eBay

autopiacarcare · ‎01-03-2019

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?

myjunqueyourtreasure · ‎01-07-2019

This particular ID is not IN SH and I've never used FE

But I would think is ST had been collected it should say that on the generic view order anyway.

Reality is the leading cause of stress.

buyselljack2016 · ‎01-07-2019

@evening$tar wrote:
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

How much does it cost to get and maintain a website? How many "smaller eBay sellers" could afford it.

What method of payment would they set up? How would they cover claims/returns?

Don't think many "small sellers" are going to consider such a thing.

eBay collects/remits the taxes to the states as it becomes a requirement. easy-peasy. Some sales may not happen because of the added tax charges, but that is just buyers trying to beat their state sales tax/use tax laws. Many states already require those payments. Few buyers comply. Some buyers may blame the seller for the tax. We will have to deal with that as it happens.

autopiacarcare · ‎01-07-2019

@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
This particular ID is not IN SH and I've never used FE

But I would think is ST had been collected it should say that on the generic view order anyway.

When I look at the sales record in our account, it shows "--" for tax and there is a note at the bottom that says "eBay collected sales tax from your buyer." I'm not sure if eBay displays the order differently if you have a different type of account or don't have a store subscription, sorry if that isn't much help for your situation. I agree it would be nice if they made it easier to see how much they collected and hopefully eBay will come out with better reporting features as they move forward.

I understand using File Exchange to get the info you need is kind of a hassle, especially if you haven't used it before, but for now it may be the only way for sellers to see if eBay is collecting the tax and in what amount. I'd be happy to post the step by step process with additional screen shots of how I was able to get that information from FE if that would be helpful.

myjunqueyourtreasure · ‎01-07-2019

Thanks. For right now I have enough on my plate, so I'll see how this plays out moving forward. It may also be because I never collected in state ST because it was such a hassle with ebay only providing one rate and this state having moved to destination based.

Just easier on the few in state sales to work it out myself and remit from profits lol

Reality is the leading cause of stress.

autopiacarcare · ‎01-07-2019

@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
Thanks. For right now I have enough on my plate, so I'll see how this plays out moving forward. It may also be because I never collected in state ST because it was such a hassle with ebay only providing one rate and this state having moved to destination based.

Just easier on the few in state sales to work it out myself and remit from profits lol

For what it's worth, I checked one of your listings by adding to the cart and putting in a WA address and it showed $1.32 for tax. So I'd say it's most likely eBay did collect the tax on your sale.

myjunqueyourtreasure · ‎01-07-2019

Then why are they being so dang "secretive" about how much? And not showing it on the generic order?

Reality is the leading cause of stress.

autopiacarcare · ‎01-07-2019

@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
Then why are they being so dang "secretive" about how much? And not showing it on the generic order?

I'd guess it's not so much being secretive as it is that they're still just trying to figure out how to implement the changes and that is a fairly large task. Just getting everything working to actually collect the tax was probably the biggest priority and now that it is launched, hopefully they will make improvements to the process as they go along.

So far my only complaint about how this transition has gone is that our listings are still not correctly displaying WA and MN, so it seems that the new tax settings are still not overriding our previously set up tax rate table.

evening$tar · ‎01-08-2019

I live in the State of Washington and buy collectibles on ebay that I turn around and sell. Most of my sales are out of state. Every year I pay sales tax to the State of Washington for sales taxes that I collected the previous year from Washington in state sales, but this does not amount to much because far more of my sales are out of state. So here ebay comes along and charges me sales tax(8.4% for me) on all of my purchases. Ideally ebay should be requesting a Washington State resellers permit from me. Then on any puchase I make on ebay I would check a box or whatever that states that the item I bought is for resale. If I do not check the box, then the item that I am buying would be for personal use. Ebay of course does not want to hassle with all of this, but I called the State of Washington Department of Revenue and they said that they would reimberse me by mailing a check to me for all of that sales tax that I will pay on items bought for resale. So I guess I can live with that, except now the State of Washington with probably want proof that what I buy is for resale. Interestingly, I just bought an item on ebay for $24.90 with a $10.55 shipping cost. The shipping cost was high becase it was being shipped from Argentina. Ebay charged a sales tax on the entire amount($35.45), not just on the $24.90. I guess that makes some sense being the shipping fee + the selling price can both be added together to create a new value. The bad thing about all of this is that the profit margins on collectibles are usually small, so sales taxes eat into profits very quickly, so much so that many sales either goes underground or sales drop precipitously. When people buy collectibles they think in terms of values increasing over time, sort of like buying gold or stocks. Some states do not require sales tax on collectible coins at least partially for this reason. With sales taxes, the spreads between buying and selling become too high. There are virtually no sales taxes on stocks, bonds, or bullion. And with real estate, there is usually an excise tax that is much lower than what a sales tax would be. Just think what a 8-10% sales tax would do to the real estate investment business. Real estate sales would drop big time, and so would values. Anyway, sales taxes are going to kill collectibles sales on ebay from buyers in Washington State. The only way around it will be for collectible hobbyists to get a state resellers permit and run their "hobby" as a business, hopefully making a profit three out of five years, and hopefully the state would send a refund check for sales taxes collected by ebay and sent to the state. Most collectors will opt out all together or go underground somehow. Or maybe move to Oregon. They have no sales tax, but do have income tax. Washington State has no income tax.

autopiacarcare · ‎01-10-2019

@Anonymous - Have you gotten any updates on this issue? We have confirmed that the tax is being collected correctly by eBay, but our listings are still not accurately displaying WA and MN in the tax rate table.

myjunqueyourtreasure · ‎01-10-2019

I've just updated my spreadsheets with another column to record ST paid for in state sales, but gee, it would be 'nice' if ebay deigned to supply the amount collected & paid on my behalf somewhere on the order so I could have hard copy paper trail for reporting purposes.

Reality is the leading cause of stress.

Anonymous · ‎01-10-2019

@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
I've just updated my spreadsheets with another column to record ST paid for in state sales, but gee, it would be 'nice' if ebay deigned to supply the amount collected & paid on my behalf somewhere on the order so I could have hard copy paper trail for reporting purposes.

Hi @myjunqueyourtreasure, we are working on this kind of reporting so seller's have the information they need. No estimated time for this to be provided but definitely have heard the feedback and already have it on the table for development.

autopiacarcare · ‎01-15-2019

@autopiacarcare wrote:
@Anonymous - Have you gotten any updates on this issue? We have confirmed that the tax is being collected correctly by eBay, but our listings are still not accurately displaying WA and MN in the tax rate table.

Still looking for an update @Anonymous or brian@ebay . Our listings still do not accurately display WA and MN.

Anonymous · ‎01-15-2019

@autopiacarcare wrote:

@autopiacarcare wrote:

@Anonymous - Have you gotten any updates on this issue? We have confirmed that the tax is being collected correctly by eBay, but our listings are still not accurately displaying WA and MN in the tax rate table.

Still looking for an update @Anonymous or brian@ebay . Our listings still do not accurately display WA and MN.

No update currently, @autopiacarcare, though I can confirm that a fix is scheduled to put into place soon and this should resolve any issues with a seller's tax table for Washington or Minnesota displaying a different amount than what eBay is collecting.

autopiacarcare · ‎01-15-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
No update currently, @autopiacarcare, though I can confirm that a fix is scheduled to put into place soon and this should resolve any issues with a seller's tax table for Washington or Minnesota displaying a different amount than what eBay is collecting.

Thanks!

serenitystrawsnstuff · ‎01-22-2019

I'm sure you have given instructions of how to find these reports, but I'm going cross eyed reading all these posts. Can you please give step by steps of how to find them?