Ebay Now Collects Sales Tax

The new policy is a thinly veiled way to say " ebay will now collect seller fees on sales tax too."

How do you get that? Since state sales tax is never even received by the seller, how and why would they charge fees on it? With the base product amount and shipping charges, the seller RECEIVES those amounts, therefore ebay can charge fees on them. That isn't the case with sales tax.

I don't see this at all.

Here's what ebay says:




Note the order of operations:




The tax will come out "once settled" or after fees are removed.

I think you're reading too much into this general wording. The tax amount has to be included in the gross amount to be processed, as that gross amount is what the buyer is charged, which is what they mean by "processed." The very next phrase "once settled," means specifically "Once the payment is made successfully..."

Again, I disagree with your interpretation. Until we have exact terms and conditions language, it's open to speculation.

Given that ebay has been collecting sales tax for several states for months now, if they were charging seller fees on the tax amount, someone would have raised a ruckus by now...

I looked at my September Invoice. They charge Final Value fee on sales price and on a separate line Final Value Fee on Shipping, As far as I can see sales tax doesn't show up.

We shall see. It goes into effect in November.

They seem to have fixed this as it looks like they're currently not collecting tax on USPS sales. Earlier this year, they were. It also looks like they've exempted postage in general (including discount postage from non-USPS sellers), where they collected on that earlier this year as well. I may be able to start buying postage on ebay again. When they first started collecting tax, the tax on postage made buying on ebay uncompetitive vs. other mail order options.

They should be collecting tax on postage from non-USPS sellers.

What makes you think they aren't? If it's being sold to one of the states that ebay has to collect sales tax for, it would be a taxable sale.

Rev - See post above mine.

If the postage is sold at or below face, why should it be taxed???

Why wouldn't it be? The amount an item sells for doesn't determine whether it is taxable or not.




Citation needed. A whole lot of anecdotal information in this thread...

Washington State DOR does not tax the sale of postage stamps according to this link:

https://dor.wa.gov/doing-business/b...il-sales-tax

It is not clear to me that they include postage stamps for collectors.

Kansas exempts the sale of stamps intended for use as postage, even if sold for more than face.

North Carolina does not specifically exempt taxing the resale of postage stamps.

USPS (Federal) regulations prohibit states from taxing the sale of postage stamps by the post office.

Some states may tax stamps sold by retailers for more than face, but only amounts added to their cost. (I did not have time to find a specific example).

This just in from eCommerceBytes - regarding the ebay November Revolution:

https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/bl...0028413.html

From the above link:




(emphasis added)

So no ebay fees on the sales tax, but PayPal fees on the sales tax. That aligns with what traditional merchants have to pay credit card processors, to my knowledge. When you swipe your card at a brick & mortar store, the merchant pays credit card fees on the total amount being paid, not just the nontaxable portion.

My buyers are complaining.

ebay is collecting sales tax from California customers, I know I didn't sell $500K in CA so ebay must be considering all sales in CA as the threshold?

Is ebay adding VAT to my Invoices for European sales now? I am getting complaints about that and I know I didn't add VAT. I feel like a mushroom!

I don't see what ebay sends to my customers so it's always a surprise. Sometimes I wish I could buy a couple of my own items just to see how it works.