Selling fees on Taxes

[reddandy_sandy]

I was not aware of fees on selling taxes.  They are charging fees on selling item, plus shipping, plus tax.  This is not fair. We should not be paying fees on taxes.  I only sell clothing at a very low price and today just realized that the final value fee is including the sale of the item, plus the shipping and tax of item.  In the end, it is not worth it to sell.  Very upset!

[jagwimalagu0]

I think you haven't  got update enough about ebay manage payments. Most of the sellers are not yet informed about the variations in manage payments. In that case, most are just having losses.
You're just supposed to read the articles regarding ebay manage payments to resolve your issue. Otherwise, you'll be facing so many troubles in future.
Thank you.

[flukeman43]

or like me -slowly going under in a sinking ship since 2003

[hummingbird*alley]

Taxes suck and so does ebay..... 

[dbfolks166mt]

      I get the same impression about most of the Sri Lankan sellers only on a MUCH larger scale given the number of postings they put up on this forum. Most of the US sellers have been in managed payments for quite awhile and are pretty well acquainted with MP. FYI it wasn't MP that caused eBay to start collecting sales tax and subsequently charging fees on it. That was caused by a Supreme Court decision as I am sure you are aware. 

[duffy4444]

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@reddandy_sandy wrote:

I was not aware of fees on selling taxes.  They are charging fees on selling item, plus shipping, plus tax.  This is not fair. We should not be paying fees on taxes.  I only sell clothing at a very low price and today just realized that the final value fee is including the sale of the item, plus the shipping and tax of item.  In the end, it is not worth it to sell.  Very upset!

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   The bottom line is that the fee that eBay charges sellers on sales taxes amounts to around 1% or less of the total sales price. For that, you say it is not worth it to sell? There's something else going on behind your concern, and it is most likely in your outlook and your not understanding the big picture.

   If this ~1% is worth getting upset about and throwing in the towel, you either need to raise your prices by ~1% (practically nothing), or consider selling items that have a bigger possible profit margin by 1% to compensate.

   Better yet, keep things in perspective, and get over the ~1% bottom line difference, which you'd been paying all along anyhow but just didn't notice it until now.

Cheers, Duffy

[gwens*4saleitems*]

Where did I put that 'beating a dead horse' meme !?!?!?

[dbfolks166mt]

     Prior to the Supreme Court decision in 2018 you were in the same situation as most sellers, regardless of how big or small you were/are, and that was you were required to collect and remit sales tax for sales to buyers within your own state.

     In the wake of the court decision, regardless of how big or small your out of state sales taxes are, for those states that have passed ecommerce sales tax laws, and almost all have, you would be required to collect and remit the sales tax to each of the states where you made sales if eBay was not doing it for you. I have not yet seen a state ecommerce sales tax law that has a "big sales threshold" of course I have not read all of them in there entirety either. 

[luckythewinner]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

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 you would be required to collect and remit the sales tax to each of the states where you made sales if eBay was not doing it for you.

That is not really accurate. 

 I have not yet seen a state ecommerce sales tax law that has a "big sales threshold"

Most states seem to have a threshold of $100,000 or more in sales before a seller from another state must collect and remit sales tax. 

of course I have not read all of them in there entirety either. 

There is no need to read them all in their entirety - there are plenty of websites that wil summarize them for you. (Avalara, for example:  https://www.avalara.com/us/en/learn/guides/state-by-state-guide-economic-nexus-laws.html)

According to Avalara, these are the thresholds a seller must meet in order to trigger sales tax collection. I listed the first few states as they appear on Avalara: 

Alabama - $250,000 

Alaska - $100,000 or 200 transactions

Arizona - $100,00 

Arkansas - $100,000 or 200 transactions

California - $500,000 

Colorado - $100,000

Connecticut - $100,000 and 200 transactions

Florida - $100,000

Georgia - $100,000 or 200 transactions

Those seem to me to be pretty big sales thresholds for most small business sellers. 

[dbfolks166mt]

     So if that is the case you have to wonder why is eBay collecting sales tax on every sale since they actually sell nothing and they will be the first to tell you as much. I am quite sure the states have some language in the laws about the ecommerce business being identified as the seller regardless of the fact that they are just a pass thru.

     If this is not the case with regards to the laws sellers would be better off if they could opt out of eBay collecting sales tax. Even large sellers would not hit the thresholds as an individual business in most cases. 

[chapeau-noir]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

     So if that is the case you have to wonder why is eBay collecting sales tax on every sale since they actually sell nothing and they will be the first to tell you as much. I am quite sure the states have some language in the laws about the ecommerce business being identified as the seller regardless of the fact that they are just a pass thru.

     If this is not the case with regards to the laws sellers would be better off if they could opt out of eBay collecting sales tax. Even large sellers would not hit the thresholds as an individual business in most cases. 

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They may sell nothing, but eBay (along with Etsy, Poshmark, Amazon, Mercari, etc. etc. ) acts as a marketplace facilitator, i.e., a platform who contracts with third parties and enables (facilitates) sales by providing payment methods, hosting, etc.