Ebay Tax refund Air weybill

[josm_nezc]

Hello

I would like to ask: what is the process for requesting a refund of eBay taxes when you live outside the United States.

I contacted eBay customer service and they told me that what I needed was an air weybill and to indicate which item I purchased that air weybill corresponds to. The point is that the company that exports my products gave me the necessary proof of exports and I showed it to customer service and they told me that there was no problem and that I had already spoken to their supervisors and everything was fine to make the refund in the next few days.

Since they did not make the refund, I wrote again and they told me I had to wait a month. So I waited a month and then I wrote them again and they told me that I had to wait two months, so I waited two months (which makes no sense to make a tax refund waiting more than 3 months) after those last 2 months they never wrote me, so I wrote them, they did not answer and then I wrote them again and they answered me that there is an error in the documents. After they had told me that everything was fine, after about 4 months they tell me that there is an error and after that I ask them what the error is and if they could be specific and they never answered me.

Is there any company or state department that can take care of this process, because it seems that eBay is avoiding everything?

[khetzel]

Are you saying eBay collected sales tax on behalf of your government on an item that should not have been taxed? 

As far as I know eBay just collects the applicable sales tax based on where each customer lives and passes in on to the appropriate government. 

I haven't heard of anyone getting just the sales tax back from eBay on an item.  

[mudshark61369]

@josm_nezc,

According to your profile you live in the Dominican Republic. Is the tax you want a refund for a U.S. State's sales tax, or Customs Fees?   If you have products sent directly to you from sellers in the U.S. you would be responsible for any customs fees the D.R. govt. charges on imports. 

If you use a freight forwarding service based in the U.S. to forward packages to you in the D.R., then the tax you are being charged is a sales tax charged by the state where the freight forwarder is located. That tax cannot be refunded by ebay. 

eBay does not charge taxes, they are a tax facilitator, as are most 3rd party online shopping sites. They collect taxes based on the rate charged by each state where a package is sent for delivery. Those funds are sent to the state's taxing agency.  The only states that do not charge a sales tax for online purchases are Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon.  If you engage a freight forwarding service in one of those states, you will not be charged any sales tax. 

eBay's customer service phone number is not made public. If you searched online for an eBay customer service phone number, and called it, you did not speak to anyone associated with ebay.  The only way to contact ebay by phone is to use the Contact us  link at the bottom of this page under the Help & Contact header. You have to answer a bunch of questions before you can request a Call back from an ebay representative.  However, they do not make calls to members not located in the U.S..  Even if you could speak to a rep, they have no authority to refund a sales tax you paid.

You would need to get a tax exempt form from the state where your freight forwarder is located, then register it with ebay, which can take a couple of months to do. Before you would no longer be charged a sales tax.  If you are reselling things in the D.R. you would have to contact their taxing office to see if you can deduct any U.S. sales tax you are charged from the taxes you pay.

[josm_nezc]

@mudshark61369 

Thank you for your message.
But according to my experience eBay does refund taxes when you don't live in the country and everything you buy goes out of the United States. I have done tax refunds with amazon and they do it in less than 24 hours, you just have to show them the proof (Air weybill).
Even eBay had already told me that everything was fine.

Anyway, thank you very much.

[josm_nezc]

@khetzel 
When you live outside the U.S. and use a company that exports the item from the U.S. to your country. You can apply for a tax refund, you need a proof that is given to you by the export company called air weybill.

[lacemaker3]

If you used a freight forwarder, and were charged state sales tax for the state where the freight forwarder is located and operates, then you can submit information to eBay and request a refund of the sales tax by providing evidence that the items were exported from the state/USA and were not used or kept in the state.

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https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/paying-items/paying-tax-ebay-purchases.html?id=4771#section11

Tax refunds for items shipped outside of the US via freight forwarding

To request a tax refund for items shipped to a location outside of the United States through a freight forwarder, please contact us and provide supporting documentation.

Supporting documentation includes copies of the bill of lading or air waybills. If submitting a request for tax refunds on multiple items, please indicate the item associated with each document.

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@josm_nezc, there is no state department or company (except for eBay) that can take care of this for you.

You have to contact eBay by using the link in the policy page, and work with them through that link.

[mudshark61369]

@josm_nezc,

You replied to my post:

"Even eBay had already told me that everything was fine".

You cannot call ebay's customer service from your country, since it does not have a D.R. dedicated site. If you used a number found online to call ebay, you were not speaking to anyone associated with ebay.

You will have to use the contact us  button in the link provided by @lacemaker3  to contact ebay.  That link will work for you, and you should save it in case you need it again.