mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
Regards,
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brittanie@ebay payments_team@ebay
Just when we *finally* got a clear and definitive answer from the payments team that seller collected sales tax *is* included in the 1099-K, but eBay collected tax is *not*, eBay seems to be doing its best to throw more confusion back into this subject.
rebecca@ebay & Griff talking about 1099-K’s on the eBay for business podcast made no clear distinction between seller collected or eBay collected tax, which just muddies the water and isn’t very helpful.
Then I noticed today that the 1099-K help page has been changed! The previous version was a much more clear, direct, and explicit explanation of what is and is not included in the 1099-K and most importantly, why it is or is not included.
The new version is much less clear.
“Form 1099-K does not include sales tax, which is automatically collected and remitted by eBay.”
Forgive me for calling in the grammar police here, but the placement of the comma in that sentence makes it read as if all sales tax is automatically collected by eBay and therefore all sales tax will not be included in the 1099-K form.
While this could certainly change in the coming year, it is important to note there are still a few states which have sales tax but do not have Marketplace Facilitator laws on the books, so sellers may still have an obligation to collect and remit tax for those states directly.
Sellers need to have clear, direct, and accurate information about Managed Payments, and especially about how it may affect their income tax filing.
Why on earth would eBay change a “help” page to be far less helpful when the previous language was much more precise and easier to understand?
Or is this change an indication that something bigger has changed in the policy or how eBay will be handling 1099-Ks going forward? And if so, why is that not spelled out?!
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Edit: Reply to this post can be read here
@pokemonapprentice wrote:
Hi everyone,
I and others have been experiencing a bug where we can’t sign up for Managed Payments or edit Personal Info (i.e. registration address). Attempting to do so results in the message: “Something went wrong. Please try again later.” I’ve contacted eBay support multiple times in the past month. The reps have confirmed that it’s a bug on eBay’s end and reported it to the Technical Department. However, there’s been no resolution and now I’m locked out of making new or editing current listings since I’m not signed up for Managed Payments…because the website won’t let me sign up for it.
The thing is that this issue has been reported for months and it seems like no progress has been made on it. I know you personally can’t address this issue but would you be able to relay this to the Technical/IT Department to push this towards a resolution? It seems unfair to lose access to selling because a bug makes it impossible to sign up for Managed Payments.
Here are a few other threads discussing the same issue:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/My-Account/Managed-payments-sign-up-problems/m-p/31549234
Thank you for your help.
Hi @pokemonapprentice - I'm sorry to hear about what's been going on. You have done the best thing already (having a payments teammate contact you about it). You're correct that I can't do much when it comes to managed payments, but I will make sure to report and put a spotlight on this as a continuing trend.
I’ve been trying to reach Payments CS for nearly a week and I keep getting the below message.
My issue is regarding a technical error with funds on one of my transactions. I’ve been in Payments for about 2 years now and I know the issue I’m experiencing is not how the system works. I also have a question about a transaction with no identifying information- also not the norm- so I have no idea what it’s for.
Please tell me-
- How can I get a Payments rep on the phone (for quickest resolution) or chat? I've been trying for nearly a week with zero luck.
- How does eBay expect sellers to run a business here when they can’t get help concerning their finances that eBay is controlling?
- What if this was a time-sensitive issue regarding a large dollar amount and there were circumstances that required CS assistance? What are sellers supposed to do?
Payments CS used to be great. Now that it's opened up to everyone, CS is non-existent. I know they’re overwhelmed with newbies to the program, but this is ridiculous that I can’t get any help for nearly a week.
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Edit: Reply to this post can be read here
The Payments team has a bit of work to do informing sellers how the heck to use the 1099K recently released. It seems they have spun some rules in how they calculate the 1099K that no other site does and most sellers wouldn't even consider reasonable.
Now I'm sure they have their reasons for doing this but it is creating multiple ways for sellers having to keep their books in order to report their income properly if they sell on multiple sites or even use the auto downloads of information into a bookkeeping system.
Reconciling is being crippled for sellers because MP is not going by payment date but settlement date. The two dates are rarely the same and when you cross months or years, it is an issue.
Most sellers would be counting the sale when the buyer submits payment. Even Ebay has told us repeatedly that is when the sale happens. But now there is an exception created by MP for how this is reported on the 1099K and that is a HUGE issue.
My guess is this has something to do with the payment in the pending process. It isn't real money in our MP account during this time until the payment clears. So I can see why there is an issue, but we need a resolution to the differences here.
What makes MP different than other sites in how they fill out a 1099K?
I know the Community team can't really address this, but it is a serious issue that needs immediate attention for the Payments team.
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Edit: A reply to your post can be found here
Good afternoon eBay Support Team
Subject: eBay contributing to Tax Fraud
First pic below is from the IRS Schedule C form, Line 2 is where Sellers record refunds. The government expects Retailers to record ALL sales regardless if they result in a return or not, THAT would be Line 1.
Our State requires the SAME Gross total Sales dollars for State Tax ID holders AND we have to report as often as quarterly. So through the year I rely on the CSV file to total my Gross Sales for State reporting purposes.
eBay's recent changes to the CSV Transaction reports are contributing to Tax Fraud by creating NEW transaction types like "Claim" and "Hold" classifications and taking those values OUT of the Order's Gross total ... these two classifications are in addition to the three we had last year "Order", "Refund", "Shipping label". I had to change the "Hold" values to both Orders and Refunds to 1) satisfy the state's and ultimately the IRS requirement for Gross sales and 2) accurately reflect the sales that occurred.
However, in doing this the 1099k issued by eBay is NOT correct since it ONLY includes the Order amounts on the CSV and NOT the Hold amounts.
You CAN'T do what you are doing with Sales transactions because you are contributing to tax fraud. Below is a screen shot from the CSV before I fixed it ... NOTE that you also have the dates ALL WRONG for Holds ... YOU show dates as close as same or one day when the FACTS are weeks in some cases where an item is shipped and then returned and THEN refunded. This is really fraudulant information and you better get if fixed ASAP.
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Edit: Reply to this thread can be found here
