Sales Tax collected, New Jersey?

[postingid7659]

Sold an item to New Jersey and eBay tells me they collected sales tax on it.   Is NJ now requiring sales tax on out of state purchases? 

Is eBay collecting and remitting it, or do I have to find where this money is and pay them?  Where the money is exactly I'm not sure, the total on eBay is different (higher) from what I got through PayPal, so presumably eBay has the remainder someplace.  

I thought these states when requiring this had a dollar threshold for me as seller to have to reach before I was required to collect and remit to them.   It's not likely at my sales level I would meet even a $1000 threshold for any one state in a year.  

My opinion is it's crazy to expect me to keep track now not only in my state by county of buyer, but also for potentially up to 40, 45 other states and be expected to pay maybe two bucks here, four bucks there, 28 cents to the next one, etc.  But that's probably a different topic entirely. 

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

If ebay collects the tax then ebay is responsible for it.

The main reason (most - all but one) states made the MarketPlace responsible rather than the seller is that they know the majority of 3rd party sellers wouldn't make enough sales to qualify.

[soh.maryl]

As a result of a fairly recent decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, individual states can now charge state sales tax on internet sales.  eBay collects this from the buyer and remits the tax to the appropriate department of the appropriate state.  The seller is not expected to keep track of anything.

So far, the states that have enabled this are Connecticut, Washington, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, DC and New Jersey, more to follow.  

[mam98031]

This may help you.  Scroll down until you get to the list.

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

[parkersparrow]

I live in NJ so have been collecting the sales tax from the sales in my state. Does anyone know if I should still continue or should I now stop since Ebay is doing the collecting? I don't want to end up double taxing someone but now i'm confused since this just went into effect recently. 

[mam98031]

---

@parkersparrow wrote:

I live in NJ so have been collecting the sales tax from the sales in my state. Does anyone know if I should still continue or should I now stop since Ebay is doing the collecting? I don't want to end up double taxing someone but now i'm confused since this just went into effect recently. 

---

Ebay will now block you from being able to do that on future transactions.  I posted the link in the post just before yours.  

[postingid7659]

what's strange is I go into the sales record and I see nothing to indicate it was collected. It only shows the additional amount in that eBay message.

[7606dennis]

---

@parkersparrow wrote:

I live in NJ so have been collecting the sales tax from the sales in my state. Does anyone know if I should still continue or should I now stop since Ebay is doing the collecting? I don't want to end up double taxing someone but now i'm confused since this just went into effect recently. 

---

If the sale is made through eBay and they collect the tax as a facilitator you will not be collecting it again from your customers.  However, you will probably need to account for these sales when filing your sales tax return.  I would suggest that you contact your state's department of revenue for instructions. 

[djsegwon2015]

There was no information given about these state sales taxes will be applied and we don't know what percentage the states are asking ebay to collect vs what ebay is taking out? Also the taxes weren't applied at the point of sale it came off later,so in reality it's stealing! 

[7606dennis]

---

@djsegwon2015 wrote:

There was no information given about these state sales taxes will be applied and we don't know what percentage the states are asking ebay to collect vs what ebay is taking out? Also the taxes weren't applied at the point of sale it came off later,so in reality it's stealing! 

---

States that have passed market facilitator laws are not asking eBay, Amazon or any other MF to collect these taxes for them.  They are demanding that do so to comply with their laws.  I would suggest that if someone has not kept up with what their state legislators are doing they should check with their states department of revenue for details.  If they don't like what their legislators have done, they need to contact their state legislators and let them know.  However, it would probably have been better to do that before the legislation was passed.

[mam98031]

---

@djsegwon2015 wrote:

There was no information given about these state sales taxes will be applied and we don't know what percentage the states are asking ebay to collect vs what ebay is taking out? Also the taxes weren't applied at the point of sale it came off later,so in reality it's stealing! 

---

It isn't Ebay's responsibility to tell sellers the percentage they are charging buyers.  Ebay's responsibility on this subject is to the Buyers and to the affected states.  But with a little simple math, anyone can figure out what rate they are charging when you look at the sale.

For example, in the state of Washington, Ebay is charging a flat 10% rate to all sales.  Now Washington does not have a flat rate for every county in the state, but Ebay is not currently set up to accommodate all the different rates.  The state is allowing them to do that.

As for the information about which states have passed Facilitator laws, Ebay has kept us all up to date on that.  There is a link on every listing in the Tax section on the Shipping and Payment page that takes you to the list of states that Ebay will be charging sales tax for and as of what date.

And yes, you are correct, sales tax is NOT charged at the point of sale.  It is charged at the point of payment for the sale.  If the buyer never pays, there is no sense doing it any other way.  Putting the sales tax on the sale document doesn't put money in anyone's pocket so the taxes can be paid.  

Buyers can see that they are going to be charged tax.  But they do have to pay attention to the screens.  Sometimes we get so use to seeing certain screens we assume we know everything on that screen or screens, so we miss changes.

[mam98031]

@7606dennis 

I enjoy your posts.  I often find them on target and having great information.  But I find them hard to read because you consistently use a very small font size.  May I request you change your setting so that my tired old eyes can more easily read your posts.  

[femmefan1946]

@postingid7659 

Does anyone know if I should still continue or should I now stop since Ebay is doing the collecting?

tyler@ebay recently answered that on eBayCanada. (If you think American sellers are confused, how about us Canadians seeing taxes by a foreign nation appearing on our invoices!)

if you are a tax-exempt buyer you can go through this process

 https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/paying-items/paying-tax-ebay-purchases?id=4771#section2

to remove taxes charged to you on your eBay purchases. Thanks!

[7606dennis]

---

@mam98031 wrote:

@7606dennis 

I enjoy your posts.  I often find them on target and having great information.  But I find them hard to read because you consistently use a very small font size.  May I request you change your setting so that my tired old eyes can more easily read your posts.  

---

Actually, I increase my font size to 2 with each post I make.  Unfortunately, I have the same problem and this post of yours is somewhat hard on my old eyes.  

Is this size any better for you?  It is set at 3.

I'm glad you enjoy my posts.  Often I worry that I get too verbose when trying to explain things so that everyone understands what I'm trying to get across. 

[mr_lincoln]

@postingid7659   eBay is collecting and remitting taxes to the states that it is required to do so by law, so nothing you have to do on your end with sales tax ... as to states trying to collect from individual sellers, well there is no infra-structure in place to know if packages crossing a state's boarders are sold items or gifts ... so unless eBay were to start breaking down each Seller's account into states there is no way for any state to know how much you shipped to them ... they can't open packages and there is nothing on the label to assign value ... 200 transactions and either 150K to 200K in sales dollars are I "think" some of the thresholds for states putting those laws in place.

We have both stores and small shopping malls closing left and right around here so the state is feeling the drop in retail sales in lost taxes ... so they are trying to recover it from the multi-billion dollar online sales industry ...