Sales Tax on Coins

[alibaba9196]

Why is eBay charging a sales tax on coins? Sales taxes on coins are non existent otherwise the U.S. Mint would be charging a sales tax on the millions of coins it mints and sells to the the general public every year. The U>S> Mint never charges a sales tax on coins.

What eBay is doing is ripping people off and chances are they do not even report this revenue to the taxing authorities. How low is eBay going to get? They are fully aware of the "NO SALES TAX ON COINS" but they have been making tons of extra money which they just deposit into their hefty accounts.

Buyers and sellers alike need to address this issue now and have the crooks at eBay cancel the so called bogus sales tax on coins.

Don't allow this to happen to you. REFUSE TO PAY THE SALES TAX AND IF THEY DO NOT REMOVE IT< THEN DO NOT BUY THE COIN(s). Enough is enough.

[stainlessenginecovers]

Each state has up to 1000 various exemptions so it seems easy they would miss some. Also depends on the category something is sold in.  ebay reports the totals sold to that state and remits the tax $. If they are inadvertently raking in tax $, they ARE still sending in those $ to the prospective State. 1000000 transactions a day, do you really think someone is sitting saying "oh, let's keep those extra $ for that particular sale so we can take the money'. Very doubtful. Honest mistake. You can hit up your states Sales Tax folks and ask them how you get those $ back. 

[mudshark61369]

@alibaba9196,

"Sales taxes on coins are non existent otherwise the U.S. Mint would be charging a sales tax on the millions of coins it mints and sells to the the general public every year".

The Mint and banks are regulated by the U.S. tax code which doesn't allow the charging of a tax on money obtained through them.  However, a sales tax can be levied by each individual state for the sale of used currency or bullion.   A sales tax is charged in the state a buyer lives in, if their state does not exempt the resale of currency, coin, or bullion from being taxed.  eBay and other online retail sites, are forced to charge the sales tax as they are under the marketplace facilitator laws .  The taxes are almost immediately distributed to a state, the seller never sees those funds. 

46 states charge sales tax on internet purchases, each exempting different items from the sales tax. What is taxed is decided by state legislatures or a Governor.  When a state changes the laws it seems that sometimes their treasury dept. does not notify market place facilitators quickly, so that changes can be instituted.  Some states demand very specific wording for the sale of coins/currency, in order for the sale to be exempt.  Otherwise it is taxed if a seller does not list it in the proper category or with a proper title.   eBay has no control over that.

If your state does tax the online purchase of coins/currency/bullion, it is automatically charged. If they have exemptions on those purchases, and you feel you shouldn't have been taxed you can save the Order details, and claim a deduction on your state taxes. Then contact your state representatives and let them know how you feel.  You might want to check your state's tax code, to see what their wording is for the  taxation of used currency.

[alibaba9196]

eBay should be aware of sales tax issues and they should not be charging a sales tax on legal tender coins and currency. If you were correct then explain why the U.S. Mint does not charge a sales tax on the coins they mint nor on the currency they print? They do not even charge a sales tax on the gold bullion that they sell to the general public. No one can out produce the U.S. Mint.

[janet9988]

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@alibaba9196 wrote:

eBay should be aware of sales tax issues and they should not be charging a sales tax on legal tender coins and currency. If you were correct then explain why the U.S. Mint does not charge a sales tax on the coins they mint nor on the currency they print? They do not even charge a sales tax on the gold bullion that they sell to the general public. No one can out produce the U.S. Mint.

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The US MINT is a FEDERAL government entity.  Part of the Dept of Treasury.

The feral government does not charge a US sales tax .  Sales tax is determined by the state.

[alibaba9196]

That may be true but I did post the list of all of the States and only and no sales tax on coins or currency. Read it.

[downunder-61]

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@alibaba9196 wrote:

That may be true but I did post the list of all of the States and only and no sales tax on coins or currency. Read it.

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Three threads about this, perhaps some are just bored and don't want to 'read it' - AGAIN

[bkerea66]

The whole point here is that eBay knows full well that they are taking money from the consumer that is not required by law.  They try to make you think they are required by law to do this but some states, like Utah, do not mandate it but require the consumer to pay a "use tax" if the online retailer does not charge sales tax.  More specifically, the sale of coins and bullion to residents of Utah are EXEMPT from sales tax.  Ebay has known this for several years and has done nothing to improve their system to ensure sales tax is not charged on coins and bullion shipped to those states that have exemptions.  I have tried unsuccessfully numerous times to get eBay to reimburse me for sales tax they have erroneously charged me.  The last time I contacted CS, I was instructed to email all of my purchase information to this "back room" tax group so they could review my claim.  I was specifically told they "will not contact you to advise you of the results of their review...you will just have to look at your Paypal account to see if a credit has been issued."  I did as I was instructed and sure enough, they never contacted me and as expected, never issued me a credit.  So, I had to spend a great deal of time completing forms and copying invoices over a two year period to submit to my state tax commission and to date, have received no response from them either.  I have been buying and selling on Ebay for 20+ years and during that time Ebay has gone from a great auction site to a money grabbing machine that cares nothing for its buyers or sellers.   

[computeraidllc]

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@alibaba9196 wrote:

eBay should be aware of sales tax issues and they should not be charging a sales tax on legal tender coins and currency. If you were correct then explain why the U.S. Mint does not charge a sales tax on the coins they mint nor on the currency they print? They do not even charge a sales tax on the gold bullion that they sell to the general public. No one can out produce the U.S. Mint.

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The reason sales taxes isn't charged is because it is owned by the Federal Government. The state cannot force the Federal Government to pay sales tax on anything. The Federal Government is above state statues.

Each state can impose a tax on items sold by private entities like individuals or businesses. If you go to a post office and pay for postage, you don't pay sales tax on it but if you go to FedEx or UPS you may have to pay sales tax, this depends on the state. This is the same reason why coins from the US Mint doesn't have sales tax but if you turn around and sell it to someone else, you may have to collect sales tax on it.

States cannot put sales tax on the Federal Government.

In New York State regular non bullion coins are taxed when you buy them from any where outside of the government because they are tangible personal property. Only bullion is exempted. Anything not exempted you have to pay sales tax on. This is only from private businesses and individuals and not the government.

[computeraidllc]

When you go into a coin shop in New York State, you pay sales tax on any coins you buy unless it is a bullion coins minted by the US Mint.

[kathiec]

Ebay has gone from a great auction site to a money grabbing machine that cares nothing for its buyers or sellers.   

Without weighing in on whether or not eBay should be collecting the tax, your statement seems to indicate you think eBay is keeping the sales tax it collects. In fact, all of it is paid to the respective states for whom it's collected. And since I'm sure the vast majority of the states have audit procedures to guarantee they're getting everything they're due, you can't complain this is money grabbing on eBay's part. It actually costs them money to collect it and remit it to the states.

[computeraidllc]

Look under the us mint's FAQ: https://catalog.usmint.gov/faqs/order-and-payment-processing/

"

Will I be charged sales tax?

Since the United States Mint is a federal government operation, purchases are exempt from sales tax.

"

Also New York State Sales Tax Law: https://www.tax.ny.gov/pubs_and_bulls/tg_bulletins/st/quick_reference_guide_for_taxable_and_exempt_p...

Under tangible personal property: 

"coins and other monetary items, when purchased for purposes other than for use as a medium of exchange"

[shalibear]

Ny us a sh*thole from hell and taxes its taxes with additional taxes and tries every slimeball move to tax everyone they can.

They are NOT a good example of anything other than how to NOT do things properly unless the goal is to screw over everyone they possibly can.

Hell case in point  look at their asinine attempt to tax people that dont even live in NY if they do any work for any company in NY  even if the person never steps foot into the state.

In one case they tried to claim that a worker that wasnt even in the same country was subject to their state income taxes!!! (Thay got told to shove that obviously)

And dont even start on the disaster of NYC....  its beyon an epic fail.

As for ebay and taxes   they are beyond a disaster for taxes...  look no further than their global shipping scam.. where they knowingly try to force taxes on items that are not taxable and they have been informed of such repeatedly..

Their response is the usual  you can apply for a refund after etc etc   and even if you do get that it takes an avg if 6 months plus..   ebay POCKETS that $$$ in the meanwhile and does NOT remit it to the gov..   that's been confirmed already since they tried to charge taxes for an item coming to Canada that was tax exempt...  inwent through that headache and they only finally issued the refund (wo interest btw) once I sent them a letter threatening legal action and having ebay canada held liable for ebay.coms tax fraud.   The CRA would love to fine the hell out of them....   and then suddenly it was "ohh were sorry it was a mistake..  heres your refund"

meanwhile in addition the costs charged for their global shipping are a massive ripoff...

One friend idioticslly paid for that and due to Ebay's infinite stupidity the item he bought for under $20 cost over $80 in shipping and  "customs clearance" fee     note under $20 items imported into canuckistan  are NOT taxable...   and they also dont want to tell you that you can self clear higher value items very easily with just one simple form..  takes under a min to fill in   yet they want $50+ for that "service" which they then try to tax as well!

Yeah there are no doubt number crunchers working somewhere that figured out exactly how much they gouge and profit from such,,   not on an individual item per se but en mass..   and they have gotten consistiently worse over the years...

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.