Alas, another Sales Tax question: WHEN will eBay remit?

[autopaper]

I've tried to keep abreast of eBay's new policy of collecting & remitting Internet Sales Taxes......but, my question is, WHEN will eBay remit those taxes back to the various states??? I've sold items to customers in states where sales tax was collected. That tax amount was included in the total Pay Pal payment to ME! In other words, there are a few extra (tax) dollars sitting in my Pay Pal account. WHEN (& how) will eBay take them back?

[3boys420]

My last two payments received with a sales tax have also gone into my paypal account.  Before this,  there was a line that said sales tax collected by ebay and it did not go into my account, this line is gone on these two payments. I don't think this is supposed to be happening. 

[readabouthorses]

According to the announcement eBay posted on November 4, it says this:

Once settled, the tax amount will be automatically deducted for remittance to the applicable taxing authority.

Now what they mean by "settled" I have no idea.

[pink.fish.rule]

According to a blue on another thread, it's auto (instantly?) deducted from the amount PP processes and remitted to ebay so officially it's never even received into your PP account.

Of course if PP did what bank statements do and showed a running balance it wouldn't be so confusing. (But you only get that feature if you have a business account)

[autopiacarcare]

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@pink.fish.rule wrote:
According to a blue on another thread, it's auto (instantly?) deducted from the amount PP processes and remitted to ebay so officially it's never even received into your PP account.

Of course if PP did what bank statements do and showed a running balance it wouldn't be so confusing. (But you only get that feature if you have a business account)

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It is confusing in PayPal as well.  If you look at the activity page, it makes it look like the tax has not been deducted from your balance.  In my example, the previous balance shows as $2334.40 and the balance after that transaction is $2445.20 - a difference of $110.80.  The transaction details page shows a net amount of $104.32.  $104.32 plus the tax amount of $6.48 would be $110.80.  So, from that page you would conclude that the tax amount has not been deducted and paid to eBay yet.

However, on the Activity page at the bottom, there is a note that says "The balance information on the Activity page isn't up to date. For more information on your balance, you can go to Activity Download."

If you click the link to go to Activity Download and download that file, the report shows the balance after the transaction was $2466.20 and then there is a line item for the Partner Fee which results in a balance of $2459.72.  That would seem to show that the tax is instantly deducted.

Maybe the note on the bottom of the page is PayPal's way of saying they are still working on making whatever coding changes are necessary to accurately reflect the balance after deducting the tax on the Activity Page, so in the mean time you should download the report for the accurate numbers?

[Anonymous]

This is getting most confusing.  I just learned today that the fee of 2.9% +.30 is calculated on sales + tax.  Well that just doesn't seem right at all!   Add in if they paid by foreign currency and it gets ridiculous......  If I sell something of $89.00, the fee should be based on that amount, not that amount plus tax.  Sigh. 

[fab_finds4u]

@Anonymous The fee is on the amount tendered that PayPal has to process, the total paid by the buyer. It doesn't matter whose pocket it's put in after they paid or who the funds were distributed to after PayPal takes their fee. PayPal is justified to collect a fee on the total payment collected from the buyer. I'm surprised they're not charging an addition transaction fee of 30 cents for having to distribute two payments from the buyer's proceeds.

[usgamecollector]

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@pink.fish.rule wrote:
According to a blue on another thread, it's auto (instantly?) deducted from the amount PP processes and remitted to ebay so officially it's never even received into your PP account.

Of course if PP did what bank statements do and showed a running balance it wouldn't be so confusing. (But you only get that feature if you have a business account)

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I have a business account and I don't even see a running balance. They try to make it as confusing as possible so they can take advantage of people and so they don't notice when they steal money.

[slippinjimmy]

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@usgamecollector wrote:

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@pink.fish.rule wrote:
According to a blue on another thread, it's auto (instantly?) deducted from the amount PP processes and remitted to ebay so officially it's never even received into your PP account.

Of course if PP did what bank statements do and showed a running balance it wouldn't be so confusing. (But you only get that feature if you have a business account)

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I have a business account and I don't even see a running balance. They try to make it as confusing as possible so they can take advantage of people and so they don't notice when they steal money.

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In what way is PayPal "stealing" money?

[usgamecollector]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

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@usgamecollector wrote:

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@pink.fish.rule wrote:
According to a blue on another thread, it's auto (instantly?) deducted from the amount PP processes and remitted to ebay so officially it's never even received into your PP account.

Of course if PP did what bank statements do and showed a running balance it wouldn't be so confusing. (But you only get that feature if you have a business account)

---

I have a business account and I don't even see a running balance. They try to make it as confusing as possible so they can take advantage of people and so they don't notice when they steal money.

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In what way is PayPal "stealing" money?

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exactly, you don't even know because there's no running balance to show that they did.

They could remove $10 from your account as an "error" and you wouldn't even know unless you keep your own running balance for every transaction and verify every payment.

[femmefan1946]

@Anonymous 

Add in if they paid by foreign currency and it gets ridiculous......

Not likely.

I mean, it could happen.

But these are state taxes.

You would have to have a customer paying with a foreign card and shipping to a freight forwarder in a state which is signed up for the state/internet sales taxes.

And then you as a US seller would be paying 4.4% on the pass-through tax money.

But if you don't accept ANY non-US Paypal payments, this is moot.

And if you do accept non-US Paypal payments, it is a deductible.

In any case, for most sellers such sales will be a very small minority of transactions.

I object to any PP fee on this pass-through tax money.

It hits Canadian sellers like me much harder than US sellers, because most of us pay 3.7% on any non-Canada PP payments, and most of our business , generally over 80 % and in my case closer to 90% is with the USA.

So we will be paying this fee on almost all sales at a higher rate.

We should keep in mind that this is a percentage of a percentage. Pennies on the dollar. Even pennies on the penny.

But it is being poorly handled by eBay and Paypal.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@usgamecollector wrote:

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@pink.fish.rule wrote:
According to a blue on another thread, it's auto (instantly?) deducted from the amount PP processes and remitted to ebay so officially it's never even received into your PP account.

Of course if PP did what bank statements do and showed a running balance it wouldn't be so confusing. (But you only get that feature if you have a business account)

---

I have a business account and I don't even see a running balance. They try to make it as confusing as possible so they can take advantage of people and so they don't notice when they steal money.

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If you want to see the running balance, click activity including balance and fees.

https://www.paypal.com/listing/transactions?tab=bookkeeping