eBay is charging residents of PA sales tax on non-taxable items.

[lateforbingo]

I live in Pennsylvania and just purchased a hat today. When the seller sent me the invoice I was charged tax. The thing is PA does not charge sales tax on clothing. I can go to the mall and buy a baseball hat and there is no tax. I can order a hat online from any retailer and no tax. How do I get this fixed? 

[extrememobility]

It is too late to complain about online sales tax Now! It has been made a law by those that people have been voted into office! If you do not want to pay it then by all means by your items where you do not get charged for it"

[soh.maryl]

The problem with your solution to:  " . . . by all means buy your items where you do not get charged for it" is that the tax is determined by the state to which the item is being shipped, not by the seller's location.  Therefore, for your solution to work, the buyer would need to move to another state where state sales  tax is not being charged (yet) and just keep moving because pretty much all the states will be getting on board.  Or he could perhaps find a willing pal in a state that has no state sales tax and have all his purchases shipped there.  

[7606dennis]

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@extrememobility wrote:
It is too late to complain about online sales tax Now! It has been made a law by those that people have been voted into office! If you do not want to pay it then by all means by your items where you do not get charged for it"

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Actually, online, mail order and any other purchases made that are delivered within a state on which sales tax has not been paid have always been subject to use tax and it has been the buyer's duty to pay those taxes to their state themselves.  So now the Market facilitator laws in states that have enacted them merely places the burden of collecting them on the facilitators like eBay, etc.  The burden of paying the tax still rests with the buyer.  

[ftmgolden]

File a complaint with eBay. They are facillitating the purchases and should take responsibility for the sales. Clothing is not taxed in PA.

[flowershops]

Ebay also collected Sales Tax on Tea purchased to be shipped to PA which is illegal

They will have shills quoting 'Use Tax' laws but Use tax is LESS than Sales Tax

When I looked for the purchase history, Ebay had deleted it completely and it could only be found as a Paypal transaction with the link to the Ebay item removed!

Obviously Ebay is funneling non-taxable sales tax sales then deleting the transactions altogether.

I guess luckily I had never received my item so was able to remember to search thru my paypal transactions and dispute it, as it it was disappeared from eBay altogether.

Perhaps start a Class Action against eBay for their fraudulent actions.

[7606dennis]

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@flowershops wrote:

Ebay also collected Sales Tax on Tea purchased to be shipped to PA which is illegal

They will have shills quoting 'Use Tax' laws but Use tax is LESS than Sales Tax

When I looked for the purchase history, Ebay had deleted it completely and it could only be found as a Paypal transaction with the link to the Ebay item removed!

Obviously Ebay is funneling non-taxable sales tax sales then deleting the transactions altogether.

I guess luckily I had never received my item so was able to remember to search thru my paypal transactions and dispute it, as it it was disappeared from eBay altogether.

Perhaps start a Class Action against eBay for their fraudulent actions.

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Actually, use tax in most cases the precise amount of what the sales tax is one the item.  Of course, you will need to check with your state's taxing authority to verify that.

I'm not familiar enough with Pennsylvania sales/use tax laws or their Marketplace Facilitator law to know precisely what items they exempt from being taxed.  However, I would still suggest, if you believe that eBay is doing things incorrectly, to report your suspicions to the Pennsylvania taxing authority and they can take the action required.  While it may seem logical that the person being taxed would know that the item is exempt, official notification from that state's taxing agency would probably be required for eBay to take action.

[mansons2005]

I would check with the state tax authority - I know that when the Illinois law goes into effect in October there are NP exemptions. In other words items that are tax exempt in the shops/stores are NOT tax exempt when purchased on-line. The tax will apply to all items on every transaction.

[computeraidllc]

Use tax is almost always the same as sales tax. They went into effect together because of mail order catalogs.

Marketplace facilitator laws are basically making eBay collect the use tax. The only major marketplace facilitator that is having issues with this is eBay because they seem to be an all items or non setup. I use to have to collect New York State sales tax because I am physically located here and have always ran into issues because some of the stuff I sold wasn't suppose to be taxed but because of the way there system is set up it would tax everything with no way to not have something taxed to New Yorkers. This has been an major headache for over 20 years. No other place has this issue.

The easiest solution would be to set it up with there catalog in areas that state frequently have tax exemptions like food. Require the sellers to use this catalog like they do now in some categories. This would cut this problem down by a lot. They could also set up with clothing category so it can be tax exempt or at a different rate in that category only because many states ether don't tax clothing or have a separate garment tax which is a different rate.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Shills seriously?

was the clothing listed in more than one category? eBay goes by the first and will charge tax if it is not clothing.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Items are removed fro eBay when they or the seller are found fraudulent by eBay or they violate other rules.

I can comfortably say this is not part of a scheme for eBay to hide tax fraud.

[nc-daydreamer]

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@pburn wrote:
That makes so much sense for states to do, with the onset of online retailer sales tax laws. It wouldn't have been so important prior to the SCOTUS ruling, but coordinating sales tax laws certainly seems to make sense now.

One problem I see for states in trying to develop a uniform sales tax code is the "special interest" groups in specific states lobbying for and receiving sales tax exemptions for senators' constituents' products. I'm sure in my state there are corn-related exceptions, for example. LOL! Or, again, in my state, negotiations between our urban and rural senators that have resulted in certain sales tax exemptions for specific products.

Glad I don't have to be involved in working through that . . .

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With me not having a B&M store, I'm afraid all this tax stuff is WAY over my head and I just don't understand most of it.

But what makes the most sense to me is that each individual state give (or sell) the software they use to eBay and/or other online venues.  The 'no-tax' days, the different rates which compose the tax burden for different items - would automatically sync with the online sale. If this is not done by software, then there must be a server link somewhere to tie into an existing program that each state uses.  

Those who have B&M stores, how do you do it?  Or am I over simplifying this? 

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

People with brick and mortars only have to worry about their own State taxes. It’s the website owners who will be hit the most. Fortunately most don’t sell enough outside of their State to meet sales tax thresholds. Most are $100k a year to that State.

I do know there is a process underway in a list of States to streamline sales taxes for out of State sales.

[disneyshopper]

Marketplace facilitator laws are basically making eBay collect the use tax. The only major marketplace facilitator that is having issues with this is eBay because they seem to be an all items or non setup. I use to have to collect New York State sales tax because I am physically located here and have always ran into issues because some of the stuff I sold wasn't suppose to be taxed but because of the way there system is set up it would tax everything with no way to not have something taxed to New Yorkers. This has been an major headache for over 20 years. No other place has this issue.

I collect sales tax for residents of California.  Food is not taxed, so when I set up my listing, I can uncheck the box to tell ebay NOT to collect sales tax if the buyer is located in California.  Fortunately, I haven't listed any food items for years.

ebay will be collecting sales/use tax for California come October, so I hope they do it correctly!

[postingid2017]

The same thing happened to me about a week ago and it was due to the 'category' that the seller listed the item in.  I am in New Jersey, and clothing items are not taxable for male/female/children.  And to make matters worse, I also live in a UEZ - that is taxed at half rate.  In certain cities in New Jersey, the tax rate is lower in UEZ so if I purchase anything taxable within those cities, the rate is lower, all the rest, the rate is higher.  Not really much to moan over, but it really ticked me the wrong way when I was charged not only tax on the item but the shipping too.  Shipping in New Jersey can be taxed only and not the item if it is a non-taxable item.

The category that the seller selected when listing was under 'sporting goods' as the main category.  I somehow think that ebay/pp is submitting what it should be and pocketing the rest. 

[postingid2017]

In the State of New Jersey, some food items are non-taxable, however, if you purchase a 'prepared item' then taxes are due.  Some items that I thought were taxable, like paper towel/TP are not taxable as they are a necessity.

I will just pay better attention to the main category that the item is listed in and either purchase or not.  I do not have a problem paying or being charged for taxes, but for items that I know are non-taxable, no, I will purchase them locally.