BUYER FEES??????????

[marleymarlinu]

I've noticed that eBay charged me fees for two transactions where I made an offer, to the sellers, of the items I purchased. Are there such fees? If so, why would eBay charge a fee towards the buyer when 'making an offer' option is used? 

AND why can't you contact eBay via email?

[ypdc_dennis]

Sales tax?

[jekirk-54]

It's sales tax.

[wpt05]

@marleymarlinu 

They don't have email support.  If you don't want to call, you can send them a message through Facebook or Twitter.  

Contacting eBay Customer Service 

https://www.ebay.com/help/-/-/Contacting_eBay_Customer_Service?id=4379

eBay Facebook 

https://www.facebook.com/ebay/

eBay Twitter 

https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en

[lightlily_arts]

On July 1st there were 13 more states added that eBay had to start collecting sales taxes.  You must be in one of those states.

[soh.maryl]

Per a fairly recent ruling (June, 2018) by the US Supreme Court, individual states are now allowed to charge state sales tax on internet purchases.  eBay, acting as a marketplace facilitator, is doing this according to the laws of each state, and is remitting the money to that state's treasury.

So far, there are about 21 states on board with this, with more surely to follow.  This fee is charged BY eBay, not the seller and does not go to the seller in any way.  The tax, BTW, is based on the buyer's shipping address, not the seller's.  

[lightlily_arts]

In California each county has a different sales tax rate. In my city it's  0.0775%.  Many of the other cities and counties are higher at 9-10%.  When the taxes are collected by eBay or Amazon I pay the lower amount based on my address. 

[nightwolf001]

The paypal charge specifically says sales tax.

[7606dennis]

It is probably sales tax as others have mentioned.  The state's that have passed Marketplace Facilitator laws require eBay to collect and remit those taxes so they are billed separately since they don't go through the seller.  The amount of the tax collected varies according to the buyer's location and the wording of the law in the buyer's state.

I don't believe, it has anything to do with being charged a fee for making an offer.  Other than the amount of the tax would be calculated using the accepted offer price as part of the calculations.  Whether or not shipping is taxable depends upon the particular state.

I don't believe that eBay has ever used an email address in the Customer Service contact process.  You will need to contact them by phone or you may contact them through their Facebook page, I believe.  However, I'm not positive about the Facebook part.

[marleymarlinu]

So, now eBay is charging a buyer TAXES??? ... Strange because I have done purchases days prior to the ones where I submitted an offer to the seller.  It just seems that it was with these "Offer to the Seller" deals that I was charged on.  Could it be because these sellers are in the States and the others where I was not charged were not from the States?

By the way, thank you all for commenting! 

[bonjourami]

Ebay is not charging the taxes, your state is,Ebay remits those taxes collected to the proper states.. And the tax will also be collected on any foreign internet transactions.

[bonjourami]

Surprising that you havent heard of this new internet tax in the past two years..its been all over the news and in the newspapers.

[marleymarlinu]

So in other words, if you purchase with an American Address, that state will charge you a tax, BUT if you purchase with a European Address, there is not tax charge, correct?

[woodland_gnome]

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@marleymarlinu wrote:

So, now eBay is charging a buyer TAXES??? ... Strange because I have done purchases days prior to the ones where I submitted an offer to the seller.  It just seems that it was with these "Offer to the Seller" deals that I was charged on.  Could it be because these sellers are in the States and the others where I was not charged were not from the States?

By the way, thank you all for commenting! 

---

No.  YOUR state legislature has been requiring you to pay sales or use taxes for years, and it has now (with the OK of the US Supreme Court) passed a law requiring "market facilitators" like eBay to COLLECT the tax that is owed and remit it to YOUR  state taxing authority.  It doesn't matter where the seller lives or works or ships from, what matters is the state and locality that the item is shipped to.

[bonjourami]

yes...if you are in a state that has begun to charge the internet tax..i am in Illinois, and the new internet tax goes into effect here on Oct 1st.