Tax being charged on Silver Bullion
Summary: A participant raised an issue regarding eBay charging sales tax on silver bullion, coins, rounds, and bars, which are typically exempt from sales tax in many states, including Virginia. They urged eBay to address this discrepancy.
Just a heads up to Wisconsin Buyers of Silver Bullion. eBay has started charging tax on silver purchases. I have had to get a refund twice now and they keep saying it is the category sellers post their product in. I have added silver from different sellers in my cart and tax is charged on all of them even though silver is tax exempt in Wisconsin. Not sure if this is happening in other tax exempt states. This was not the case a couple months ago. I won’t be buying until it is resolved.
11 comments
vt2946
·1 month agoRecently, eBay is charging sales tax on exempt tax silver bullions, coins, rounds and bars. Most states do not have sales tax on silver. Silver is exempt from sales tax in VA state. eBay needs to look into this issue.
kh-tuna
·5 months agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
janet9988
·1 month agoIt is still open.
kalyoth
·5 months agoNecro - please close thread.
miltonstoreshundreds3
·5 months agoEbay is trying to blame this on the category sellers are listing items in but everything my seller lists is listed categorically the same. He says they use an AI platform on ebay which has caused this issue. So 40% of my last purchases are tax free, the other 60% have illegal taxation which ebay says they'll refund in 60 days. 60 days for something which is not my problem? I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until I looked this up - they've been doing this since 2021! Winn Dixie and Dollar General pad their bottom line and settle lawsuits over nonsense like this, but they keep right on overcharging. No doubt this is worth hundreds of millions to ebay if 5 years later theyre still doing it and blaming sellers. I'll sue, but think about all the victims that aren't even cognizant they're being robbed.
kalyoth
·1 year ago100% a seller issue. ebay is correct - if it is not listed properly by the seller, it is not ebays fault buyer is charged tax. That is an issue generated by the seller. They also like to list in categories that do not provide for any form of return case as well. It's 98.5% of the time intentional fraud. Yes, stupidity exists in the world & you have to allow for mistakes. But, its not THAT frequent for the reason.
garageaholic
·1 year agoIt seems eBay charges tax in the "us modern silver/clad commemorative coins (1982-Now)" category which should be sales tax exempt. So, I don't think eBay's always correct as you said. Also, I think eBay could employee people who would have the ability to look at an order and determine if tax is correct or not, they could call them customer service agents or something. But, I don't know they only had 7.4 billion in profit last year so probably not.
kalyoth
·1 year agoebay sells nothing, thus they won't employ to check tax. They run a marketplace others populate merchandise inside, within ebays defined categories. They collect tax as required by law in the tax liability markets they do business within, based upon seller generated listings.
"us modern silver/clad commemorative coins (1982-Now)" category is a merchandise category. Items here are being sold as collectible merchandise, whether replica or authentic currency or bullion. Items that are authentic currency or bullion, that are removed from circulation & housed within any type of display case, makes them taxable merchandise.
monroe67
·1 year ago"Also, I think eBay could employee people who would have the ability to look at an order and determine if tax is correct or not . . . ."
Imagine you were one of those people. Would you do that work for free? For $10.00 an hour? Or would you want a higher amount because of, you know, your own expertise in recognizing which coins are truly authentic vs. blatantly counterfeit, truly antiques, illegally painted or damaged, etc., etc.? How long would it take you to look at even one order of a collectible coin -- without the actual coin in front of you -- and determine its sales-taxability?
Sales taxes are charged by 45 of the 50 United States. Among those 45 states, I would not be surprised to learn that the lists of taxable vs. nontaxable items vary widely and wildly.
On eBay, sales taxes are paid by the buyers, based on the zip code of the delivery address. Thus, eBay's computer system
-- which you would want to replace with people who need money in this world -- does not know whether to charge sales tax until the buyer has committed to actually buy.
Just a minute or two of trying to think through the process of whether or not to add sales taxes on millions of eBay transactions every day -- well, it is a little overwhelming. I think eBay's machines do a better job than a few hundred people employed by eBay to review e-v-e-r-y transaction for sales taxes.
Machines do not expect annual salary increases and year-end bonuses.
pikabo-icu
·1 year ago@cybrr
I buy a lot of silver & gold coins and if the item isn't listed under bullion, it charges me tax.
I'm in WA state and we are exempt too.
Also I get charged tax on items from Australia & other International sellers.
I have started checking, especially with auctions to make sure the categories are correct so I wont be charged tax.
simba6
·1 year agoWith all the different state tax laws you can expect issues. It's a big extra work load for eBay.