Question thread: More flexibility and control over your money

[seller_update@ebay]

Over the next several weeks, we will be enabling on-demand payouts for sellers who have a weekly, biweekly or monthly payout schedule. You will be able to request a payout of all or part of your available funds on-demand, before your next scheduled payout date. You can learn more about that here, feel free to ask any questions below!

Please note that eBay experts will be present and engaging on the boards between 8 am and 4:00 pm PST on 4.13.

[valueaddedresource]

@b86fiero  I'm sorry, they didn't give any specifics, Julie Loeger just said "sellers will have the option to send on demand payouts directly to their debit card within 30 minutes for a fee"...and that sentence was literally the only info about it. 😂

I would assume "their" debit card means you can select your own card to send it to, but don't quote me on that - we'll just have to wait and see.

[cyberselln]

Debit cards are linked to a bank account. How could there even be an eBay branded debit card since eBay is not a bank? When paypal did the instant payments it was sent to the debit card linked to the person's bank account.

[cyberselln]

I agree, this on demand feature is false advertising as it will still take 4-5 days to get our money. ( -2 days for eBay processing  and 2-3 for the bank to process) On demand means instantly. Paypal use to make funds available in a matter of seconds. They did charge 1% which is a rip off since they make money from the sell when it got deposited in paypal, but the truly instant payment to the debit card was nice. Ebay makes enough from selling fees they should make the funds available instantly with no fee to the seller.

But yea, they try to keep the money longer to try and make sure they get their fees and shipping labels paid. Plus I don't think it's fair that those that don't choose the weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly payouts can't use their funds to make purchases. This is another attempt at keeping the buying, selling and fees all circulating within eBay so they can benefit

[clarkphilatelics]

I would prefer to set an account "reserve" or minimum. One seller account is quite busy and would benefit from a $100 reserve to pay nickel-and-dime expenses like postage or scheduled eBay monthly fees. This could substantially reduce bank withdrawal transactions and reduce stress on accounting software. Because eBay Payouts pay net amounts mixing revenue and fees, accounting becomes overly complex. Weekly payouts with a minimum reserve could reduce the number of bank transactions to less than ten in each month, a manageable number given that payout details must be resolved by downloading and processing transaction logs. Alternatively, if eBay would separate payments from debits, it would be possible to determine sales and expenses from bank transactions without the huge amount of extra effort to untangle the mix of credits and debits embedded in each payout. Because eBay summary information in payout and monthly reports omits total sales and some expenses, sales amounts may not be seen until the monthly totals are published in a 1099-K form.

Pick one - a minimum account balance or separate credit and debit transactions. I would prefer the latter because many of the details embedded in eBay Payout transactions are unimportant to the IRS. If some expenses appear in the wrong line of a Schedule C form, probably no one will care. If a seller reports the net amounts in payouts as income and debits as expenses, the tax owed may be correct but the reported income will be less than reported in the eBay 1099-K and while expenses will also be less, explaining the differences to the IRS could be troublesome for unsuspecting sellers.

[cyberselln]

Actually it will take longer than that. I have mine set to get payments daily and it still takes at least 4-5 days to actually get my money to show up in my bank account. It takes 2 days for eBay to process and 2-3 days for the bank to process. Ebay said those that choose daily payouts won't get theirs any faster as this is the fastest they have, It makes no sense when paypal had instant payouts in seconds. There was a 1% fee but it was nice to actually get the money immediately and not have to wait 4-5 days. If paypal can do it there is no excuse eBay can't. What's going on is Ebay is trying to hold onto seller's $$$ as long as possible. Technically it's a "hold' but eBay calls it "processing time" LOL. I call it a crock !!

[mam98031]

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@toyswithapast wrote:

I would like daily payouts Monday thru Friday, so 5 payouts a week. I would like no payouts on Saturday or Sunday. This was the original schedule if the seller chose daily payouts. At some point many months ago, eBay started making daily payouts 7 days a week. I'm just asking being able to choose the original payout schedule of 5 days a week. Thanks for passing this along to the team!

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Payouts that are created on Saturday or Sunday don't actually get sent to the seller until Monday as the ACH system is closed on the weekend.  They go into queue to be processed first thing Monday morning.

[deltilogical]

For sellers who don't use the daily payout, this could be a useful option for unexpected opportunity or expenses..   

[seller_update@ebay]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

As to Spendable funds....will there be a way to designate (at the time of purchase) the purpose of the spend , which will allow us to filter that information when doing taxes?  For example, if I spend on shipping products or other supplies related to my business, if I purchase items for resale (inventory), or if I purchase for personal use? 

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques Purchases made using spendable funds would show in the transaction reports so they can add a field after exporting the reports or when using a bookkeeping solution but otherwise it’s handled just like a standard payment method.

[tsme35]

So that is a BIG no to the sellers who don't or can't use excel

thanks but guess this is a pass

[seller_update@ebay]

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@jaijori wrote:

Will earnings that become Spendable Funds, appear as income on a 1099 if not spent before the end of that same year?

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HI @jaijori we're still waiting to get a reply on this one but we'll update you as soon as we have one! 

[mam98031]

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@tsme35 wrote:

So that is a BIG no to the sellers who don't or can't use excel

thanks but guess this is a pass

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I completely understand and respect this is a big problem for MANY small and casual sellers.  I'm unsure why Ebay has only this option to reports we ALL need.  For me it makes no sense.

I do have lots of Excel experience, so I am fine, but that isn't true for a whole lot of sellers.  Ebay has had YEARS to create better reports so that everyone can use them, yet they haven't.  I simply don't understand their way of thinking, they have to know that no everyone has worksheet program experience, [it doesn't have to be Excel, any worksheet program will work].  

A possible work around for some is that on the page where you order the detailed transaction report there are filters.  Before you order the report, select the proper filters.  If you only want to see what you paid to Ebay for shipping, then check only the box for shipping in the filters.  The report you generate will then only show the shipping you paid to Ebay.  It is likely when we have this Spendable function there will be a filter there for that too so you can order a report that only has those transactions on it.  Or lets hope so.

[mam98031]

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seller_update@ebay wrote:

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@jaijori wrote:

Will earnings that become Spendable Funds, appear as income on a 1099 if not spent before the end of that same year?

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HI @jaijori we're still waiting to get a reply on this one but we'll update you as soon as we have one! 

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I might be able to help with this.  A 1099K represents All funds that came INTO your MP account before any deductions for refunds, Ebay fees, shipping, or anything else.  Since a 1099K reports Gross Receipts, anything you SPEND the money on from the MP account will have NO IMPACT on your 1099K.  

If you spend some money in your MP account, that would be a deduction from your MP account.  1099Ks do NOT take ANY type of deduction into consideration.

[buyselljack2016]

Your gross transaction amount from selling will remain the same for a 1099-K

Spending the money on eBay, or elsewhere does not negate the fact that those funds were paid to the seller's account.

[h_society]

This doesn't change anything, I still got to wait for my bank. Why can't sellers have instant payments? eBay is a multi-billion dollar company, invest in the technology to send payments to sellers debt card. Majority of your competitors are already doing that. 

[drews.gaming.galaxy]

I mean with spendable funds, why aren't sellers being allowed to get lower fees when buyers use this? There is no CC fees associated with this type of transaction, so shouldn't sellers be given some savings if this happens. If not, then it just seems like eBay is collecting extra money by making this an option.