Selling Fees Should Not Include Sales Tax

[krixter]

Hello,

By charging a seller's final fee based on the total cost of the sale including sales tax effectively raises the selling fee beyond the stated percentage. Sellers do not collect or benefit from sales tax. Selling fees should be calculated excluding sales tax. When I calculate the price of an item I am selling I consider eBay fees based on that number. Including sales tax in the sale total for calculating seller's fees is neither logical nor not fair. Taxes vary from state to state and in some states are very high (close to 10%) and significantly raise selling fees. It would be technically easy to base selling fees on the price of the item plus shipping.  Those are our costs. Taxes are beyond our control. We should not be dinged for them!

Best,

Kristin

[jameshen1]

Rather than answer, I will just ask you to search and read the other 10,000 or so posts on this subject.

[caldreamer]

EBAY collects fees on "sales tax" because they provide bookkeeping staff to collect & remit "sales tax" to all 50 states.   Otherwise, you would have the nightmare of filing 50 different "sales tax" forms.    You should raise your selling price to cover costs of fees on "sales tax".    

[mtgraves7984]

When I calculate the price of an item I am selling I consider eBay fees based on that number.

@krixter 

So there's ^^^ your problem. When selling here, start to calculate it according to the way eBay does. 🙌

[monica-sells]

I couldn't help but notice you have some higher priced items you sell....

I, too, get that 'feeling' when I sell a higher priced item...I do appreciate the fact that ebay handles all the ramifications of calculating, collecting, filing , reconciling and remitting the proper amounts to all the thousands of taxing districts in our great country....

but, whether I am selling a 20.00 item or 2000.00 item, it costs the same to do the associated paperwork, but the 20.00 sale my cost is about (average) .21 (cents) for the $20.00 transaction, but is $20.64 for the 2K transaction that involves the same amount of paperwork...

It is still a small price to pay for the hassle of NOT having to deal with it myself.......

"...effectively raises the selling fee beyond the stated percentage...."

the stated percentage and method is clearly spelled out and agreed to...your method of computing it is incorrect

[johnrj1226]

If wishes were horses beggars would ride.

Simple solution:   Add the added cost into your selling price - yeah use a ST percentage you are happy with = BTW  some states have zero sales tax- those  states make it up in other taxes like property tax

BTW - some of your listings  have a high Shipping/Handling.  I know you are on the W.Coast.  I'm on the E. Coast..  Made my shipping//handle charge reasonable and sold 46% of my stuff to the Western states.  Don't sell any more but managed to ship 1665  items.

[duffy4444]

 For the umpteenth time on this forum about eBay's fee on sales taxes...

   If you were to analyze the net effect of eBay charging sellers a fee on processing and remitting sales tax to the various hundreds of entities in the 50 states, you would see that the bottom line is around 1% or less of your sales price. Raise your prices by just 1% or so, forget about it, and move on. This is called keeping things in perspective. If ~1% still really bothers you that much, perhaps online selling is not for you.

   A fee of around 1% of our sales is a bargain for eBay taking care of the total sales tax situation for us sellers. Again, think a little deeper, take emotion out of it, and keep things in perspective.

Cheers,

Duffy

[maxine*j]

Start here:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?q=fees%20sales%20tax&advanced=false

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[1tuna]

ebay loves taxes, especially in there home state

taxes in Los angeles are like 10 percent so in my mind that gives ebay an extra 10 percent in FVF

ebay is allowed to keep a small amount for paperwork and its even mentioned somewhere

 I guess what I am trying to say is that the higher the tax rate the bigger the FVF is for ebay

ebay makes less on states with low tax rates like 1-2% ,if those states even exist

such is life, what are we gonna do

@krixter 

[stainlessenginecovers]

 @krixter  "Selling Fees Should Not Include Sales Tax"

But they do and have since they started collecting taxes (shortly thereafter).

it's NEVER going to change.

If you want to 'account' for Final Value Fees on an item, just add Item+Shipping+8% Sales Tax and multiply that amount by the FVF you pay (depends on category, store or not etc.) 

[luckythewinner]

By charging a seller's final fee based on the total cost of the sale including sales tax effectively raises the selling fee beyond the stated percentage.

It only changes the stated percentage if you were applying the stated percentage to the wrong amount.

Sellers do not collect or benefit from sales tax.

No argument there.

Selling fees should be calculated excluding sales tax.

But they aren't. And if they weren't the recent seller update would have just bumped the fee percentage even more than it is already.

When I calculate the price of an item I am selling I consider eBay fees based on that number

You should probably stop doing that and calculate against a more accurate number.

Including sales tax in the sale total for calculating seller's fees is neither logical nor not fair

It's logical for eBay because it gives them more money. And eBay never promised to be fair.

Taxes are beyond our control. We should not be dinged for them!

Shipping is beyond your control too, and you are dinged for that.

[monroe67]

"Selling Fees Should Not Include Sales Tax"

"By charging a seller's final fee based on the total cost of the sale including sales tax effectively raises the selling fee beyond the stated percentage. Sellers do not collect or benefit from sales tax. Selling fees should be calculated excluding sales tax. When I calculate the price of an item I am selling I consider eBay fees based on that number. Including sales tax in the sale total for calculating seller's fees is neither logical nor not fair. Taxes vary from state to state and in some states are very high (close to 10%) and significantly raise selling fees. It would be technically easy to base selling fees on the price of the item plus shipping.  Those are our costs. Taxes are beyond our control. We should not be dinged for them!"

[Yawn]. 
This is about the 13,127th post on this subject.  All those posts are full of "should."  
"eBay should"  -- "they should" -- "we should not"

You seem to have had some great sales, and been an eBay seller for a long time, more than just a few months.  I am surprised you are just now learning the fact that the percentage portion of eBay's Final Value Fees (FVFs) is based on The Total Amount Paid By Your Buyer.   Which might also include any handling charge you, as a seller, might add, and any other legally applicable charge.  

Wait until you learn that eBay's FVF percentage on many categories (but not all) is going up tomorrow.  

[krixter]

Sorry!!!! I have never posted to this forum before. Did not know the topic was old and boring to all. Thank you all for ripping me apart. You can stop now, please. 🙂

[monica-sells]

Not every post was ripping.....not at all

knowledge is king....now you know the 'facts'

continued good luck to you selling......

[chapeau-noir]

I think the irritation here comes because people simply don't search the forums first for answers or chat when the search is literally at the top of the page.