Will eBay Refund Unnecessary Bullion Taxes?
I set the category to bullion and clicked “Buy Now†on every bullion listing under the bullion category. Every listing added state sales tax to the check out. Since my state and many other states do not tax bullion what does eBay do with the money it collects for unnecessary taxes? Can I get a refund for the unnecessary taxes?
28 comments
ryry-jj
·10 months agoIf the item is sold to a state that collects tax on bullion, then your sales will be taxable, regardless of the sellers location and tax status. Also if ebay collects a tax, rightfully or wrongfully, it still must be processed to the state to which the item was sold. If wrongful, they must make a "reasonable attempt" to return the tax before forwarding it.
If you sell on your own, and never reach nexus in the state the items are delivered to, then no tax would be due unless a specific law requires you to collect a tax. All sales tax rates and requirements are dictated by the recipients location. And all sellers must file and send payments to each of those jurisdiction if required.
And for the record, I just spent the last two hours doing just this crap...45 jurisdictions in all...and even with ebay sales need to total it up and file "as market place facilitor" for taxes not collected my "me"
sfartist
OP10 months agoI don’t buy into any of these responses. It is eBay’s responsibility to collect state sales taxes as required by each state. If a state does not tax bullion then no tax should be added no matter which category the item was listed. Sellers mismanage categories regularly. The buyers home state is a matter of record. In the age of Artificial Intelligence managing proper sales taxes application should not be such a fiasco.
monica-sells
·10 months agoYour assumption is flawed in this type of selling environment. The 3rd party facilitator (in this case ebay) can not control what the final product being delivered to the buyer, regardless what "category" or title or description is offered to the buyer.
So, in an effort to comply with states, they err on the side of caution, and charge the sales tax based on their current criteria.
Only dedicated online dealers have the ability to know the final product they deliver/sell and qualify for sales tax exemption for the buyer.
monroe67
·10 months ago"I don’t buy into any of these responses."
A lot of highly experienced eBay users have given you correct responses. You just don't like them.
"It is eBay’s responsibility to collect state sales taxes as required by each state."
Along with the rest of your post #12, above, that is essentially what eBay's User Agreement (UA) says about the sales taxes they must collect. Here's the applicable info, directly from the UA:
[Start of Quote]
Paying tax on eBay purchases
Many countries and jurisdictions around the world apply some type of tax on consumer purchases, including items bought on eBay. Whether the tax is included in the listing price, added at checkout, charged at the border, or paid directly by the buyer depends on the seller's status, the order price, the item's location, and your shipping address.
. . . . .
When you buy an item, taxes may be applicable to your purchase and may vary depending on a variety of factors, such as:
Price of the item.
Nature of the item.
Delivery address of your order.
[End of Quote]
I speak only for myself when I say you do not need to "buy" my earlier response.
(Good thing you didn't actually have to pay me for it!)
But accepting eBay's policies and procedures and rules and regulations may make your life easier, at least while you're using eBay.
mam98031
·10 months agoI think you are missing the most important part of what Sales tax is.
Sales tax is ALWAYS paid by the buyer. There aren't any exceptions to that.
Sales tax is based on the state in which the buyer is having the item SHIPPED TO. It does NOT have to be the buyer's state of their primary address. Buyers are NOT limited to only shipping to their home address.
You are however correct about the Categories. Ebay does the Sales tax by category not what the item is, but what category the seller posts it in. So if the seller puts it in the wrong category, then the sales tax rate could be affected.
sfartist
OP10 months agoI know the sales tax is always paid by the buyer. I have no argument with that. My argument is that the tax is not being applied correctly. All bullion items in most states are sales tax free. The vast majority of bullion items are listed in the wrong category on eBay. Check it yourself.
Instead of using a category filter, bullion items can be easily identified using AI. If AI coding is not available then an extensive relational database could be used. There’s no excuse for adding tax inappropriately. I am surprised there is so much resistance to this issue here.
mam98031
·10 months agoTo know if the tax is being applied correctly, you need to know the tax rules of the state you are SHIPPING the item to. That is the ruling state.
https://www.itmtrading.com/all-states-sales-tax-on-gold-and-silver#section-48
Ebay does its coding for sales taxes by CATEGORY. State sales tax is a complicated subject and any given state likely can have 100's of different rates depending on exactly where in the state the item is getting delivered. So it is VERY important that sellers post their listings in the correct category.
IDK anything about a "resistance" to the issue of sales tax. A misunderstanding of it, absolutely. And how complicated it is for a Marketplace to apply it and make all the changes to rates as they come up on a regular basis. It is a very complex subject.
sfartist
OP10 months agoI have several .999 silver coins in my Watchlist. eBay automatically categorized them as bullion. I didn’t categorize them as bullion, eBay automatically did . But when I “Buy It Now†eBay adds sales tax. If eBay knows those coins are bullion why add sales tax? They know my ID is from Wisconsin.
An objective observer can see that eBay has all the necessary info to manage the sales tax accurately.
But you post more like you are an eBay advocate not an objective observer.
monica-sells
·10 months agoI don't think ebay determines the category....the seller picks a category when listing....
monroe67
·10 months ago"An objective observer can see that eBay has all the necessary info to manage the sales tax accurately."
Interesting.
I think that you are not an objective observer of eBay and the complicated processes that they run all day every day.
ALL of eBay's entire process is just a gigantic computer program. Many, actually, that all must work together.
You may have heard the phrase: Garbage In, Garbage Out.
eBay is a platform -- a virtual stage, or maybe an auditorium or a field, if you will -- where millions of people list millions of things every day that they hope other people will buy.
eBay must rely on each and every one of those millions of sellers/listers to enter accurate info on each and every product and listing in order to process each sale smoothly. Only one of the many things that sellers must enter is the category and sub-sub-categories as appropriate.
eBay itself does not make the final decision on the category of each listing. eBay suggests, but each seller can revise the category. Some sellers know what they're selling and some don't; thus, the category in a few listings might not always be true and correct. A few, maybe even a thousand or two, listings of the millions of active listings might not always be fully accurate.
Not only that, but eBay's programs must keep the sales tax programming up to date and accurate for the 45 United States that charge sales taxes, keeping track of the rates that vary within the states, sometimes by tenths or even hundredths of one percent, based on the zip codes in delivery addresses.
Now, if you think somebody/ies at eBay should be studying each and every listing for sale of Bullion and/or Collectible Coin, you must assume that that person or persons will want to be paid, and paid well, for scrutinizing all the listings. And possibly trying to work with each seller to revise all their listings.
That's going to be expensive. And eBay will raise their selling fees for sellers if that should happen.
When eBay raises fees, experienced eBay sellers raise prices, which you (as an eBay buyer) will pay.
AND pay sales taxes on . . . . .
mam98031
·10 months agoAre you saying that they changed the category you used when you created the listing?
sfartist
OP10 months ago>>Are you saying that they changed the category you used when you created the listing?<<<
I didn’t create any listing. I added other sellers’ listings to my “Add To Watchlistâ€.
My Watchlist has three sub-categories, “Bullionâ€, “World Coins†and “Officeâ€. eBay knew to put the bullion listings into the “Bullion†sub-category of the Watchlist, not the other two sub-categories. Yet, if I “But It Nowâ€, Wisconsin sales tax is added to the total. Why?
eBay knows those listings in my Watchlist are bullion listings because eBay put them into that sub-category called “Bullionâ€. eBay also knows that my ID is in Wisconsin which doesn’t tax bullion.
So why is eBay adding Wisconsin State sales tax?
I explained the problem as clearly as I can. Either you get it or you don’t.
ua62-7434
·10 months agoIf sales tax was charged on bullion even though your state doesn’t tax it, eBay usually collects and sends that tax directly to your state’s tax authority not to eBay itself. You can contact eBay customer support or your state’s tax office to request a refund for the incorrectly charged tax.
mam98031
·10 months agoWhether or not a sales tax is due on a purchase ALWAYS, without exception driven by the Ship To Address of the buyer. Where you the seller is located has NOTHING to do with it.
jonathanbrightlight
·10 months agoYep, and @sfartist that money is sent to the buyer’s state. eBay does not keep it.
tools*
·10 months agoThe best option might be to not buy bullion on eBay if they're incorrectly collecting sales tax.
monroe67
·10 months ago"Since my state and many other states do not tax bullion what does eBay do with the money it collects for unnecessary taxes? Can I get a refund for the unnecessary taxes?"
The responses from Mudshark and Simba are correct. eBay does not refund sales taxes. Buyers might be able to request a refund from their state's treasury or revenue department. There may be some info on this in your state's official website.
I'd like to offer another option, though: Let It Slide.
You could just let your state keep the sales tax money. Surely they'll use it for a good purpose, don't you think?
Of course, we don't know how much money you're talking about. You might need the money more than your state does. Only you can make the decision to request a refund from your state.
simba6
·10 months agoYou have to apply for a refund of over payment of taxes. That is done through your state's income tax collection office. You can contact them about what forms you need. You can often find and print them on line. Print out all the eBay transaction info as you will have to attach it to the form when you file.
tools*
·10 months agoI believe the original poster is referring to incorrectly collected state sales tax, not income tax.
soh.maryl
·10 months agoSo the state sales tax collected in each state is administered by the same government department in each state as the state income tax office?
powell-collectibles
·10 months agoIt depends on the state. Not in Florida, obviously.
mudshark61369
·10 months ago@sfartist ,
While you may set the search category to Bullion, it does not mean that every result while be listed properly in that category. Some sellers listings on a Bullion results page might be under Collectibles, but because of the Key Words they use in the item title, they show up in Bullion, but would be taxed, because of the Collectible category.
The funds paid in taxes are sent directly to the state charging them. So they can't get them back. All you can try to do is, save the sale info when you are charged the tax, and take a deduction on your taxes when you file them.