eBay and Sales Tax - CA Requires Formal Document from eBay for Marketplace Sellers

[somanypostcards]

I just spoke with someone at the CA Dept. of Tax and Fee Administration asking questions about eBay collecting CA Sales Tax beginning Oct. 1, 2019.  I was told eBay needed to send me a formal document stating they are collecting the CA sales tax for me and providing eBay's CA seller's permit number.  Without this I cannot file my CA sales tax return.  On Oct. 1, 2019 I am considered a marketplace seller and eBay is considered the retail seller.  eBay needs to send me this formal document.  They also need to update their information found on eBay Customer Service "Taxes and import charges" where the say sellers are responsible for collecting sales taxes.

[Anonymous]

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@mcdougle4248 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@mcdougle4248 wrote:

@somanypostcards 

Arizona is also requiring a document stating eBay is collecting the taxes.  I have a PDF copy of the document in my possession, but have no idea how to get it completed by eBay.

@Anonymous 

I believe @comics-scifi-collectibles  has already contacted you regarding this.  Any  update for those of us in states requiring documentation?

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Hi @mcdougle4248, I got an update from our Tax team on this; for all of the current states that require this kind of form, a public announcement by the Marketplace Facilitator (eBay) fulfills the requirement as well. This means that the public statement we've made in our Help Pages that we will be collecting and remitting sales tax on behalf of the seller for the relevant states fulfills the requirements that this form would fulfill, so a seller would not need to do anything else on their end. 

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Thank you for getting back with the update.  That is one less thing to worry about going into the weekend...time for a 

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Cheers to that, @mcdougle4248  

[echo_and_zip]

@Anonymous 

I just filed my NY Quarterly online & they added a box:

[ ] Are you selling as a Marketplace Affiliate - Sales _____.

I checked that, and completed the Gross & Exempt Amounts.

If I need 'proof', I have my Sales Records & the Venue Statement.

[twnpopcards]

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@mcdougle4248 wrote:

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@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
Me? I'd tell them "see you in court".

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You are braver than I.  

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I just got off the phone with the Sales Tax people in CA regarding a totally different matter and we also touched on this issue.  The representative never mentioned anything about needing any type of form from Ebay, but did ask me if i wanted to cancel my license since they would be collecting all of my sales tax from my customers starting October 1.  I told her no because i would still need it for my purchases and she agreed.

I asked her how do I report the Ebay Sales and was told that they just get allocated to the Out of State Column or if it is a CA sale then to For Resale column but said nothing  about another form as they were well aware that Ebay would be collecting the sales tax on my behalf and remitting it to them.  The agent I spoke with seem knowledgeable about the subject but I guess i will call back on Monday and make sure about any potential form I might need, but have a feeling it is the California Resale Certificate like the one that Bascom sent to me when i was working on not having to pay sales tax on the shipping supplies.  Here is the copy of what I filled out for them.

[comics-scifi-collectibles]

@mam98031   I just didn't think it a reasonable request by the state to have eBay ( or any large market place facilitator)  hand fill out a form.    This is the form that they wanted eBay to fill out, sections A and C.   Glad that we have found out that it's not required after all.   I will print out the seller hub report for in state sales that shows ebay collected the sales tax just so I have documentation   

[somanypostcards]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@mcdougle4248 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@mcdougle4248 wrote:

@somanypostcards 

Arizona is also requiring a document stating eBay is collecting the taxes.  I have a PDF copy of the document in my possession, but have no idea how to get it completed by eBay.

@Anonymous 

I believe @comics-scifi-collectibles  has already contacted you regarding this.  Any  update for those of us in states requiring documentation?

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Hi @mcdougle4248, I got an update from our Tax team on this; for all of the current states that require this kind of form, a public announcement by the Marketplace Facilitator (eBay) fulfills the requirement as well. This means that the public statement we've made in our Help Pages that we will be collecting and remitting sales tax on behalf of the seller for the relevant states fulfills the requirements that this form would fulfill, so a seller would not need to do anything else on their end. 

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Thank you for getting back with the update.  That is one less thing to worry about going into the weekend...time for a 

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Cheers to that, @mcdougle4248  

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Two requests, Trinton.  1) Can you provide a link to the Help page where eBay made its public announcement that it is a Marketplace Facilitator for various states.  2)  Can eBay include its California sellers permit number so that it can be verified.  The person I spoke with at the CA Dept. of Tax and Fee Administration said I needed the notification AND the sellers permit number.  The announcement I read a while back (which I can't find now as it's hidden somewhat in the eBay maze) only listed the states and dates when eBay would begin collecting taxes.  Thanks.

[Anonymous]

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@somanypostcards wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@mcdougle4248 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@mcdougle4248 wrote:

@somanypostcards 

Arizona is also requiring a document stating eBay is collecting the taxes.  I have a PDF copy of the document in my possession, but have no idea how to get it completed by eBay.

@Anonymous 

I believe @comics-scifi-collectibles  has already contacted you regarding this.  Any  update for those of us in states requiring documentation?

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Hi @mcdougle4248, I got an update from our Tax team on this; for all of the current states that require this kind of form, a public announcement by the Marketplace Facilitator (eBay) fulfills the requirement as well. This means that the public statement we've made in our Help Pages that we will be collecting and remitting sales tax on behalf of the seller for the relevant states fulfills the requirements that this form would fulfill, so a seller would not need to do anything else on their end. 

---

Thank you for getting back with the update.  That is one less thing to worry about going into the weekend...time for a 

---

Cheers to that, @mcdougle4248  

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Two requests, Trinton.  1) Can you provide a link to the Help page where eBay made its public announcement that it is a Marketplace Facilitator for various states.  2)  Can eBay include its California sellers permit number so that it can be verified.  The person I spoke with at the CA Dept. of Tax and Fee Administration said I needed the notification AND the sellers permit number.  The announcement I read a while back (which I can't find now as it's hidden somewhat in the eBay maze) only listed the states and dates when eBay would begin collecting taxes.  Thanks.

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Hi @somanypostcards, happy to share our Help Page for reference here. As for the permit number, I'm touching base with our Tax Teams on this topic and will update everyone here once I have more info.

[somanypostcards]

Thanks, the link got me right to eBay's sales tax collection announcement.  And I appreciate your checking up on eBay's California seller permit number.

[bbox420]

Slightly confused still with all these new changes and trying to not focus on "old law".

If I started selling in January 2019 (CA based), will I need a CA seller's permit and EIN for legal purposes? Is there a penalty for not having one if it wasn't obtained from the start of sales?

And are taxes to be collect+filed by myself? Or is eBay providing all documents in regards to taxes already collected on it's platform and all I have to do is use their forms?

[Anonymous]

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@bbox420 wrote:

Slightly confused still with all these new changes and trying to not focus on "old law".

If I started selling in January 2019 (CA based), will I need a CA seller's permit and EIN for legal purposes? Is there a penalty for not having one if it wasn't obtained from the start of sales?

And are taxes to be collect+filed by myself? Or is eBay providing all documents in regards to taxes already collected on it's platform and all I have to do is use their forms?

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Hi @bbox420, a seller is still responsible for properly complying with all applicable tax requirements for their location and reporting tax collections appropriately. All of the information you need should be available through the reporting features on the site or by contacting Customer Service, though we do recommend discussing your responsibilities with a local tax professional if you have further questions or concerns.

[coffeebean832]

@Anonymous 

I don't know if you're aware, but eBay is not providing all of the necessary tax information for sellers in Managed Payments.

Some states require that you report the tax amount the marketplace facilitator collected and remitted for your state. Here's the problem- eBay does not provide sellers this number and the payments team said they have no way to get the information.

The 1099 shows tax collected across all states so that number won't meet the state's requirements.

The transaction reports you can download from the Payments tab don't show sales tax.

The sales reports all sellers can download from the Orders tab do show sales tax, but they only go back 90 days and eBay says they can't access anything beyond that.

When was asked what sellers are supposed to do when their state requires them to report the amounts for their state the payments team didn't have any advice to offer.

[mam98031]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@bbox420 wrote:

Slightly confused still with all these new changes and trying to not focus on "old law".

If I started selling in January 2019 (CA based), will I need a CA seller's permit and EIN for legal purposes? Is there a penalty for not having one if it wasn't obtained from the start of sales?

And are taxes to be collect+filed by myself? Or is eBay providing all documents in regards to taxes already collected on it's platform and all I have to do is use their forms?

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Hi @bbox420, a seller is still responsible for properly complying with all applicable tax requirements for their location and reporting tax collections appropriately. All of the information you need should be available through the reporting features on the site or by contacting Customer Service, though we do recommend discussing your responsibilities with a local tax professional if you have further questions or concerns.

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@Anonymous 

Are you talking about the downloadable report from the All Orders screen?  Or is there another report?

I ask because the downloadable report for All Orders is woefully inadequate and limited.  While it does give all the information one would need to drop into a worksheet program and sort the way they want.  It is inadequate because it is for a maximum of the previous 90 days.  That is so ridiculous and limiting.  It in turn reduces the feature and close to useless.

If you don't remember to run the report every 90 days and save it.  And don't confuse that with quarterly as some months have more than 30 days as we know.  You are sunk.  You can't recover the dates you may have missed or forgot to run the report.

As we know, Ebay has been around a long time.  There is just no excuse good enough as to why we can't easily get to a report we can download to run our sales by date range.

Now I'd love to be wrong about this.  If there is a better report that I'm unaware of that would be a quick resolve and highly appreciated by many.

[corvettestainless]

@twnpopcards  …...was told that they just get allocated to the Out of State Column or if it is a CA sale then to For Resale column….

that's exactly how I just did my CA sales tax; the amount of  'foreign or out of state' sales included everything except for the Gross Amount of sales Tax that I COLLECTED. Everything else, out of state prior to October, in state after ebay started collecting.. all went under that one line item/column (foreign/out of state). 

Think about it- I'm not liable to collect those taxes and that's all that Cali cares about, that I report and pay taxes on the in state taxes that I COLLECTED, along with Use Tax etc. 

FYI- items purchased for shipping your items are NOT sales tax free, even if you have a 'Resale license'. 

[Anonymous]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@bbox420 wrote:

Slightly confused still with all these new changes and trying to not focus on "old law".

If I started selling in January 2019 (CA based), will I need a CA seller's permit and EIN for legal purposes? Is there a penalty for not having one if it wasn't obtained from the start of sales?

And are taxes to be collect+filed by myself? Or is eBay providing all documents in regards to taxes already collected on it's platform and all I have to do is use their forms?

---

Hi @bbox420, a seller is still responsible for properly complying with all applicable tax requirements for their location and reporting tax collections appropriately. All of the information you need should be available through the reporting features on the site or by contacting Customer Service, though we do recommend discussing your responsibilities with a local tax professional if you have further questions or concerns.

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@Anonymous 

Are you talking about the downloadable report from the All Orders screen?  Or is there another report?

I ask because the downloadable report for All Orders is woefully inadequate and limited.  While it does give all the information one would need to drop into a worksheet program and sort the way they want.  It is inadequate because it is for a maximum of the previous 90 days.  That is so ridiculous and limiting.  It in turn reduces the feature and close to useless.

If you don't remember to run the report every 90 days and save it.  And don't confuse that with quarterly as some months have more than 30 days as we know.  You are sunk.  You can't recover the dates you may have missed or forgot to run the report.

As we know, Ebay has been around a long time.  There is just no excuse good enough as to why we can't easily get to a report we can download to run our sales by date range.

Now I'd love to be wrong about this.  If there is a better report that I'm unaware of that would be a quick resolve and highly appreciated by many.

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Hi @mam98031, this is the reporting I was referring to. We are always working to improve reporting options for our sellers, so there may be improvements in the future that meet some of the needs outlined here. Until then, we recommend sellers set reminders for themselves to download reports regularly for their records.

[twnpopcards]

@corvettestainless 

Actually shipping supplies purchased to ship your items out to your customer are exempt from Sales Tax in CA and as long as your shipping charge is for your cost, not shipping and handling, that amount is also not taxable to your customer.

I double checked that shipping supplies are not taxable when Ebay started collecting the Sales Tax on my CA sales because if they were no longer exempt I was going to turn in my resale license as I would no longer have a need for it.  The representative that i was speaking with also reminded me that if I sell on sites that do not collect sales tax that I would still need to have the resale license and collect sales tax on sales in CA.

Hope this was somewhat helpful and not confusing.

[mam98031]

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@twnpopcards wrote:

@corvettestainless 

Actually shipping supplies purchased to ship your items out to your customer are exempt from Sales Tax in CA and as long as your shipping charge is for your cost, not shipping and handling, that amount is also not taxable to your customer.

I double checked that shipping supplies are not taxable when Ebay started collecting the Sales Tax on my CA sales because if they were no longer exempt I was going to turn in my resale license as I would no longer have a need for it.  The representative that i was speaking with also reminded me that if I sell on sites that do not collect sales tax that I would still need to have the resale license and collect sales tax on sales in CA.

Hope this was somewhat helpful and not confusing.

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Well that is an interesting way to look at that.

In Washington.  Shipping supplies are exempt as well as long as they are used for shipping products that are being sold to others.  

What you charge for S&H has no bearing on it.  S&H is considered part of sales then the actual shipping costs and shipping supplies are expenses to be written off against sales.  

So much easier and simpler to understand and apply IMHO.

Shipping is taxable to the customer in WA if it is on the same invoice as product sold.  Which is always the case on Marketplaces.