Ebay Overcharging Tax For State of MO

[stella1623]

I live in MO and I know the tax rate that my state requires for "marketplace facilitators" like Ebay, Amazon, Etsy, etc... While Amazon and Etsy know to charge the right tax rate of 4.225% Ebay visibly has no clue about it and is charging 6.74% on every purchase done with an "out of state" seller.

I have reported the problem since the beginning of January. Each time, a customer agent said they were contacting the right department by email to let them aware  of the problem. They all added  that they will fix it and refund me the amount of overcharged tax.

But here we are Feb 15th and nothing has been done. I called again and another agent assured me that she was sending an email with all the details and that the tax rate will be corrected on the website. Thing is they all said that but she couldn't see any record of it!

It is outrageous to see that Ebay is carelessly using the wrong tax rate and therefore pocketing the difference and being dishonest.  On the other hand, Amazon and Etsy are both charging the right tax rate!

For more than 6 years, I have ordered a lot on Ebay, but as they are now using the wrong tax rate, I'm going out of my way to buy elsewhere.

Though Ebay doesn't show the tax % it is easy to pull it out from the tax amount. Have you noticed the same thing in the state you are living? 

[myangelandmyprincess]

It can be more in local municipalities are you using the full zip code including the last 4 digits 

[nobody*s_perfect]

The state of MO web site says that "Cities and counties may impose a local sales and use tax. Special taxing districts (such as fire districts) may also impose additional sales taxes.".  As noted in the other post, eBay uses your ZIP Code to determine what rate to charge, but they use your ZIP Plus 4, because sometimes rates are different within one basic 5-digit Post Office ZIP Code. Without the full 9 digits, they sometimes revert to the state's highest local rate.

 So try updating your site info about your primary address and make sure that your full 9-digit ZIP Code is on your payment page.

[stella1623]

I do use my full zip code so 9 digits.

[stella1623]

I do use my 9 digits and I do the same thing with Amazon.com and Etsy.com. It's got nothing to do with "cities & counties adding a local sales tax".

Both Amazon and Etsy charge me the right "use tax" of 4.225% only Ebay does it wrong.

I guess Ebay's employees should give a call to Amazon and Etsy to find out how to charge the right tax 🙄 for MO buyers who purchase from Sellers who are "out of the state of MO"  (and I mean totally "out", no warehouses, no nothing).

Which is the case with the Sellers I buy from who are just either common people selling their stuffs, or very small businesses, or even more so, Sellers operating from China and who have not one toe in the U.S.A.

I just hope I'll find a way to talk to the people directly responsible for this tax abuse, instead of talking to regular customer agents who don't have a clue about what's going on, and for some don't even understand the problem until I explain to them.

[fab_finds4u]

I'm in FL. The state sales tax rate is 6% but there are local taxes added to that. My city has a .5% school capital outlay surtax and a 1% local government infrastructure surtax, for a total sales tax of 7.5%. 

In MO the state sales tax rate is 4.225, however, depending upon the city or municipality where you live the sales tax could be as high as 10.1%.  What city are you in?

[fab_finds4u]

Maybe this will help.

https://www.avalara.com/taxrates/en/state-rates/missouri.html

[fab_finds4u]

I see the avalara url is correct but when you click on it it changes the spelling to alavera, which is incorrect.

Try typing it in because the link is corrupt. 

avalara.com/tax-rates/en/state-rates/missouri.html 

[eburtonlab]

See if this link works:

https://www.avalara.com/taxrates/en/state-rates/missouri.html

[fab_finds4u]

Thank you, but isn't it weird that your link and my link are the same but my link changes to alavera instead of avalara?

[eburtonlab]

Thank you, but isn't it weird that your link and my link are the same but my link changes to alavera instead of avalara?

Not too long ago Khoros changed something about how hot links work on the boards and I noticed that suddenly it was much easier to wind up with a difference between the text displayed and the link itself.

I think I first noticed on the UK board when I was trying to post a link and I grabbed an ebay.com link, pasted it into a message and edited the link to make it an ebay.co.uk link instead. In the past I was able to edit a link on the fly and have it update both the link and the text before hitting the "enter" button to make the link a clickable URL, but this time it only updated the text, not the link itself. So what looked like the correct link pointed to the wrong site.

Now when pasting a link into a message I check the link and compare the text and the link itself if I need to make any changes.

[mudshark61369]

@stella1623,

If you are figuring out the tax for just the item itself, then you need to know that Missouri and other states also taxes what you pay for shipping as well. Try figuring out the tax including the shipping cost, to see if that is why you think you are paying more. 

[aproudparent2010]

I am also in Missouri and my location has

Combined Tax Rate

8.48%

[stella1623]

Thanks, but I really know about the MO tax law and I did include the SH charges. Thing is I work in accounting so I'm well aware of what needs to be done.

They better fix their tax rate for MO because they are screwing up thousands of MO buyers since January.

The worst is that most of them don't know how to pull out the tax percentage from the tax amount and so don't know Ebay steals from them. And who knows what is done with other states....

Hopefully, my persistence will make the wrong/right and every Missourian will benefit from it.

[stella1623]

This is not the point. What I've been saying is that if you are buying from a Seller that has absolutely nothing in MO (no store, no warehouse, is not a registered vendor in MO, no nothing), Ebay has to charge only the use tax of 4.225% "this is the law".

Again I repeat, Amazon.com and Etsy.com as well as other businesses I deal with are charging the right tax rate of 4.225%

If they can do it right, so can Ebay!