Cash is always king for the hobby.

Buy a gift certificate, pay with cash and send it by proton. Problem solved.

END OF MESSAGE

but I'm pretty sure this came up a number of months back as well -- at least the bit about the $600 limit on the 1099 reporting requirement.

 
Reading the link seems like this is impacting providers receiving the payment more than it would guys paying.
" “This is for business transactions only. In other words, yah, it may be reported, but if I’m paying my friend for part of dinner and it comes to over the course of a year more than $600 that doesn’t mean I’m going to have to pay taxes on it. It’s just more to make sure business owners who are using P2P apps are reporting their revenue accurately for tax purposes,” Krahel said. "

 
Though why the reporting is one the spending side and not on the receiving side, given the above, seems odd. But then this is tax politics so common sense is probably not in the same room.

It's just a badly written/worded statement  

The paying side isn't getting taxed, that's absurd lol. It's the seller who is. They emphasized that friends/family transactions aren't getting taxed.

 
Basically if you get 600+ via your PayPal account you'll get a form but friends/family transactions will be excluded is my understanding. Or you can just classify them as such and they will be exempt. Which is roughly similar.

Given that most providers make more than 20k a year I don't think this change affects many, unless they have dozens of smurf accounts.

Eom

but is this saying that if I send a deposit to a gal for over $600, that I may not have a tax obligation but I will nonetheless have to report it and account for it?

No, it's saying that the payment app company will need to report that. The lady already had the tax liability but if they were not previously reporting such income now they will be getting the 1099 (as will the IRS).  

 
But give them time, I'm sure some of this will come back as some escaping from paying sales tax. lol

I use cash back bonus from my credit card.