if they are smart they can use “cash back” Visa or Mastercards too and really do well ) Where’s the harm in all of this? These web-sites can pay for themselves many times over.
If STE website owners (again they are web-site OWNERS, because they purchased their web-site) mention their web-portal and cash back savings to 4 or 5 friends, and they choose to buy a web portal too, then they get a $100 commission for each web-portal they buy. And then their website is paid for in full. BTW, no need to spend $100 at Shop to Earth EVER to get this $500 in referral fees. That’s only if you start “scoring” on the points system. That’s only if you become a business builder distributor. When my shopping residuals start rolling in, and I’m making $10,000- 20,000 a month, I will galdly buy some healthy stuff on their Earth store regardless of the price and regardless of the shipping costs.

There are also lots of middle-class families here in New Jersey that spend over $50,000 a year on line just for clothes, jewelry, diapers, kids sports equipment, endless gifts for birthday parties and weddings, graduations etc. You can even get discounted gift cards! Why not get 5%,10% or even 15% back from The Gap, Brookstone, Land’s End, Macy’s etc?

ALSO, Many people are donating Shop to Earn web-sites to their local charities, YMCAs, churches, town football teams etc and asking that the supporters shop on the charity web-site to help raise money for the cause.

Lastly, there is a major “save the planet’ theme with all of this. And every day I find myself recycling more than ever, taking my canvas bags to the supermarket to save paperbags. And I am buying more eco-friendly products from Shop to Earth every day. Why? because I log on like twice a day and this green movement is rubbing off on me. So I guess that’s a good thing too. The Shop to Earth on-line store will be a huge succes in a year or so when there are 1 million web-portal owners logging on and seeing that “Shop To Earth” logo staring them in the face. Talk about an ingenious way to drive traffic to your on-line Health Food store that carries name brand products (no proprietary products to convince people to use).

I know that there must be some people that maybe can’t afford the $448 and get involved only because they want to get rich quick. I can’t be responsible for these types. I haven’t come across any myself. They probably have spent that amount for one drunken night on the town every so often anyway. At least with Shop to Earn they do actually have a chance to earn some cash back and if they sell a few web-portals they can get their money back and break even. This ain’t so bad people. It really isn’t. Sorry to disappoint the naysayers who think we are evil.