Tax Issue Question

[jobis5662]

I was a seller in 2021. I received a letter in January 2025 from my states Department of Revenue stating that state sales tax was not withheld from items sold because apparently eBay didn’t start doing that until 2023. I contacted the Department of Revenue and they instructed me to get a list of items sold to people in my state. eBay sent me the list of items sold in 2021 but will not give me the addresses for me to know who I have to pay sales tax for. I have no idea what I am supposed to do and EBay will not help. 

[wastingtime101]

If you were signed up for managed payments in 2021 you can download a transaction report here.

If you were not signed up for managed payments in 2021 then you can download a transaction report from PayPal.

[inhawaii]

You can bring a lawsuit against anyone for any reason.

Winning that lawsuit is another story.

[stainlessenginecovers]

As @inhawaii stated, anyone can sue anyone, but you would have NO case and would waste time/money because it is NOT this sites responsibility to keep track of your books, your sales etc. You were supposed to get a resale license so you could collect sales tax from every buyer in your state, then do a report (usually annually) with your state, but you failed to do so. Try the sales report that @wastingtime101 gave you the link to, and/or you can go to Paypal and get reports there (not sure how far back they go)

[kensgiftshop]

You want to sue Ebay because they won't give you the address to who to pay state taxes to?

Wouldn't that be to your state, the ones that sent the letter?

[fab_finds4u]

Isn't  it up to the seller to keep records, to know if they sold an item delivered to their state?  

Suing eBay for your lack of record keeping is a new one.

Please let us know how it turns out, including if you had to pay eBay's attorney fees if you lost.

[r_lresale]

Did the letter actually mention ebay sales? I assume since you received a letter that you were registered with your state and must collect sales tax even on your in person sales locally. 

I'm in Texas and must report collected sales tax for sales in Tx. Even if my only sales were on ebay and they collected and remitted to all states, I still have to report $0 taxable sales every quarter. If I fail to submit that $0 return, the state will assess tax liability based on past reported sales and then you have the burden of proving that you didn't make any sales in which you were responsible for collecting sales tax.

[jobis5662]

The letter was very vague but when I called them they told me the letter was for EBay sales. I wasn’t registered with my state. I filed my taxes and the IRS sent the info to the Department of Revenue. It wasn’t something I was aware of and I only sold for that year. Unfortunately I have no way to find out which sales were made to people in my state. 

[wastingtime101]

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@jobis5662 wrote:

 Unfortunately I have no way to find out which sales were made to people in my state. 

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You do if you download one of the reports I mentioned above.

[r_lresale]

As someone else said ebay was collecting and remitting sales tax in 2021 or at least for us anyway.

You mention IRS which is income tax and not sales and use taxes. If you are in a state in which you have to file state income tax as well as federal it may have something to do with that. We don't have state income tax in Texas so I don't have knowledge/experience on that end. 

[jobis5662]

I downloaded the reports but they do not show buyers addresses. Is there something I am doing wrong?

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

When you go to the Transaction Report page on eBay click the customize report link. The options you choose are a sticky setting so it's possible the buyer's location isn't part of the default fields but I don't know for sure since it's always on my downloads. I believe address is under the 'shipping' section of the customize link.

After you do that, generate a new report.

[dhbookds]

I don't like that "date"......looks like Ebay started collecting in 2019.........I'd call the state tax dept finding the phone # by other means that that letter, which could be a scam......

[luckythewinner]

You want to sue eBay because you failed to keep adequate business records for your state taxes? 

[jobis5662]

Thank you very much. You are awesome!