Hi everyone! Thanks for joining us for the Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a specific topic this week, so feel free to share any general buying or selling questions you may have.
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@lacemaker3 wrote:
I would like to ask for an update about the Illinois sales/use/ROT tax situation, where it appears that eBay did not correctly handle the Illinois ROT/use tax for one specific situation: for sellers based/nexus in Illinois, who made sales that were delivered to buyers/shipping addresses in Illinois, during 2020. It appears that for these sales only, eBay incorrectly collected Illinois Use tax from the buyers and remitted it to Illinois DOR, when they should have been exempt. Instead, the sellers were supposed to collect Illinois ROT (sales) tax from the buyers and remit it themselves (the same as in previous years before the marketplace facilitator legislation).
On this thread, brian@ebay promised last week to investigate the situation with the sales tax team, but there haven't been any updates since then.
Background on the issue:
The taxes in Illinois were origin based (charged at the seller's location), not destination based (charged at the buyer's location). It also appears that the ROT (what Illinois calls their sales tax) is the seller's liability, but they are allowed and expected to pass the tax on to their buyers. This meant that, under the Illinois Marketplace Facilitator law, the tax due for buyers in Illinois for Marketplaces Sales, was different if the seller was also based in Illinois (intrastate sales, subject to ROT), than it was for sales from marketplace sellers who did not have a nexus in Illinois (subject to Use Tax).
In 2020, the Illinois Marketplace Facilitator legislation stated that if both the seller and the buyer were based in Illinois (an intrastate sale), the transaction was exempt from the Marketplace requirement for the Marketplace Facilitator (eBay) to collect and remit Use Tax on the sale. Instead, for intrastate sales, the sellers were still required to collect and remit the ROT (sales) tax, the same as in previous years.
It appears that eBay did not collect or remit the Illinois tax correctly in 2020, in this one specific scenario: when both buyer and seller were in Illinois. eBay collected the Use Tax for these sales, which should have been exempt. And eBay did not apply the seller's sales tax tables, which (assuming they had been set up correctly in 2019) would have correctly collected the ROT (sales) tax, which would have been included with the payment sent to the sellers. These sellers would then have had the correct amount of ROT (sales) tax to remit to Illinois DOR as they are required to do. Since eBay did not collect either the Use Tax or the ROT Tax correctly, the sellers are not stuck having to pay the ROT tax to Illinois DOR when they didn't receive it for their eBay sales because eBay messed up. Several sellers have reported that Illinois DOR has told them they can't get any credit for the Use Tax which eBay invalidly collected and remitted for those sales.
It appears that the Illinois Use Tax, which applies for Marketplace Sales from remote sellers (those who do not have a nexus in Illinois) was collected correctly in 2020 by eBay.
Illinois has now changed their Marketplace Facilitator tax law, so that beginning Jan 1, 2021, all Marketplace Sales are subject to Illinois Use Tax which is collected and remitted by the Marketplace Facilitator, no matter where the seller is located. This means that Illinois-based sellers will not have to deal with this, after 2020.
The bottom line is that, because of eBay's mistake in not collecting the Illinois tax correctly for intrastate sales (in Illinois only), the sellers have to pay the ROT (sales) tax themselves, and Illinois DOR is getting paid double, because they have (or will) received the Use Tax for those sales from eBay.
Because this was eBay's mistake, eBay should make the seller's whole as much as is possible, and give the seller's the Use Tax for their intrastate sales to Illinois buyers, which they can apply towards their ROT liability to Illinois DOR. This is not a perfect solution, because for some locations in Illinois, the ROT is charged at a higher percentage rate than the Use tax. But it would help.
eBay can then recover the amount of the Use tax they collected invalidly, by applying it as a credit towards their Use Tax submitted to Illinois DOR.
@lacemaker3 Thank you for reaching out on this and providing a re-cap. This is very helpful. I know that brian@ebay was working on this and he said we don't have an update yet, but we'll be continuing to push this.
@mr_lincoln wrote:
brittanie@ebay wrote:
@forgottenape wrote:
why was a buyer allowed to open an inr case before the delivery window opened and deman a refund before that window closed?
and why was he then able to open another case through paypal for the same reason?
and why was a hold placed for both cases?
@forgottenape - While I can't look into the specific cases here, I can provide general information for your questions.
There are a few reasons a buyer may be able to open a case before the estimated delivery date has passed. If you'd like to know the specific reason this case was opened, you may want to contact customer service.
eBay and PayPal's protection programs are separate, so it is possible for a member to open a case on both sites, however, if they opened a case on eBay first and then open a case on PayPal, the eBay case should close, as a buyer can't have two open cases with both sites.
I can only speak to eBay's process and we do put funds on hold when a case is opened to make the funds available if a refund is needed. Once the case is closed the funds are returned if they are not refunded.
The top take away for this is if you need more information on your next steps, getting in touch with customer service would be your best bet.
brittanie@ebay Well? Do you mind telling us "WHAT" those "few reasons are" so we don't all have to request a Call back from Home Office for the answer? No offense but you can't just put something like that out there without the answers ... INRs are a real hassle right now for MANY Sellers and friends told me eBay STOPPED the protections on 1/15/21 from the Dec 8 Announcement about late deliveries ...
@mr_lincoln - This can happen when a item is removed from the site, there may be some discrepancies if the estimated delivery date is adjusted or there could have been an issue we would only be able to identify by reviewing the case. Regardless of reason, if this happens you would want to contact customer service for assistance.
@coinslabz26 wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
@coinslabz26 wrote:
Hello, hope everyone has been well!
Coin sellers received an email that coins, paper money, and bullion could be listed on 1/25 for those already in managed payments. Unfortunately someone forgot to release fees for sellers with stores.
I don't know my start date for MP but would like very much to have some ability to plan my business around a new potential fee structure. Can you guys please get us help with this?
Hi @coinslabz26 - the payments team posted about that email earlier today (link here), which was a surprise to me too. It seems that the addition of coins is going to be a phased roll out. That is to say, I think you have some time before that registration email hits your inbox.
I've gotten it confirmed from the payments team in the past that you should expect to see the fee schedule update once the categories begin to get added. So at this point I think you should expect to see something on the Help Pages by the 1st.
However - if that's not the case give me a tag and I'll get it sent up the chain and request more info. Thanks!
Thank you. I genuinely appreciate the update and had not seen the new scheduled start dates. That is very helpful.
Obviously not your fault, but they really should tell us the fee cost....As little as 4 days notice of whether or not an entire category is going to get their entire inventory devalued seems like it should have more notice.
I don't disagree with you @coinslabz26 - calls for transparency and lead-time have been essential pillars of our weekly reporting to the payments team since we began reporting on it in 2018.
If you don't mind I'll use your particular comment in this week's report. 🙂
@bxqy3000 wrote:
About a week ago, I made a post hoping someone could help me with this situation I have. I'm hoping this comment will provide help on how I can resolve this matter.
I bought a few items couple weeks ago using a card that is NOT LINKED TO PAYPAL. Upon checking to see if my card processed through on purchasing my orders, I noticed a "fee" or hold as you would call it, that was in the amount of $2.70. The description that was provided was called "Paypal on eBay mark." I've read that this type of hold is to verify the card used is legitimate for purchases. After the card is verified, the hold is removed.
But that hold has been processed for my next months statement and I am not about to pay for something that I'm not aware of. If someone could help me, or have had similar situations like this, it would be great.
Thanks!
Hi @bxqy3000 - temporary holds that are placed are usually in whole dollar amounts, usually $1. Are you certain that this charge wasn't for one of the items you ordered a few weeks ago? If none of the order totals of your purchases were $2.70 I'd recommend contacting Customer Support directly so they can review your account in detail. Thanks!
@bigw1231 wrote:
Like others have noticed, under the sales reports, the numbers on the graphs and download report don’t equal each other. I called eBay and spoke with a rep. He too saw my exact concern, and said he was going to escalate to someone higher. He said I should expect a call back. This was on two weeks ago. I’m still waiting for someone to call. I too have realized that the graph is NOT generated from the download report. But where are the other deductions/additions coming from? Can someone PLEASE point out to me how I can reconcile these numbers? Your customers, the sellers, should not have to go thru all of these hoops just to reconcile our sales reports. In my opinion, it should be in one clear concise spreadsheet. It’s VERY disheartening when one cannot get answers or even a call back, to explain this misinformation. I am actually hoping my call back message got misplaced!
Hi @bigw1231 - we're requesting more detail on sales reports from the applicable team and will update the chat as we hear back. Thanks!
@wooden_flower wrote:
Hi,
Quick question on the sales report under performance.
The sales info box says 'Returns and cancelled transactions are reflected'. I read this to mean that they are deducted from gross transactions. Since I did not have recent cancellations, I could not verify this. Am I reading it correctly?
Also - if a sales is in one month, and returned in the next, where will the return be deducted if I run monthly sales reports?
thanks!
@wooden_flower - Great question! I don't have an immediate answer for you. I'll look into it and see if I can find more information for you. I'll update the chat here when I know more.
@wooden_flower - I got an clarification on this. Cancelled sales are deducted from the total (this includes returns). The date for cancellations/returns is based on the original date of the transaction. What this means is that you will see the original transaction status marked as a cancellation/returned and it would appear in the report on the date it was purchased (it would just have that updated status). I hope this helps!
@houseofcommonscards wrote:
Was very excited to see that Standard envelope shipping released but I've run across a big problem. The service allows for up to 15 raw cards or a weight of less than 4 oz (per USPS rules), but the minimum weight you can put in for a card is 1 oz (only whole numbers). That means by definition, after 3 cards you'll be above the max weight. Trading cards weigh less than an ounce, typically .05-.1 ounces.
That's the major issue I'm finding, a minor issue is that the shipping label printing doesn't allow for printing on envelopes. So I had to print on our Rollo and stick that on the envelope. Printing on an envelope would be much cleaner.
Hey @houseofcommonscards - Apologies for missing this! That was definitely not our intention.
I'm glad you're as excited as we are about this new program and I want to make sure you have the right tools to be successful with this, especially when selling multiple cards. I've requested more information and will update you as soon as I hear back.
