The New Sales Tax Law

[thebornseller]

I just purchased something from Ohio and was charged a sales tax even though I live in California. I just found out that there is a new law that took effect on October 1, 2019 due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June, 2018. The law says that there will be sales tax on any online purchases no matter where the business is located. I don't like it but that's the law. The thing that I don't understand is why eBay charged me a sales tax for something I bought from China. I called eBay and the rep told me that eBay is required to collect sales tax, even from another country. This doesn't sound right to me so I thought I would post a message here and see if others have encountered the same thing. I think charging sales tax for purchases made from China or anywhere outside of California is wrong.  My question to anybody that sees this post is: what do you think? And how is this law affecting you as a seller?

[mam98031]

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@collectib_5 wrote:

Well sales tax on freight is wrong and i dont think the customers will stand for it. I wouldnt. Thats thebtrouble now we have set back and allowed every injustice they could think of. Same thing is happening in our government. Dont know what i will do yet but im looking.

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@collectib_5 

Then they need to take it up with their state representatives.  No marketplace to include Ebay has ANY control over that.  They have to follow the law as written, not what some may wish it to be.  

In the state I'm in, shipping has been taxed longer than I've been alive and that is a bit of time.  One would think if so many people were to be upset by it, they would have already made noise about it.  It might just be new to you and you don't like it.  And there may be others in a similar position as you.  They just didn't realize when they were purchasing from large sites like Target, Walmart, Sears, Amazon, Wayfair, etc that they were paying sales tax on the shipping too.  Now that you know you are upset, but it is likely that you have been paying it for years.

[quiksilver05]

I'm a small Ebay seller as well and I have been wondering how this is going to effect my selling. I have read that the sales tax is going to be added automatically but since the this new tax rule has started I have sold two items and it doesn't appear a sales tax was applied.  I live in Texas so I know that there is a sales tax of .0825 but I don't know if I need to start adding a percentage to each listing or not.

[bonjourami]

If you had two sales that taxes werent charged(how would you know,they are added by Ebay on check out), it means those buyers were not in a state that is collecting the sales tax...yet. You dont have to do anything, the tax is applied to your buyers if they are in a state that is collecting internet sales tax now. Im in Illinois and the internet state tax starts here in January.

[mam98031]

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@quiksilver05 wrote:

I'm a small Ebay seller as well and I have been wondering how this is going to effect my selling. I have read that the sales tax is going to be added automatically but since the this new tax rule has started I have sold two items and it doesn't appear a sales tax was applied.  I live in Texas so I know that there is a sales tax of .0825 but I don't know if I need to start adding a percentage to each listing or not.

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If you haven't noticed a negative impact to your sales by now, it isn't likely that due to sales tax you are going to see one.  Ebay has been collecting sales tax on sales as far back as January 2019.  Almost every month more states came on line with Ebay collecting sales tax.

Remember sales tax is NOT collected by the location of the seller [so Texas in your case], but by the state the item is being delivered to.  So unless your buyer is having what you are shipping delivered to a Texas address, they won't be charged sales tax for Texas.

Also if a buyer only has the 5 digit zip code on their delivery address, they will be charge the flat rate amount that each state has told Ebay to charge.  For those that live in a lower tax rate area of that state [as I do] you need to add the 4 digits to the end of your zip code.  You need all 9 numbers so that the software can tell exactly where you are at and charge the proper rate for your address.

My state the flat rate is 10% but my actual location in the state is 8.7%.  So it benefited me to add those 4 digits to save a little money.

[kaylybon0]

it doesn't matter how much taxes California can generate it goes into the pockets of the politicians. California is dying

[jojitsusensei]

California is burning because of their failed liberal policies, New York state is right behind them.

[mam98031]

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@jojitsusensei wrote:

California is burning because of their failed liberal policies, New York state is right behind them.

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You do realize that some people are losing their homes, pets and sometimes their own lives in these fires, right?

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

In the battle between politics and empathy, empathy lost. At least they’re not outright blaming this on gay people this time 😡

[numisnorway]

You do realize he was speaking metaphorically?

[mam98031]

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@numisnorway wrote:
You do realize he was speaking metaphorically?

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@numisnorway 

I'm not sure which post you are referring to.  I don't see where I've posted anything to you on this thread, heck I don't even see where you have posted on this thread before.  

[blacktopautoparts]

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@bonjourami wrote:

If you had two sales that taxes werent charged(how would you know,they are added by Ebay on check out), it means those buyers were not in a state that is collecting the sales tax...yet. You dont have to do anything, the tax is applied to your buyers if they are in a state that is collecting internet sales tax now. Im in Illinois and the internet state tax starts here in January.

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I also live in Illinois, but depending on the size of your online business you should have been collecting sales tax from sometime ago. I've been collecting for the last 2 years here in IL for any sellers that are from IL, then on a quarterly basis submit to the state of IL.

[mam98031]

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@blacktopautoparts wrote:

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@bonjourami wrote:

If you had two sales that taxes werent charged(how would you know,they are added by Ebay on check out), it means those buyers were not in a state that is collecting the sales tax...yet. You dont have to do anything, the tax is applied to your buyers if they are in a state that is collecting internet sales tax now. Im in Illinois and the internet state tax starts here in January.

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I also live in Illinois, but depending on the size of your online business you should have been collecting sales tax from sometime ago. I've been collecting for the last 2 years here in IL for any sellers that are from IL, then on a quarterly basis submit to the state of IL.

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@blacktopautoparts 

Facilitator Laws for Internet sales tax has NOTHING to do with what size the seller is or where the seller is located.  It doesn't matter if the seller is located in the US or in Asia.  What matters is the buyer's address where the product is being shipped to.  That is the ONLY thing that determines if sales tax is owed and how much.

[goldenmeowie]

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@jojitsusensei wrote:

California is burning because of their failed liberal policies, New York state is right behind them.

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Actually, California is burning because rich developers want to make money off desperate new Californians who find renting & owning in California very unaffordable because past & present Californians DON'T want tall skyscraper apartments like New York.   We like our small one-family houses and detest any monstrous multi-family buildings blocking our eyeview of the sky and ocean and not fitting into our communitites.  New Californians think they can buy in lands where no one else wants to buy(because of constant yearly fires) until their houses burn and they have to flee for their lives.  Their insurance policies(if they have any and if they pay) are usually only good that one time and either the cost of the policy increases drastically such that they can't or can barely pay it OR no company won't insure them again.  What SHOULD happen is the state regulates this so that no one can build on these kinds of lands, but, you know, supercapitalism, greed, and corruption go hand in hand.

[ronaldpozzi2132]

I agree this is not fair. Starting dec1 they started charging $3.22 for using EBAY site to print our labels NOT RIGHT NOR FAIR.

[mam98031]

@ronaldpozzi2132 

Who is "they"?

Ebay doesn't charge for using the shipping label program.  When we pay for a shipping label it is for the shipping costs for whatever information you put in for the label.