Sales Tax Collection Question

[autopiacarcare]

We know that eBay has said starting January 1, they will be collecting and remitting sales tax for WA and MN. We have not yet had a sale to either of these states this year, but have noticed a difference between our listings and other sellers listings. 

Our listings still show in the sales tax tab "Seller charges sales tax in multiple states"  with "multiple states" being a link that takes you to the tax rate table as we had previously set it up, which shows WA at 8.76% and nothing for MN.  (Listing ID 253474630872 for example)

However, if we look at another seller's listing for the same item (253975812991), they show " FL*(7.0%), MN*, WA*."

@Anonymousor one of the other blues, can you let us know if this is a glitch or if there is something we need to do to update our listings so eBay will be properly collecting and remitting tax for WA and MN?

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

According to the information above Minnesota is the only state that has a small seller exemption to the marketplace facilitator tax. If the seller sold less than 10k to MN in the previous 12 months.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

They can call it whatever they like. We know they're collecting Use tax.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

That MIGHT explain why my only sale to MN this year shows no tax anywhere.

[lacemaker3]

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@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:

They can call it whatever they like. We know they're collecting Use tax.

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Yes, they can. They can call it Bob if they want. Or Nebuchadnezzar.

It doesn't make a lick of difference what they call it, it's still a sales tax.

I'm going to go with that because it seems that most people in the USA have never heard of use tax. So I'm going to use a name that most people have heard of and will understand.

[tsme35]

trinton@ebay  

I've sold to MN and no tax collected but I sold to a buyer in WA and they taxed shipping too, it was to my understanding that tax was for the item sold not including shipping. If shipping is being taxed too, its gonna kill my sales especially with USPS zone system end of the month. I'll be seeing a $.50-.75 postage increase as it is, then add another 8-10% sales tax on the shipping which would really big hit esp. on my heavy items hard. 

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

It depends on the state. Some states tax shipping and some don't. WA state is one that does.

It's a minefield.

[tsme35]

ugh, I know the extra cost doesn't seem a lot but will price a few more of my items off the market

[autopiacarcare]

I posted this in another thread on this subject as well, but here are a couple of screen shots for anyone who is interested in how it displays on the sales record page and how you can see a report of the amount of tax eBay collected on the order.

The first screen shot is what the sales record page in Seller Hub shows - $15.99 item price, free shipping, -- for tax with a note saying eBay collected the tax.  The PayPal transaction shows the same thing, $15.99 total payment, no tax.

The second screen shot is from a "Paid and Shipped" Report which was pulled by going to File Exchange - Download Files - Paid and Shipped and selecting the appropriate date range.  This report shows this transaction with a sale price of $15.99, sales tax of $1.44 (calculates out to 9%, which is correct for buyer's address) and a total price of $15.99.

Hopefully eBay will come out with some better reporting features as they move forward with the tax changes, but this seems to work for now at least.

[evening$tar]

This whole state tax mess will probably remain fluid for quite some time. But what if a lot of smaller ebay and other online businesses quit using ebay or any other online facilitator all together. Instead, each business creates it's own website and sells directly to the public through it's website. Then what you do is create a search engine that the public uses to search all of those individual web sites. This search engine would not collect any money. It would be like a specialized Google. In fact it could be embedded in google. It would only facilitate seaches, thus it would not be subject to collecting sales taxes. Under current law, each individual website would not have to pay any sales tax if they were under the $10,000 or whatever limit for each state(some have a $100,000 limit). They would also not pay any commission fee to ebay or any other facititator. Is this crazy?? One problem might be websites with poor service that would ruin it for everyone else, so there would have to be strict guidelines I suppose. Anyway, I will end with the statement I started with - This whole state tax mess will probably remain fluid for quite some time.

PS: How is it going to be possible for states to enforce their state sales tax laws with sellers in other states? The Feds certainly won't want much to do with it. Would a seller have to go through multiple audits with multiple states? What if he didn't show up? What if he accepts bit coin or wampum. Silly Sally sipped six sodas by the seashore and got sick sick sick....just kidding - might as well laugh at the whole thing.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

Interesting. I just had a sale to WA (I'm in WA) and no ST shows.

So does this mean they're NOT collecting the ST for in state sellers?

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

Is it a tax exempt category?

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

Nope.

[collectablesofliberty]

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@lacemaker3 wrote:

Both buyers and sellers have been reporting that eBay is automatically collecting the sales tax for purchases being shipped to Washington. I think there will be fewer purchases to Minnesota that are affected becasue of the small business exemption.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/taxes-import-charges?id=4121#section4

...

Once eBay starts to collect tax in the above states, no action is required on your part, and there will be no charges or fees for eBay automatically calculating, collecting and remitting sales tax. The collection process will apply to all sales, whether the seller is located in or outside of the United States.

... 

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We have already lost a multiple hundreds dollar sale, due to Minnesota and their taxes a few days ago.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

And on mine it says - "We collect sales tax in accordance with applicable state law. We will remit the tax directly to the tax authority."

Okay - fine & dandy, but where does it say we DID collect ST (or how much). Nowhere.

[autopiacarcare]

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@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
Interesting. I just had a sale to WA (I'm in WA) and no ST shows.

So does this mean they're NOT collecting the ST for in state sellers?

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On the sales record in seller hub there isn't a note that says eBay collected the tax? What if you pull a report from File Exchange like in my previous screen shot?