I'd like your opinion

[jitterbug2003]

You remember how a company made a membership club and you pay a yearly fee (went up this year) and you get free shipping? Why not start a club with a yearly membership fee for no sales tax charged.  It would bring lot's of shoppers and help the sellers a lot. No warehouses, no stock. I'm sure it could be set up to make a profit even joining monthly? I think it should be studied fast. Ebay would be responsible the same way as now for taxes to the states and some districts. Let's hear it everyone. What do you think?

[luckythewinner]

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@jitterbug2003 wrote:

 Why not start a club with a yearly membership fee for no sales tax charged. 

 I'm sure it could be set up to make a profit even joining monthly?

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In order to make a profit, the monthly club fees would have to exceed the sales tax that eBay owed.

Why buyers who only buy a little pay a club fee to subsidize people who buy a lot?

It makes no sense - the only only people who would join would be the people who expected their sales tax owed to exceed the cost of the club.

Aside from that, it is probably against the state tax laws that say eBay needs to collect sales tax, not just remit it.

(Plus, I would not join because my state has no sales tax.)

[jitterbug2003]

Sure they would. How many people do you think they make a profit off of for free shipping club? You must live in Oregon because that's the only state I found not paying at the moment starting Oct 1st. What state? 

[mam98031]

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@jitterbug2003 wrote:

Sure they would. How many people do you think they make a profit off of for free shipping club? You must live in Oregon because that's the only state I found not paying at the moment starting Oct 1st. What state? 

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@jitterbug2003 

The five states that don't have a sales tax:

• Alaska.
• Delaware.
• Montana.
• New Hampshire.
• Oregon.

As for Amazon Prime, there are more benefits than shipping.  And it can only apply to stuff sold and shipped by Amazon.

[thehonorabletrader]

Sales Tax is required by the buyers state, not by a national law. Each State has different laws about when the sales tax must be collected and when it can't. Some states allow you to include sales tax on your items and some do not. So this would be difficult since this fee is based on a law unlike AZ where there fees are something they have direct control over. 

Not to mention if you are trying to get someone to pay $100 a year to have no tax and if they spend $50K in a year on eBay buying (trust me, some of the medical equipment and other stuff that gets sold...) then it would far exceed that. Also, there are 5 states where buyers wouldn't join for any reason because taxes don't affect them. 

Also, there are 10 states on top of those 5 that don't require online sales tax collection from eBay, so there are a total of 15 states worth of buyers that wouldn't join because the laws don't affect them. 

Then there are laws in those 15 states where the sellers are required to collect sales tax by law, and not eBay, so eBay could not promise a "no sales tax" when the seller is required by law to collect it unless eBay is just paying that sales tax to those sellers. 

I mean the only way that would work is if there was a spending limit (say $15,000 per year and no more than $50 per item). That would still put eBay at a loss, but they may be able to balance it better if there were limits. But I can't see someone spending $100 a year to save $150 in sales taxes because in order for it to be valuable to them they would have to spend a minimum amount, which most people don't want to pay for a service that has a minimum use to make it worth while and has a low cap to keep it profitable. 

I like where you are coming from, I just don't see it working out. 

[hurryagain]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@jitterbug2003 wrote:

Sure they would. How many people do you think they make a profit off of for free shipping club? You must live in Oregon because that's the only state I found not paying at the moment starting Oct 1st. What state? 

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@jitterbug2003 

The five states that don't have a sales tax:

• Alaska.
• Delaware.
• Montana.
• New Hampshire.
• Oregon.

As for Amazon Prime, there are more benefits than shipping.  And it can only apply to stuff sold and shipped by Amazon.

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@mam98031 

You are such a wealth of knowledge.  I knew that there was more than 1 state that didn't have a sales tax...I knew about Oregon but didn't know the rest and how many.

I'm gonna put you on Jeopardy or something...

[mam98031]

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@hurryagain wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@jitterbug2003 wrote:

Sure they would. How many people do you think they make a profit off of for free shipping club? You must live in Oregon because that's the only state I found not paying at the moment starting Oct 1st. What state? 

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@jitterbug2003 

The five states that don't have a sales tax:

• Alaska.
• Delaware.
• Montana.
• New Hampshire.
• Oregon.

As for Amazon Prime, there are more benefits than shipping.  And it can only apply to stuff sold and shipped by Amazon.

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@mam98031 

You are such a wealth of knowledge.  I knew that there was more than 1 state that didn't have a sales tax...I knew about Oregon but didn't know the rest and how many.

I'm gonna put you on Jeopardy or something...

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You are way too kind !!!  But thank you.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth · Accepted solution]

IIRC it is MA state law that every sale that requires tax have it as a separate line item. This idea would definitely violate that law.