Sales Tax

[redmodelt]

Reading some of the postings, sounds to me like all this Sales Tax is really going to be a mess. I live in a non Sales Tax state and am already paying state sales tax for items bought in Washington and have payed Mass. Sales tax thru an on-line auction. I do not live in ether state and do not receive any benefit from same. As a small part time seller without a store, all I can say is "buggers!" More hoops to jump thru.

[tony1963]

Vote new people in office.  Hold them all accountable.

[bluelinemetalsllc]

As the seller, you are not paying the tax, your buyers are. Ebay is collecting it and remitting it to the appropriate states. Nothing for you to do or worry about. 

[redmodelt]

Maybe missing part of the point, as a buyer living in a non sells tax state, I am paying sales tax to a state I do not live in nor will the item be used in that state.  As a non store very small seller, this will add an extra layer of cost to the buyer for the used niche market parts I sell.  So yes there is the unkown to worry about.

[bonjourami · Accepted solution]

You sound confused..as the seller, this tax has nothing to do with you. If your buyer lives in a state that collects this tax, Ebay will collect it and remit it to the proper state. You wont even see the tax that Ebay adds, because it will be on the buyers check out page.

[redmodelt]

I stand corrected on me paying tax to other states for items bought there, but the part about not seeing it. You will when you send an invoice. I have an item I sold today, the invoice I sent shows the Texas tax, 8+%. Ouch!

[bonjourami]

I dont send an invoice, Ebay does..so I dont see the tax at all.

[redmodelt]

Then I suggest after you sell something, open the "more actions"drop down menu on the right side before they pay and take a look at the invoice. If they are paying sales tax it will show the amount and rate they are paying.

[bonjourami]

I have no interest in what taxes buyers are paying...

[christob35]

I was at first quite puzzled by this -- I, in Virginia, just sold an item to a buyer in Nevada, and the ebay notice I received said "you've just received instant payment of $xx."  That notice showed a summary of the buyer's gross payment amount being made "to me" (the way the notice was written, I assumed I'd see a Paypal deposit of $xx.) 

The email notice also listed a breakdown showing how they reached total $xx...

• selling price of the item, plus
• shipping costs in the listing, plus
• $6.04 sales tax...

Equals total $xx.  I worried suddenly I'd have to get involved in figuring out how to file/send that tax to the Nevada state government...!  (I had not sold an item on ebay in a very long time; this is my first-ever ebay sale with tax appearing in the transaction...)  

But then logging into my Paypal account, the net deposit is shown as:

• total $xx, 
• minus Paypal fees, 
• minus "$6.04 Sales tax collected by ebay"...

for a net deposit of $xyz.  So that's a huge relief to see that ebay is handling it "seamlessly" for the transaction.  

-C

[kirseller]

I live in Massachusetts and we don't have sales TAX on clothes- EBAY is charging tax on non taxable items (buyer also happened to live in MAss which made things less complicated)-yes buyer pays HOWEVER I am being hit with a 2.9% fee on the tax by PAYPAL- losing another 3% sucks!  Especially if you are an infrequent seller who paid tax on the item when YOU bought it and are now reselling it!  This is the state's wanting tax revenue but hurts the innocent who don't buy their goods at wholesale!  I want a wholesale number!

[kirseller]

Ebay is charging sales tax on clothing which is NOT taxable in MASS and you are probably paying fee to paypal to take tax money in...I am trying to contact department of revenue to see if it is legal for paypal to skim fee on pass thru tax!  Please contact mass dept of revenue- we must all be vigilant.

[kirseller]

DO you use PayPal?  If so you are likely paying 2.9% fee on the extra $ taken in by teh taxes just like on the shipping.

[kirseller]

Yeah and paypal is taking their fee on the tax too- you may be losing an extra 3% to Paypal.  My records show Ebay is not taking FVF on it they would if they could!

[jkch425]

You are wrong about that. If your buyer uses PayPal they run the tax through your PayPal account and you as the seller have to pay 3% PayPal fee on the tax that eBay collects.