Sales Tax on Food???
Summary: honestguy11 questioned why they were charged sales tax on olive oil purchased from eBay when there is no sales tax on food in Nevada. Several participants, including my_boston_baked_beans and soh.maryl, discussed whether the sales tax is determined by the buyer's or seller's state. monroe67 explained that eBay collects and remits sales tax according to state regulations and suggested that the olive oil may have been incorrectly categorized, leading to the tax charge. gosimus mentioned that the item's listing category could affect tax applicability and noted a previous purchase without tax due to correct categorization. honestguy11 confirmed the categories used for the items.
Hi. I just bought some olive oil on eBay, and sales tax was added to the price. I live in Nevada, where there is no sales tax on food. When I buy olive oil at the grocery store, they do not tax it. I bought some dates on eBay a few months ago, and they did not charge sales tax. So why are they charging sales tax now for the olive oil? Who is it that's charging the tax? Is it eBay or the seller? And how do I get this fixed? Thanks
kensgiftshop
·2 months agoWas it listed under food or something like health and beauty?
honestguy11
OP2 months agoIt was listed under Home & Garden > Food & Beverages > Pantry > Cooking Oils & Serving Oils. Thanks
gosimus
·2 months ago@honestguy11
< I bought some dates on eBay a few months ago, and they did not charge sales tax >
You bought a non-taxable food product recently and were charged sales tax. You bought a non-taxable food product a while back and were not charged sales tax.
I think you made the earlier purchase from a seller who knew how to list the item in the appropriate category where sales tax would not be imposed. The seller from whom you made the more recent purchase didn't know that he needed to use a specific category, and listed the oil in a taxable category.
honestguy11
OP2 months agoThe dates I bought earlier that were not taxed were listed under Home & Garden > Food & Beverages > Pantry > Fruits & Vegetable > Dried Fruit & Veg, and the olive oil that was taxed was listed under Home & Garden > Food & Beverages > Pantry > Cooking Oils & Serving Oils. Thanks
monroe67
·2 months ago"Who is it that's charging the tax? Is it eBay or the seller?"
The State of Nevada charges sales taxes on certain items.
eBay is required, by the laws of the State of Nevada, to collect sales taxes and remit (send) that sales tax money to the state's treasury.
eBay sellers have nothing to do with sales taxes paid by eBay buyers.
"So why are they charging sales tax now for the olive oil?"
It is possible that the seller might have listed that olive oil in a category that eBay has not programmed as non-sales-taxable.
"And how do I get this fixed?"
If, by "fixed", you mean getting your sales tax refunded, you'll probably have to contact the State of Nevada. Start with visiting the state's official website.
If you mean not being charged sales taxes on any additional purchases of olive oil on eBay, there are a couple of things. First, look at the category of the listing. It is in the Item Specifics at the top of the Item Description. Make sure that category is "food." If it's not a "food" category, don't buy the item.
And/or: look carefully at the amount of money eBay asks you to pay when you buy any "food" item on eBay. If there's any sales tax included, don't buy the item.
If you mean eliminating sales taxes collected by eBay, you'll have to contact your state's legislature. I don't think they'll change that any time soon, though: sales taxes collected by eBay and Amazon and Lands End (catalog sales) and QVC (TV sales) and various corporate websites -- all that sales tax is incoming revenue to the State of Nevada.
kathiec
·2 months agoSellers have nothing to do with the sales tax charged, nor do they ever see it. You received a number of responses to your other thread on this:
https://community.ebay.com/forum/buying-57914/topic/why-do-they-charge-sales-tax-for-food-473248/
honestguy11
OP2 months agoHi. Yes, I received a lot of responses to my previous post, but a lot of them assumed that I was in a state that charged sales tax on food. I had no idea that there were any states that charged sales tax on food. I thought that it was a universal practice to not charge sales tax on food. That's why I wrote this second post: to give more specifics, including my location, so that I could get answers that were more appropriate to my situation, which I did. Thanks
my_boston_baked_beans
·2 months agoEbay collects the sales tax for you, and pays it to the appropriate source. You do nothing just file your income taxes.
janet9988
·2 months agoThe OP is talking about BUYERS paying a sales tax. Nothing to do with a seller's INCOME tax.
my_boston_baked_beans
·1 month agoSHE also asked who was charged hence the process involved......
soh.maryl
·2 months agoYou may have missed the point here. OP is the buyer and is complaining about having been charged state sales tax when his state doesn't tax food.
my_boston_baked_beans
·2 months agoIf the state you are buying from has a sales tax you will be paying that. I live in Tennessee food-everything is taxed!
soh.maryl
·2 months agoThe state sales tax is applied according to the rules of the state the buyer lives in. Nevada has no state sales tax on food and the buyer's complaint is that he was charged state sales tax on olive oil.
my_boston_baked_beans
·1 month agoWhat state did the buyer buy from? As I said, if she bought from a state with sales tax she pays that irregardless of the fact she lives in a NO sales tax state. If I buy from Nevada (NO sales tax state) than I am not charged sales tax rather straight forward...
my_boston_baked_beans
·1 month agoAgain, sales tax depends on the regulaton set up by the state in which she PURCHASED NOT the state where she lives..straight forward as I see it.
jonathanbrightlight
·1 month agoNot true. If your state charges sales tax, you are charged that sales tax on online purchases regardless of the seller's location.
my_boston_baked_beans
·1 month agoalbertabrightalberta established that , and corrected that days ago
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albertabrightalberta
·1 month ago · Edited@my_boston_baked_beans
You are mistaken.
If the state an item is being shipped to charges tax on that category of item, tax is collected on that item and forwarded to the buyer's state where they have it shipped.
The seller's state has NOTHING to do with whether there's a tax on an item unless the buyer is from the same state as the seller and it's a taxable item.
my_boston_baked_beans
·1 month agoThank you as I was reading what ebay had to say.
You are right in saying the tax is determined by the shipping address, and that states regulations on taxable items.
I appreciate you kind reply.