Locked
Discussions in this board are limited to the original poster and Community Mentors
Tax on shoe insoles in Minnesota
Tax was charged for Superfeet insoles on Ebay, but Minnesota does not tax shoe insoles and orthotics. These inserts are not taxed at local stores. Any idea on the discrepancy?
4 comments
monroe67
Mentor1 year agoThe discrepancy is usually the result of the eBay seller choosing a non-tax-exempt category for the eBay listing.
climatebiking
OP1 year agoThe seller told me this was out of their control and up to Ebay. Oh well...
climatebiking
OP1 year agoYour response doesn't correlate with ebay policy. eBay collects and remits sales tax on behalf of sellers for items shipped to buyers in nearly all US states with a sales tax.
monroe67
Mentor1 year agoOK: you say my "response doesn't correlate with ebay policy."
My response was based on Observation. And my response included the word "usually."
I've been reading and responding to questions on these eBay Community Forums for years. (As a mentor for a couple of months.)
The first time I saw a question here about "Why Did eBay Tax Me ?!?!?!?!?", it was from a guy in Minnesota.
He had bought a shirt or jacket, can't remember which right now, with logo and colors of a local professional sports team. Again, can't recall now if it was the Vikings or the Twins, but that doesn't matter.
He was charged sales tax on that purchase and couldn't understand WHY, because, you know, clothing is not taxed when it is purchased in Minnesota.
A little searching shows that that shirt/jacket he bought had been listed, by the seller, in a Sports Memorabilia category. NOT in a Clothing category. Sports Memorabilia could be a lot of different things: A signed game program, or a pennant, or a foam finger, or a bobble-head or even a portrait of a star player.
None of those things could be considered Clothing. Thus: Not Sales Tax Exempt.
Over the years, this scenario has played out over and over and over.
1) A buyer is charged sales tax, and is outraged.
2) The item was shown to have been listed in a category that was not that tax-free category.
And it's not only clothing. A couple of months ago a buyer was angry that he had been charged sales taxes on his eBay purchase of an American flag, on which his state does not collect sales tax. Looking at the listing of what he bought, the category was something like Garden Decor, something that clearly was not American or National or State Flags.
The logical conclusion and explanation for what you called a discrepancy in sales taxation is The Category.
Which is chosen by the Seller.