eBay

spansy02 · ‎08-07-2023

I recently sold property on eBay and eBay wrongfully charged the buyer sales tax. The buyer spoke with two people at eBay and they both agreed that sales tax should not have been charged, so he opened a dispute. I received an email from eBay yesterday saying that they found in the buyer's favor and that the sales tax amount and a $20 dispute fee was going to be removed from my bank account.

Doesn't eBay keep the sales tax that is charged? So shouldn't eBay be paying the buyer back?

Also, I tried to call the 800 number for eBay and I got a message that it's outside of business hours. But it says they are open from 5 am to 930 pm PT and it's 2 pm PT. Is it actually possible to speak with someone or is there another way to open a dispute?

mam98031 · ‎08-07-2023

@spansy02

WE are missing important information. If you were charged $20, then the dispute was NOT opened on Ebay. Your buyer would have gone to their Credit Card Company and disputed the charge.

On a Chargeback Ebay does NOT make the decision on the claim, the Credit Card Company does. Ebay has to abide by the decision of the CCC. They have no choice.

If the CCC ordered the full refund to the buyer, Ebay would refund the sales tax and the seller would refund the product price and any shipping charges.

DO NOT call 800 numbers to try and contact Ebay. If you do an internet search to call them, you will likely get a SCAM number. Below are the ONLY options you should use. Ebay doesn't have a number we can call to contact them anymore.

I would suggest that you contact Ebay for Business on Facebook or Twitter for the better trained CSRs.

Here are your options for contacting Ebay Customer Service. Please be aware that for social media CS, you send them a Private Message and briefly explain what your problem or issue is. Feel free to leave your Name, address, phone number and/or your email address in this message. It is private and secure and it may help to speed up the response for you.

https://twitter.com/askebay

https://www.facebook.com/eBay/

Your options will be on the left. If you use the link below you can only get to the Automated Assistant or Chat box type AGENT in the box and hit enter. You will then get more options. Not all options are available 24/7. It will depend on staffing available. So sometimes you can request a call back and sometimes you can't. Sometimes you have the Chat option available and other times it won't me. If it is important to you to use one of those options, just try back later.

If you use a cell phone or other mobile device, you may need to turn off your Spam filter so that Ebay can call you.

If you are a seller outside of the US or Canada, you will need to use the Chat Option.

https://www.ebay.com/help/home

For the Payment Team / Managed Payment Customer Service.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/start-getting-paid-ebay?id=4795&st=

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

spansy02 · ‎08-07-2023

@spansy02
I'm curious. Did the buyer filed the chargeback for the full purchase price or just for the tax they were charged? Did they get a refund for the full price of the plot, i.e., getting it for free?

The dispute was just for the sales tax.

spansy02 · ‎08-07-2023

@mam98031 wrote:
@spansy02

WE are missing important information. If you were charged $20, then the dispute was NOT opened on Ebay. Your buyer would have gone to their Credit Card Company and disputed the charge.

On a Chargeback Ebay does NOT make the decision on the claim, the Credit Card Company does. Ebay has to abide by the decision of the CCC. They have no choice.

If the CCC ordered the full refund to the buyer, Ebay would refund the sales tax and the seller would refund the product price and any shipping charges.

DO NOT call 800 numbers to try and contact Ebay. If you do an internet search to call them, you will likely get a SCAM number. Below are the ONLY options you should use. Ebay doesn't have a number we can call to contact them anymore.

I don't sell on eBay very much and this is my first dispute. I'll have to look at the dispute again.

As for the 800 number, I got it from eBay after going around in circles with their help bot. I'll try your suggestions though. Thank you.

fjbet13 · ‎08-07-2023

That shows that it is exempt from property taxes, not sales tax

spansy02 · ‎08-07-2023

@inhawaii wrote:
Q: When your buyer made the purchase, didn't it show that he was being charged sales tax?

Yes it did, but I wasn't aware that CA does charge sales tax on cemetery plots and I assumed eBay knew what it was doing.

spansy02 · ‎08-07-2023

@soh.maryl wrote:
Also, eBay DOES NOT and CANNOT "keep the sales tax that is charged".
Any state sales charged by any seller, online or in brick & mortar stores is remitted to the treasury of the state for which the state sales tax is charged.

Yes, I'm aware that they don't keep the sales tax. What I meant is that they retain it and pass it on to the state. And the seller never sees that money.

spansy02 · ‎08-07-2023

@rosszonebricks wrote:
The conundrum in my mind is why eBay would have the seller refund the sales tax. Money collected from sales tax never actually reaches the seller's account.

Thank you. That's the conundrum in my mind too. Now I just have to convince eBay that they made a mistake. If I can ever get ahold of them.

spansy02 · ‎08-07-2023

Thank you, everyone for all of the suggestions on how to contact eBay. I'll give those a try.

rseuqinh · ‎08-07-2023

@spansy02 wrote:
1. eBay wrongfully charged the buyer sales tax.
2. he opened a dispute.
3. the sales tax amount and a $20 dispute fee was going to be removed from my bank account.

Doesn't eBay keep the sales tax that is charged? So shouldn't eBay be paying the buyer back?

Also, I tried to call the 800 number for eBay and I got a message that it's outside of business hours. But it says they are open from 5 am to 930 pm PT and it's 2 pm PT.

That's a scammer @spansy02 as eBay doesn't have an 800 number, let alone office hours when they'll answer.

When a charge appears on a buyer's credit card statement -- it's just a single amount

> There's no breakout of the item, the shipping, the sales tax, etc.

So when the buyer files a chargeback on a portion of the charge equal to the sales tax

> eBay won't know that it's for the sales tax and not a discount on the shipping or a discount on the item.

If the chargeback had ended at eBay, instead of passing it on to you

- eBay would be refunding that amount to the buyer, and

- if eBay realized that it's sales tax, that amount would be deducted

- from the future sales tax collection total that eBay regularly remits to that state.

mam98031 · ‎08-07-2023

Ebay does have an 800 number but they are shutting it down and encouraging members that have the number to stop using it. At some point it is not likely to work at all but we have other methods in which to contact them.

Here are your options for contacting Ebay Customer Service. Please be aware that for social media CS, you send them a Private Message and briefly explain what your problem or issue is. Feel free to leave your Name, address, phone number and/or your email address in this message. It is private and secure and it may help to speed up the response for you.

https://twitter.com/askebay

https://www.facebook.com/eBay/

Your options will be on the left. If you use the link below you can only get to the Automated Assistant or Chat box type AGENT in the box and hit enter. You will then get more options. Not all options are available 24/7. It will depend on staffing available. So sometimes you can request a call back and sometimes you can't. Sometimes you have the Chat option available and other times it won't me. If it is important to you to use one of those options, just try back later.

If you use a cell phone or other mobile device, you may need to turn off your Spam filter so that Ebay can call you.

If you are a seller outside of the US or Canada, you will need to use the Chat Option.

https://www.ebay.com/help/home

For the Payment Team / Managed Payment Customer Service.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/start-getting-paid-ebay?id=4795&st=

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

mam98031 · ‎08-07-2023

@spansy02

If the buyer only opened the Chargeback for specifically the sales tax, then that should be refunded to the buyer by Ebay. You should not have a single penny come from your money, to include the $20 fee for losing a Chargeback.

So when you talk to Ebay, Let them know that they lost the Chargeback for sales tax in which sellers are not responsible for, so you should not be made to pay the $20 fee or any other fee.

Oh and you should receive a refund on your FVFs for the amount they charged you on the Sales tax that was returned to the buyer, again because it was not your issue to begin with.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

slippinjimmy · ‎08-07-2023

@albertabrightalberta wrote:
@soh.maryl wrote:
So we do know for sure that the state of California doesn't charge state sales tax on cemetery plots?

I looked it up. California doesn't charge tax on cemetery plots:
Cemetery Exemption – Property Tax

https://www.boe.ca.gov/proptaxes/cemetery_exemption.htm

Cemetery Exemption
The Cemetery Exemption is available to property used or held exclusively for the permanent deposit of human dead, or for the care and maintenance of the property of the dead, except when used or held for profit (See Section 256.5 of Revenue and Taxation Code). The purpose of the Cemetery Exemption is to protect the final resting place of the human dead (See Section 3(g) of Article XIII of the California Constitution).
Health and Safety Code section 7003 defines "cemetery" as either of the following:
Any of the following that is used or intended to be used and dedicated for cemetery purposes:
A burial park, for earth interments.
A mausoleum, for crypt or vault interments.
A crematory and columbarium, for cinerary interments.
A place where six or more human bodies are buried.
A property that is discovered to have six or more human bodies buried on it is not eligible for the exemption unless it is used or held exclusively for burial purposes as described in Property Tax Rule 132(a).

@spansy02
I'm curious. Did the buyer filed the chargeback for the full purchase price or just for the tax they were charged? Did they get a refund for the full price of the plot, i.e., getting it for free?

That is PROPERTY Tax, not related in any way to Sales Tax.

I tried to find a definitive answer if plots were SALES tax exempt in California, no success, so at this point I would say that possibly/probably they are taxable (sales tax). I did find confirmation that in at least some States the purchase of a cemetery plot is subject to Sales Tax.

mam98031 · ‎08-07-2023

It appears that both the buyer and the Credit Card Company misunderstood this too.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

an-36344 · ‎08-07-2023

(Responding in the box at the bottom as this combines several posts.)

@mam98031 wrote:
Ebay does have an 800 number but they are shutting it down and encouraging members that have the number to stop using it.

eBay does not have an 800 number. Please do the research, and don't give this wrong answer again.

@mam98031 wrote:
Oh and you should receive a refund on your FVFs for the amount they charged you on the Sales tax that was returned to the buyer, again because it was not your issue to begin with.

eBay does not have FVF to refund in a payment dispute. Please do the research, and don't give this wrong answer again.

Oh and please read each OP carefully e.g. to misread and lambast the responder how could the OP be off-topic when they wrote the topic then have to backpedal afterwards.

lacemaker3 · ‎08-08-2023

@slippinjimmy,

Excellent catch!

I must admit, if you google < California sales tax grave plot >, that is the top hit, and it is the only one from a California government website that appears to be relevant. But, you're correct, that is for property tax, not sales tax.

After reading your post, I also tried to get a definitive answer. I was able to confirm that sales of "tangible property" related to cremations and interments are taxable, but no mention of grave plots. I searched through the the entire legislation on the website, and could not find anything relating to grave or cemetery plots, specifically. Caskets, urns, vaults, and mausoleums were mentioned, and related services, but not plots.

https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/lawguides/vol2/suta/370-0000-all.html

From that, and your realization that cemeteries and burial grounds are subject to property tax (but exempt in most cases), I suspect that grave plots would be considered real property, and would be subject to property tax when sold except that cemeteries and burial grounds are exempt from property tax. In addition, I don't believe that the title to a grave plot actually passes to the person who "purchases" it. The real property in question still belongs to the cemetery, so there is no actual "sale" taking place, and no sales tax.