Final value fees on sales tax????? Are you kidding?

[squarebiz99]

I don't know why I didn't notice before, but I looked at a breakdown of 1 of my transactions and saw that I am being charged a final value fee on sales tax. I don't collect sales tax. eBay collects it from the buyer. It's bad enough being charged a final value fee on shipping. Sellers should only be charged a processing fee for the shipping charge, not a commission, but this FVF for sales tax goes too far. Call it what you want, but a FVF is a commission. Someone should start a class action against eBay, but the biggest problem would be the legal costs. That's probably why no one has yet

[janet9988]

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@squarebiz99 wrote:

As I've said many times already, I get the 3% charge for processing, NOT a final value fee of 9-10% for God's sake

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Ebay does NOT charge a 3% processing fee.

Ebay charges final value fees.

[dbfolks166mt]

As I've said many times already, I get the 3% charge for processing, NOT a final value fee of 9-10% for God's sake

     The easiest solution may be for you to find an alternative site to sell on. I cannot see eBay changing this policy but anything is possible. Personally I don't really care I factor it into the cost of the items when I list them so in reality the buyer is covering those fees just not directly. 

[keithcassie]

My biggest complaint with selling also! And they raised their take from 12.55% to 13.25%. One vendor I bought a lot of vintage bicycle decals decided these fees were too much and left this site. Later they found there own website wasn't getting them the exposure they needed to continue producing their fine product. The profit margin on such items was not enough to eat 13.25% of selling fees but they needed the worldwide platform to sell enough of them. So, **bleep** if you do and **bleep** if you don't. I was planning my retirement on selling my large inventory of restored vintage bicycles on this site,  but I can't add the selling fees into a bicycle I have already too much of my own money and labor in and still making the price desirable to purchaser while myself making a profit. Guess plan B will have to be thought out.

[techoutrepairs]

Your reply actually made this ok with me. Didn't think about that. They do all the sales tax reporting and collection for you so they charge a fee on it. Also final value on shipping isn't the worst you save a big % buying labels on eBay so i don't know why you wouldn't take advantage of that.  

[dbfolks166mt]

My biggest complaint with selling also! And they raised their take from 12.55% to 13.25%. One vendor I bought a lot of vintage bicycle decals decided these fees were too much and left this site. Later they found there own website wasn't getting them the exposure they needed to continue producing their fine product. The profit margin on such items was not enough to eat 13.25% of selling fees but they needed the worldwide platform to sell enough of them. So, **bleep** if you do and **bleep** if you don't. I was planning my retirement on selling my large inventory of restored vintage bicycles on this site,  but I can't add the selling fees into a bicycle I have already too much of my own money and labor in and still making the price desirable to purchaser while myself making a profit. Guess plan B will have to be thought out.

     I can relate to and understand your situation. I have a lot of things that I don't list on eBay for a couple of reasons. As you mentioned the eBay fees simply consume the small profit margin and I cannot raise the price enough to cover some narrow profit margins and maintain price reasonableness in the marketplace. A bigger factor is shipping. Although I may be able to price with enough profit margin, not using free shipping, the cost to ship some larger/heavy items makes it unappealing to the buyer community. I would think maybe bicycles would fall in that arena. 

     Fortunately I am in a large metropolitan area and a number of local forums/venues provide me with a pretty large potential customer base. There are low, or no, fees on those forums so I can adjust my pricing accordingly. The buyer also does not have to worry about shipping cost. I may not have the worldwide exposure to the customer base that eBay has but that means little if I cannot sell those items. 

[inhawaii]

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@cyranojones wrote:

Just because eBay has it in their agreement doesn't make it right.  Retailers collect the sales tax, eBay sellers do not and should not be charged a fee on money that is not in our part of the transaction.  Of course eBay can get away with it because they can. 

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If i were you I would end my 3,000+listings and take my business elsewhere, to a more reputable site.

[rngrannie]

Prior to getting rid of PayPal but after they were required to collect sales tax on all transactions, eBay never charged final value fees on the sales tax people paid.  The always charged the 10% final value fees on the shipping, but never on the sales taxes collected. 

Ebay still kept track of all of the things you mention in your post with regard to states, counties, cities, parishes, etc., and the sales tax rates and laws.  They dispersed the taxes collected, as well, without charging final value fees on the taxes collected.  So, nothing has changed with regard to what eBay does.

Now, since getting rid of paypal, they are charging final value fees on the sales tax as well, even though nothing has changed with regard to what they have to do to collect or to disperse the taxes.

Yes, Paypal always charged a final value fee on the entire transaction, including the sales tax.

But Paypal's fee was only 2.9%.  So, the fee on the sales tax was minimal.

Ebay is charging fees on the sales tax of 12.55% or more since taking over for paypal.

Quite a scam in my opinion.

Now, since taking over payment processing and getting rid of Paypal, 

[dbfolks166mt]

Prior to getting rid of PayPal but after they were required to collect sales tax on all transactions, eBay never charged final value fees on the sales tax people paid.  The always charged the 10% final value fees on the shipping, but never on the sales taxes collected. 

Ebay still kept track of all of the things you mention in your post with regard to states, counties, cities, parishes, etc., and the sales tax rates and laws.  They dispersed the taxes collected, as well, without charging final value fees on the taxes collected.  So, nothing has changed with regard to what eBay does.

Actually a lot changed. Prior to switching to Managed Payments eBay never kept track of the sales tax laws, collected or disbursed any of the sales tax funds collected PayPal did all of that. EBay had no overhead associated with that function. The eBay/PayPal split took place in 2015 with a gradual transition to MP which finished up for US sellers in 2020. The US Supreme court decision in Wayfair vs South Dakota was not handed down until 2018 and no states had sales tax laws covering ecommerce transactions. After the USSC decision states began to implement ecommerce sales tax laws with Missouri being the last state to do so effective January 1, 2023. So yes a LOT has changed. 

Now, since getting rid of paypal, they are charging final value fees on the sales tax as well, even though nothing has changed with regard to what they have to do to collect or to disperse the taxes.

The change was not because of the split from PayPal but a result of the courts decision and the new laws. 

Yes, Paypal always charged a final value fee on the entire transaction, including the sales tax.

But Paypal's fee was only 2.9%.  So, the fee on the sales tax was minimal. 

It still is minimal and amounts to about $1 on a $100 sale depending on variables. If your profit margins are that tight do what most due when change happens adjust your costing model and increase your prices. 

Ebay is charging fees on the sales tax of 12.55% or more since taking over for paypal.

Quite a scam in my opinion.

Now, since taking over payment processing and getting rid of Paypal, 

[anjofak]

Think that's bad how about when you promote a item it sells to some fake non paying buyer that leads to a cancel it gets relisted for free but not promoted 🤔 

[yesterdays_treasures_44]

Found the ebay shill. How much is ebay paying you?

[dbfolks166mt]

Found the ebay shill. How much is ebay paying you?

     I don't work for or get paid by eBay but I do understand how things work on the site and adjust my business and pricing accordingly. Trust me I am no shill or cheerleader which if you read some of my other postings would be obvious. 

[handsonthewatch]

I really wish this false hood would end already. We small sellers wouldn't be doing sales tax for any state we sell in! The people that keep saying " well, if ebay didn't help you, you'd be doing it!". No. Not a single states requirements, would have 99.9% of ebay sellers qualifying to collect sales tax. Each state has specific guidlines and amounts, and we don't quality. Ebay qualifies, because ebay sellers don't actually work for ourselves. Ebay is the seller, which means that ebay, sells enough in every state, to qualify to collect sales tax.

So stop praising ebay. They aren't helping us out of the kindness of their hearts. If we all had our own private stores, 99.9% of us would not be collecting sales tax in any of the states we sell in. None of us are big enough.

And another thing. Ebay isn't charging us because it costs them money to do sales tax. Most states PAY ebay a percentage, to collect sales tax. They not only make money from us, they make money from the states. Ebay LOVES sales tax.

And even more so, everyone needs to stop comparing this to paypal. Paypal charges a fee for the processing of money. They didn't care what it was for. Money went into their account and then to ours. They charged us for it. EBAY, is charging us not just a processing fee, but a VALUE fee on the entire amount, as if WE earned that money. Or do you people really believe, even without the states paying ebay, that it would in any way cost ebay 13% per transaction.

Remember,  it takes ebay the same amount of effort to collect $1 in sales tax, as it does $1000 in sales tax. And yet, a seller now has to pay ebay $130 to collect that money??? Really? You people are able to actually look at this, and rationalize it as ok? Ebay did $130 worth of work collecting that $1000?

[handsonthewatch]

Ebay always collected sales tax for places that had it. Funny how it wasn't a problem then. but suddenly it's a problem now? Ebay GETS PAID by many, if not most states, to collect taxes. And the problem is, we can't control what percent the tax is. Unlike paypal, the amount of tax, doesn't cost them more or less money. It's the same amount of work for whatever the amount is. Paypal charged us, because it costs them more money for a $1000 transaction than it does for a $100 transaction. It does NOT cost ebay more money for $1000 in sales tax, than it does for $100 in sales tax. And yet the seller has to pay more money to ebay, for a sales tax percentage we don't even have a say in? We can't control which state buys from us. Some states have it, some don't. Some have a little, Some have a lot.  So now it costs us more money to sell to certain states, even tho we can't say no to those sales?

But it's all ok, because ebay is all super nice and stuff, and does us a favor by collecting sales tax for us.
They collect sales tax for THEM. Not for US. We wouldn't even need to do it, if it wasn't for ebay. So please guys, stop thanking ebay.

[handsonthewatch]

Stop comparing this to paypal, for the love of god. Please. Of course no one complained about it. Why would we? It was a valid charged! They processed the money, no matter where it came from, and it costs them money to do so. Money was money, tax or not. It looked exactly the same to paypal. Ebay doesn't charge us to process the money. They charge us for the money existing. unlike paypal, ebay knows what money is sales tax. JUST like they know how much is paid for shipping, so the old excuse about that, is ignorant as well. There is no $100 shipping for a $1 item. which one of us doesn't use calculated shipping through ebay? So ebay knows how much shipping costs. and they knew it back then too. They didn't have to charge everyone for the actions of a few. They EASILY could have stopped that. But no, they didn't want to. They wanted more money.

And FYI, ebay also counts the amount into our total sales, as if it was money we earned.

[isaiah53-57]

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@squarebiz99 wrote:

I don't know why I didn't notice before, but I looked at a breakdown of 1 of my transactions and saw that I am being charged a final value fee on sales tax. I don't collect sales tax. eBay collects it from the buyer. It's bad enough being charged a final value fee on shipping. Sellers should only be charged a processing fee for the shipping charge, not a commission, but this FVF for sales tax goes too far. Call it what you want, but a FVF is a commission. Someone should start a class action against eBay, but the biggest problem would be the legal costs. That's probably why no one has yet

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@squarebiz99

Seriously? You need to fire yourself and hire a new accountant - Just kidding - It sucks, but its one of the few things I don't concern myself with on this site considering they do all the sales tax remittance for you - its a fairly small fee for the work involved...

By the way - WOW - that Boehm "Great Horned Owl" is awesome!