Florida sales tax holiday
Summary: falcatus1 experienced an issue with being charged sales tax on an item purchased during Florida's sales tax holiday for hunting, fishing, and camping gear. Despite several attempts to resolve the issue with eBay, they received no helpful response and were advised to contact customer service via Instagram, which was not practical for them. Frustrated by the lack of resolution, they decided to dispute the charge through their credit card company, noting similar complaints from the previous year. mkaczorsee suggested ensuring only the tax amount was disputed.
Recently purchased an item and upon checking my order details, I see sales tax was added to the total. The issue is that my state of Florida currently has a sales tax holiday on hunting, fishing, and camping gear that goes from 9-1 to 12-31-26.
My item was on Florida’s tax exempt list. 3 messages to eBay were not responded to. The AI person on the phone line apparently couldn’t understand my question and hung up. Finally did get a response from a community “mentor”. After providing the item #, they agreed I should be refunded, but they had no authorization to do this as they are only volunteers. They suggested I go to customer service on Instagram. As I have no Instagram account, this wasn’t practical. Has eBay farmed out their customer service to Instagram? I finally decided to dispute the wrongful charge with my credit card company, as I was getting nowhere with eBay. Florida had the same tax holiday in 2025 and they were getting complains last year for wrongfully collecting tax. I find it problematic that they are engaging in the same practice this year. They should know better!
mkaczorsee
·3 weeks agoHopefully you only disputed the "tax" amount.
falcatus1
OP3 weeks agoOf course I only disputed the tax amount. Any more than that would be ripping off the seller, who has nothing to do with collecting any sales tax. My understanding is that sales tax collection is 100% the responsibility of eBay. eBay needs to get their tax software fixed quickly. If buyers in Florida of these tax exempt items learn that they are getting hit unfairly for 7% in tax, they will be doing their Christmas shopping elsewhere. Not fair to sellers at all. In my case, I made an offer that was accepted by the seller who was then paid automatically. I didn’t see the extra tax charge until I looked at my order details.