Again fees on sale tax
I do not understand how it's ethical business practice to charge fees on taxes collected. I already find it unethical to pay a % on shipping key alone taxes. I also don't understand how the % charges to me is based off total money paid by buyer YET it doesn't count when getting discounts for sellimh over a set amount for example
1-$150 charged 13% and above 150 it's 8%
TOTAL buyer paid is $158 it's not considered over $150 because that's fees and taxes?
23 comments
kalyoth
·11 months agoIt's ebay policy you agreed to, when it was enacted years ago in the user policy, in an update to tax collecting/reporting to the US Treasury / States. If you do not agree with the policy, you are actually required to close your account. Using your account is taken as acceptance of the policies. Your personal feelings & opinion have no valuation against federal / state tax law established by Court Rulings.
soh.maryl
·11 months agoWhen I read the OP's original post, I thought he/she was referring to the state sales tax, not Federal income tax which actually has no play in any individual listings.
youn2240
·11 months agoSometimes I get paid more for the item than I have it listed at and that's after eBay takes their fees and I promoted it.
annadryl
·1 year ago"unethical" and "predatory" is a tad dramatic. You know what the fees will be before selling, your buyers should be paying for these. Re-adjust your prices, this is business, not charity... or just go work for a charity.
lakefor94
·1 year ago@bamacollabs wrote: "I do not understand how it's ethical business practice to charge fees on taxes collected. I already find it unethical to pay a % on shipping key alone taxes."
All that matters is what the final number is. If eBay did not include final value fees on the sales tax then the actual final value fee number would be a tad higher.
AMZ does not include sales tax in the sales total when accessing their final value fees. My final value fees on AMZ are 15% which is higher than what I pay on eBay.
bamacollabs
OP1 year agoOh well sure I can cherry pick and say final fee price over here is this and then not take into account that I'm charged taxes and I'm charged a promotional fee and giving a **bleep** poor assist on shipping compared to other places.
I really don't get how it's that hard. What I'm trying to say is before covid we paid way less % per transaction for the exact same service.
In order to get the same service I now have to promote. And if that promote worked on a sliding scale then that would be 100% a different story but it doesn't. I'm getting charged based on the very max prices I decided to list it at. Not where I sell it at has no thing to do with where I sell it at. That's how you get to 40% and 30% fees
soh.maryl
·11 months agoJust addressing one part of your message: You, as the seller are not "charged taxes". If you're referring to state sales tax which eBay, by law, is required to charge to buyers in about 46 states, state sales taxes are paid by the buyer, collected by eBay and submitted to the treasury of the affected state, which is the state of the buyer's delivery address, generally speaking.
And, yes, eBay's final value fee is calculated on the basis of the item price, the shipping fee and the state sales tax, if any. This fee has been charged by eBay for at least several years. It seems like eBay's staff of more than a few attorneys have determined that such fees are legal.
glorybells
·1 year agoI’ve sold on multiple platforms over the years; Etsy, Amazon, Mercari, ALL charge their fees exactly the same way. I currently drive for rideshare companies. They take their fee out of the total the rider pays, then take out Govt. fees, taxes, insurance, and tolls; things we never see. It pushes it down to us getting about 50% of what the rider pays. But, just like with eBay, I have signalled my acceptance of the way fees are charged by continuing to use their platforms.
bamacollabs
OP1 year agoI get it. We're all pushovers we're all chumps. I understand that. It'll be much easier if we could actually find some place to localize and actually use any kind of thing to combat against their shenanigans, but we can't so we have to deal with their f******. But to say I accept it when I sign on is horse**bleep**
fab_finds4u
·1 year agoOh, my aching head.
jameshen1
·1 year agoPost # 10, 037 on this subject. Search the prior 10,036 posts to see answers.
cityslickercreations2004
·11 months agoI think you forgot 2 or 3 zeros...
bamacollabs
OP1 year agoMaybe I'm being extra but I feel like being charged almost 40% is approaching predatory. Yes it includes the Recommended extra % for boosting but all this added together comes to 40% of the sale. PreCovid we were looking at 17% AND Ebay has had HUGE increases in total sold transactions since those times.
So major leap in business during a pandemic basically forcing people to go online to buy stuff and instead of rewarding people for their increased business, they turn around and charge such an insane increase for doing something what they used to do for free for the normal percentage. Now they're doing for an additional 13% plus adding taxes plus charging off the top of all that. Yeah I know it's a free market. I get it but I feel like 40% man is freaking predatory
stainlessenginecovers
·1 year agoWhat?? Did you know that there were SELLERS selling ALL that 'extra' stuff and that NOBODY 'lowered prices' and the SELLERS made a killing?
Did you know that Home Depot or Lowes did NOT lower the price of 'delivered' paint, 2x4's, screws, etc etc. and they sold 2x more stuff with 1/10th of the staff because everything was closed?
Also, something that sells for $10, with $8 shipping will total about $20 with tax.
Fee on $20 is $3 (rounded).
So, is it 33.3% fee ($3 of $10) or is it 15% ($3 of $20).
If you chose the first one, that is the 100% WRONG way to do math.
monroe67
·1 year ago"Yeah I know it's a free market. I get it but I feel like 40% man is freaking predatory"
Y'know what? If eBay did suddenly raise their Final Value Fee (FVF) percentage -- without redefining how the FVF is calculated -- on most categories to 40%, I would likely agree that would be immoral, possibly illegal, probably fattening (for eBay!) , and other negative adjectives.
However -- I do know how eBay calculates their FVF, and it is not predatory. NOR is it anywhere near 40%.
It's not predatory because it is spelled out in common, every-day, American English in eBay's User Agreement.
"Recommended extra % for boosting but all this added together comes to 40% of the sale."
The key word in that sentence (fragment) is "recommended." "Recommended" does not equal "required."
Lots of eBay sellers do not "boost" or take part in eBay's Promoted Listing program.
If you, "bama", are choosing to "boost" your listings with eBay's Promoted Listings, you are choosing to pay the "extra %,"
at the "extra %" that you chose all by yourself. Kinda like walking right into a predator's trap.
2013-clemo
·11 months agoWow, never seen such an arrogant and aggressive response to someone that just asked a question. Do you lurk around the questions just so you can talk down to other people. How in the world does someone else asking a community question upset you that much that you had to go off and respond so condescendingly and rude to them. It's a really terrible way to iteract and over a simple question is really unhinged.
kensgiftshop
·1 year agoDon't promote and you'll be be paying the regular 13.6% in most categories.
dy60609
·1 year agobut as long as they continue to look at what may be the "selling costs" and creatively trying to pass them as "fees' they will never hit the 13.6% ( + $0.30-0.40) level
bamacollabs
OP1 year agoWhat a well thought out argument you posed there. I never thought about that. You know I never tried not using promote. I mean I just agreed off the bat to use promote because I would want to pay them 14% more. I didn't think about that. That's a good idea. Oh wait, you don't sell anything if you don't promote.
Sigh...
soh.maryl
·1 year agoAre you aware that "promoting" your items is optional and not mandatory? Am assuming that that's where that 40% comes from, as there is no regular final value fee in any category that's as high as 40%.
bamacollabs
OP1 year agoHey if you guys think it's okay to pay way over what you're doing just 4 years ago that's on y'all. I don't agree with it. That's all I'm saying I think is stupid. I think it's predatory I do because they still are the number one market to sell type of items that I'm selling by a wide margin. So essentially if I want to sell my items regularly, I have to sell here. Spare me the it's optional crap if I don't sell it without using it , it's not optional anymore.
And I can show you % at 39%.
2013-clemo
·11 months agoHonestly it might be different for much larger sellers but from the perspective of an occasional at most 10 items monthly seller the boosted option seems less and less like an option especially on non auction items so I understand the frustration. The responses to your question are wild, it's like a bunch of the most hateful people on the internet flexing that they have an understanding about something that the seller asking the question doesn't. That's the point of asking a question normally you'd think someone that understands would simply provide the answer, but maybe two replies to original question did that. The rest....just awful
stainlessenginecovers
·1 year agoWalmart, Home Depot, Macy's etc etc etc have ALL been 'charged' a processing fee, by the card processor, on the ENTIRE AMOUNT PAID at the cash register for decades.
So, ethics plays no part in it.
Regarding 'shipping'- that too makes sense.
After all, did the buyer pay $10 or $20 for that 'thingy'??