sales tax

[joey-o-5]

I rented a condo in SC and live in WV, the item says its being shipped to me so of course Ebay collected WV Sales tax.. unless I get a condo in the mail Im pretty sure WV shouldn't get sales tax.. Two years in a row this has happened.. any opinions?

[1786davycrockett]

If you made the purchase on eBay, you will be charged the applicable sales tax for the TRANSACTION, and not for an ITEM.

This has been explained by eBay multiple times during the past few years.

[rosszonebricks]

eBay bases the sales tax charged on the address the item is shipped to.

If the delivery address is in SC, that purchase was charged SC sales tax.

If the delivery address is in WV, that purchase was charged WV sales tax.

Or are you are talking about a seller paying State Income taxes (and NOT sales tax)?

[lacemaker3]

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@joey-o-5 wrote:

I rented a condo in SC and live in WV, the item says its being shipped to me so of course Ebay collected WV Sales tax.. unless I get a condo in the mail Im pretty sure WV shouldn't get sales tax.. Two years in a row this has happened.. any opinions?

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@joey-o-5,

What was the item number?

I searched for and checked several listings for condo rentals in SC. They were all listed correctly in  the category: Tickets & Travel > Travel > Lodging

and none of them charged sales tax for several other states that I checked. But, when I changed to an address in West Virginia, then sales tax was added.

eBay charges tax according to the rules laid down by each state. So this means that West Virginia has decided to charge sales/use tax on this type of purchase, and eBay is just following the law. You would have to address this with your state legislature and representatives.

[soh.maryl]

If you made a purchase of an item on eBay and the item is being delivered to an address in WV, the state sales tax for WV will be charged.

If the purchased item is being shipped to SC, then SC state sales tax will be charged.

The state sales tax is based on the delivery address.

Your message is somewhat confusing, but, have to ask, how do you believe the state sales tax on your  purchase should be calculated?  

[soh.maryl]

Not sure why the OP (buyer) would be concerned about the seller in his transaction paying state income taxes.  

[soh.maryl]

There are five US states that don't have a state sales tax:  Alaska, Delaware, Oregon and two more that I can't remember right now.  There is a map somewhere detailing this.  

[lacemaker3]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

There are five US states that don't have a state sales tax:  Alaska, Delaware, Oregon and two more that I can't remember right now.  There is a map somewhere detailing this.  

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Yes, that's correct. Delaware, Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon do not have state sales tax (although some of them have sales tax at the municipal level).

However, the other states I checked (Missourri and Michigan) do have state sales tax, so that is not why I got the results that I did. eBay charges sales on taxable purchases that are being delivered to those states, so lodging rentals in another state are not taxable in those states.

Based on the available evidence, West Virginia charges sales tax on lodging rentals, when it is paid for online. Probably not if it is paid for in person though, since I don't believe there is any way for WV to enforce that.

[toysaver]

No worries.  I'm sure there's somebody who rented a condo in WV but lives in SC and is paying karma's share of the sales tax.

[luckythewinner]

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@joey-o-5 wrote:

I rented a condo in SC and live in WV, the item says its being shipped to me so of course Ebay collected WV Sales tax.. unless I get a condo in the mail Im pretty sure WV shouldn't get sales tax.. Two years in a row this has happened.. any opinions?

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The law says that sales tax is based on the shipping destination.

eBay is designed for ecommerce, not property rentals.

[dbfolks166mt]

     So if I understand your post correctly you purchased a condo rental is SC off eBay for whatever reason and since you reside in WV sales tax was applied? Are you sure they applied WV sales tax or did they apply SC sales tax? Both states have sales tax laws on the books regarding sales tax on rentals WV's is 6% and SC's is 7% plus any additional local municipality taxes that may apply. 

     Something you may want to notify the seller about to make sure they don't pay the sales tax twice. Had the rental been made off eBay there would still have been sales tax involved with the buyer most likely paying and the landlord remitting the tax to SC IRS. 

[soh.maryl]

There are some states where hotel rooms and other short term rentals are taxed on a different schedule than outright purchases in those states.  

[lacemaker3]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

     So if I understand your post correctly you purchased a condo rental is SC off eBay for whatever reason and since you reside in WV sales tax was applied? Are you sure they applied WV sales tax or did they apply SC sales tax? Both states have sales tax laws on the books regarding sales tax on rentals WV's is 6% and SC's is 7% plus any additional local municipality taxes that may apply. 

     Something you may want to notify the seller about to make sure they don't pay the sales tax twice. Had the rental been made off eBay there would still have been sales tax involved with the buyer most likely paying and the landlord remitting the tax to SC IRS. 

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@dbfolks166mt, that's a good question!

OP has not shared the item number he purchased, but here is a screenshot of the checkout page for a similar listing, with a made up buyer's address in West Virginia.

The sales tax rate is: 62.93 ÷ 899 = 0.07 = 7%

A buyer's address in Florida also shows 7% sales tax added.

But, Missouri has a sales tax, yet with a buyer's address in Missouri, the same listing does not have any sales tax added. The same thing happens with an address in Michigan, which has sales tax.

Strangely enough, when I tried an address in South Carolina, there was no tax charged.

According to this Avalara lodging tax info page, all these states have sales tax on lodgings, at several different rates.

https://www.avalara.com/mylodgetax/en/resources/state-lodging-tax-requirements.html

State	Lodging Tax Rate	Tax rate on listing
South Carolina	7% (= 5% state sales tax, plus 2% state accommodation tax)	0.0%
West Virginia	6% state sales tax	7.0%
Florida	6% state sales tax	7.0%
Missouri	4.225% state sales tax	0.0%
Michigan	6% state use tax	0.0%

This is curious. I was hypothesizing that maybe some states have reciprocal agreements on collecting lodging tax for other states, but in that case, why would there be no tax charged for a buyer in South Carolina?

[joey-o-5]

Wv cant collect sales tax for a condo in SC..if the condo was mailed to me they could.. What taxes SC collects on short term rentals I do not know.. I can tell you if I rent a condo from a property managment company in SC they sure dont charge WV sales tax because thats bonkers.. 

[joey-o-5]

But there is no delivery of the item thats the problem.. the item of value is located in SC, Im using that item in  SC and it doesn't return with me.. I would be really curious to see if SC is also getting paid taxes which i'm sure they are..