Sales tax Mystery?

[foster9]

Over the weekend I sold 2 items for exactly the same price and shipping cost. 

Both items are shipping to California, but the sales tax differs by 3 cents. 27 cents for 

one item and 24 cents for the other.

Shouldn't the sales tax be the same for both?

[fab_finds4u]

The state sales tax rate includes local rates which can vary.

[soh.maryl]

Not really much of a mystery.  As pointed out by Fab, there can be local variations in state sales tax percentages within a state.  For instance, in my town, the rate is about 6.25%.  A few miles north of me, another city/county, it's somewhat more, about 7%, but a few miles south, it's a little less, like 6.5%.

[johnrj1226]

In Georgia our  sales taxes  vary from 3% to 9% depending on where you live.

[soh.maryl]

Addendum:  Obviously misspoke.  6.5% is more than 6.25%.  Meant to say that it's something closer to 6% farther south of me.  

[valueaddedresource]

Normally all of the previous answers about the county/local taxes being different would make sense, but there's a very unique issue with eBay when it comes to sales tax in California specifically.

eBay worked out a tax sharing deal with the city of San Jose which considers all sales on the platform within the state of CA to have taken place in San Jose ( at eBay headquarters) for tax purposes.

https://www.sanjoseinside.com/news/san-jose-draws-scrutiny-from-state-leaders-other-cities-over-tax-... 

The deal means the city of San Jose gets the local tax on all transactions (rather than that money going to the city where the buyer is actually located) and eBay gets a kick back of 30% of anything over $5 Million collected per year.

While it would appear that eBay is altering the sales tax amounts to account for various local/county tax rates in California, it's questionable if they legitimately should be doing so in light of how the taxes are actually accounted for and dispersed per this tax sharing agreement.