eBay not truthful about holding payments

[prometheusmotors]

First off, I am no longer a heavy seller on ebay as I retired from my business a few years ago, however now and then I have a few odds and ends I post. I purchase much on ebay.

I received an email saying my last sales payment of $118 was being held until I provided my SSN. It stated this was because I had exceeded $600 in sales. I thought this was odd and researched it. Even with taxes help, shipping costs etc my total was less than $500. Ebay confirmed this to be true. 

They told me IRS REQUIRES them to get an SSN from every seller now. NOT TRUE! IRS only requires them to send info on sellers who exceed $600 on sales.

They also said ebay never sees my SSN info, it goes directly to IRS. Apparently they think I am foolish enough to believe that if I send the info directly to ebay, as they required, they would not see it. I am not sending this info directly to the IRS.

No resolution on this and they are holding my funds. Their final response was their policy states eBay reserves the right to request additional verification regarding a seller's taxable status from either the seller .

So apparently they think they are entitled to whatever the information they want regarding sellers taxable status.

Do not tell me to just accept it or go elsewhere, I see enough of those responses to others. My guess is those are ebay shills posting such remarks.

Do not rationalize that every platform is doing the same. I really don't care.

It is not about a lousy $118. It is about ebay thinking they can lie and then just expect everyone to lay down like a bunch of sheep.

[slippinjimmy]

eBay is not going to wait until you actually exceed the $600. They don't want to have to chase you to get it and if you don't provide then they are stuck with an IRS violation because they can't issue a 1099K without the SSN.

In reality eBay should be requiring an SSN from ANYONE before they even make a sale or at least after making one sale.

[lakefor94]

You can pick up your change from your states unclaimed property in about a year or so.

We certainly appreciate your stopping by with the least informative rant of the day. Peace out. 

[inhawaii]

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@prometheusmotors wrote:

Do not tell me to just accept it or go elsewhere, I see enough of those responses to others. My guess is those are ebay shills posting such remarks.

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Looks like we're busted.

I guess there's no getting anything past you.

[mam98031]

Ebay has had a rule for many years that pertains to New Seller and sellers that have been away from selling for 90+ days. The following is the policy that outlines why you money is likely on hold.

https://export.ebay.com/en/fees-and-payments/payments/payment-holds/

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/getting-paid-items-youve-sold/payments-hold?id=4816&&...

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Ebay has Federal Requirements / Laws they MUST comply with and the requirement for your SSN is just one of them.

Just so you may have an understanding.  The IRS form 1099K currently has the $600 minimum threshold for the FORM [you are required to report ALL income to IRS, not jut what this form has on it] includes the entire amount of money you were paid by customers without any deduct for anything taken.  

[reallynicestamps]

When you opened a Managed Payments account you were asked for your SSN and for your checking account information.

With that information, eBay can transfer those Held payments* to your checking account.

If you don't have a Managed Payments account, eBay can't do the transfer.

It is very stupid of eBay not to require that there be a current MP account open before a listing is uploaded.

*Which is not personal, but applied to every new and occasional seller as a Buyer Protection and a PYA against refunds for eBay.