EBay Sales Tax????

[neil poulsen]

Without getting into any politics, what's going on with EBay sales tax? I just sold a camera on EBay, and EBay itself tagged 8.8% sales tax onto the invoice. It may help to know that we have no sales tax in Oregon.

Amazingly, EBay has no help nor explanation (that I can find) of this in their help pages. So, I'm wondering . . .

Do I end up paying this sales tax, or does EBay pay it automatically? (Seller hasn't yet paid the invoice, and I don't blame him.)

Legally, I wonder how this affects our sales on the Lf Forum? Are we obligated to collect sales tax, know that that might be in each state, have to do the book keeping and pay each state at the end of the tax year? Etc., Etc., Etc.

In short, GOOD LORD!

[Larry Gebhardt]

https://smallbiztrends.com/2019/01/l...sales-tax.html

My guess is because ebay does more than the threshold they are required to collect sales taxes. I would assume the buyer must pay like any store.

I don't think the LF forum will be affected since all sales are personal. Maybe some of the larger sellers should collect on their own if they pass the thresholds.

[j.e.simmons]

The Supreme Court decided a couple of years ago that sales tax is charged based on the buyer’s location, not the seller’s. That works for big sellers like Amazon, but not well at all for small sellers. I think it should be the other way around but have been unable to get any interest from politician.

[Tin Can]

Use Tax

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/use-tax.asp

Which my accountant forced me to pay backwards, then she stopped.

eBay has erased a lot of past sales and purchases.

[BrianShaw]

Neil... if a seller isn’t equipped and registered to collect sales tax (which is a MAJOR headache for a small business) then the buyer is generally obligated to self-report and pay on their annual (or quarterly) tax forms. This has been “the rule” for private party sales and, in the past for Internet sales, for a very long time.

BTW, sales tax collection was a large part of what drove me out of small business ownership. The level of resolution was per County, and in some cases per City. It was just too much work for the low level of sales we had. Collecting “a nominal average sales tax amount” was easy... but reporting the tax to the authorities ate us up. We loved “out of state” sales because we could simply state on the invoice that the buyer was responsible for reporting and paying any tax imposed by their state/local government.

I actually appreciate eBay and other internet sales platforms taking that burden off my back... as both a buyer and seller.

Did your buyer complain or are you just being aware of this?

Generally speaking.
When applicable.
May vary by local, state, or federal laws.
Your mileage may vary.
Past performance is not an indicator of future gains (or losses)
Sometimes, it depends.
Etc

[Leigh]

Neil... if a seller isn’t equipped and registered to collect sales tax (which is a MAJOR headache for a small business) then the buyer is generally obligated to self-report and pay on their annual (or quarterly) tax forms. This has been “the rule” for private party sales and, in the past for Internet sales, for a very long time.

Read Post #3 above.

- Leigh

[BrianShaw]

Read Post #3 above.

- Leigh

Why? Please use you words.

[Tin Can]

B&H is pushing a 'Save The Tax' plan known as Payboo.

I get emails about it daily and a printed notice in today's shipment.


YOU PAY THE TAX, WE PAY YOU BACK
Instantly

I suspect a backdoor to credit card usury.

The push is in anticipation of credit card interest controls.

Sell now, before the new law...

[pendennis]

It could be that eBay is collecting the tax and remitting it to the appropriate taxing authority. As was mentioned, a lot of eBay sellers aren't equipped to collect sales and use taxes in their selling mechanisms. Being that almost all of their transactions are conducted via PayPal, it's relatively easy for them to collect sales/use tax based on the destination ZIP Code. Buyer pays the tax, seller gets his/her payment for the sale amount, and Uncle (insert taxing jurisdiction here) gets their money.

[Drew Wiley]

I don't think B&H is doing anything shady. Here in Calif there are several chain stores who advertise "we pay the sales tax" for a particular promotion or sales events. All it means is that they are offsetting the tax with an equal discount, so that the bottom line total you pay at the register comes out as if there weren't a sales tax, but they still have to remit the same percentage of the total to the State. It's nothing more than a marketing trick, but perfectly legal as long as the State gets its due percentage cut per specific city or county. In the case of B&H, it means significantly cutting into their own profit margin to be able to do that, which in turn means they have to raise profits somewhere else to stay in business. It has nothing to do with credit card laws. Dealers in states which collect sales tax have an inherent disadvantage going up against other states which refuse to do so per shipments. There has been a long-running feud between CA and NY in this respect. Calif was able to enforce it for the past decade or so only if a particular company like Amazon actually had a branch office or distribution facility in this State. But the overall clamor spilled over that temporary dam of a compromise, which was mandated by the Supreme Court, and led to a firmer resolution a couple years ago, in which NY and other non-collectors lost. In the meantime, it must have been a nightmare collecting the thousands of different tax rates relative to a myriad of Zip codes, which are constantly changing anyway. That logistical hurdle was the primary reason the Court delayed for so long setting their foot down.