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Yikes....what is the deal with eBay now adding sales tax to buyers purchases ?

Milacron

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Dec 15, 2000
Location
SC, USA
I'm more concerned about this as a seller than buyer. I haven't sold any tooling items on eBay in a long time but have in the last few days I have....and was shocked eBay is adding sales tax appropriate for the buyers state. This would expecially suck on larger ticket items. As to paying the state involved a random discussion from a year ago indicates eBay collects and pays the tax .... but in my case the invoice and Paypal seem to collect the tax in my account thus making me responsible ... did they change the policy to put the "send the tax to appropriate state" burden on the seller ?? :ill:
 
I've sold some smaller items ($100 - $500) in the past few weeks. Appears eBay charged and collected the sales tax. My final balance minus fees was correct.
 
SCOTUS case law (South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc.) - by judicial fiat all sellers in any taxable transaction are now forced to follow laws for states in which they cannot vote or be otherwise represented.

Government at its finest.

Have fun trying to comply if you sell to non-exempt entities across state lines!
 
I'm more concerned about this as a seller than buyer. I haven't sold any tooling items on eBay in a long time but have in the last few days I have....and was shocked eBay is adding sales tax appropriate for the buyers state. This would expecially suck on larger ticket items. As to paying the state involved a random discussion from a year ago indicates eBay collects and pays the tax .... but in my case the invoice and Paypal seem to collect the tax in my account thus making me responsible ... did they change the policy to put the "send the tax to appropriate state" burden on the seller ?? :ill:

WTF?!??
That’s stupid! They have all of the information and could/should automatically send the money to the appropriate state and notify you as such.

It’s even worse than that!
I bought some things a few months ago and instead of charging you one lump sum, they broke it out into multiple charges.
I looked at my credit card statement and said WTF are all these weird charges? The charges were different from what the totals said on eBay. My credit card company closed that card out of fear of fraud/false charges that later turned out to be real, but stupidly, unnecessarily complicated!

eBay and PayPal are the worst!
TERRIBLE user interface, awfulcustomer service, obfuscation and far too inconsistent and complicated!
 
I can't figure out the Ebay/Paypal fee structure anymore. I have ONE thing I sell on Ebay that is low $$$, but they sell about a grand a month. The same thing at the same price. Several a day on average. Ebay charges sales tax and takes it out. I never see that money. But the thing that blows my mind is how my net varies from one item to the next. Up and down a few cents to a dollar or so.

It's just asinine how they baffle you with bullshit while they take more and more.
 
I can't figure out the Ebay/Paypal fee structure anymore. I have ONE thing I sell on Ebay that is low $$$, but they sell about a grand a month. The same thing at the same price. Several a day on average. Ebay charges sales tax and takes it out. I never see that money. But the thing that blows my mind is how my net varies from one item to the next. Up and down a few cents to a dollar or so.

It's just asinine how they baffle you with bullshit while they take more and more.

Yeah.
I could have worked for eBay a long time ago, but I turned it down because I couldn’t figure out why there were so many people working there and what they did.
It sure as hell was not customer service or good UI or good anything.
In retrospect, I probably could actually have money in the bank if I had worked there :-)

I keep hoping someone will come along with a much better system (not that hard IMO), better fees, ... with enough advertising money and just eat eBay’s lunch.
Sadly, they have name recognition and inertia, so it’s hard to get ahead.
 
If sales taxes are going to be collected I for one am grateful that they are doing it as they are. I sell low value stuff on there too. I can't imagine if I had to keep track of sales tax for each state. It would not be practical. It seems they have been trying to figure out how to implement it. It has changed some over the last 6 months.
 
Ebay charges sales tax to the buyer on what I sell to the states that have an agreement in place and remit to those state's dept of revenue on my behalf, as far as I know. I haven't received my paypal 1099 yet but spoke to Ebay and they said the state tax remittance data "will be available" but were unable to elaborate, probably because they have no clue as to how they will be handling it, judging from past experience. In theory this absolves sellers from filing individual state tax returns in every state that they made a sale, which would have decimated the whole Ebay sales model, but I won't know how this will shake out until I get my 1099 and see if it does or does not include the amount that was paid in state taxes. Of course I think it shouldn't include that bc those funds never make it to my account. Doesn't matter too much I suppose because I'm in the process of selling down what I have until I can avoid the Ebay channel altogether, or at least as much as possible. way too much hassle.
 
I can't figure out the Ebay/Paypal fee structure anymore. I have ONE thing I sell on Ebay that is low $$$, but they sell about a grand a month. The same thing at the same price. Several a day on average. Ebay charges sales tax and takes it out. I never see that money. But the thing that blows my mind is how my net varies from one item to the next. Up and down a few cents to a dollar or so.

It's just asinine how they baffle you with bullshit while they take more and more.

The buyer gets charged the sales tax based on where they are and their states tax rate, not your states tax rate. And then paypal takes a cut of the total amount. As for ebays push to offer free shipping, well now you get taxed on full amount, but if you charge shipping fees, only the purchase price of item is taxed, the shipping is not.
 
For Ebay sales of freight items be sure not to wrap the freight into the ebay sale or you will be paying ebay fees on the freight! Set up the freight after the sale, or better yet have your buyer arrange and pay for it with the shipper.
 
I've literally been buying and selling on eBay since the last century. 1998. But have, over the years watched them go from the greatest way to sell stuff and buy at the best deal imaginable, to being an okay place to buy and sell with high fees and a TON of headaches attached. And don't get me started on PayPal. Uh oh, too late. Does anyone else remember when they said, "Always free to both buyer and seller". They explained they could do that by earning the interest on everyone's money whole it transitioned through their system. Then they got greedy.

This is why I am hoping I can sell my Deckel FP2 and Hardinge HLVH here instead of feeBay and PainPal.
 
I'll never use PayPal or eBay again, not because I don't want to but because I can't.

Had a customer insist on paying with PayPal for a 1000 piece order. Parts all to spec, lots of proof, material certs the whole works and they disputed after receiving the parts. PayPal sided with the buyer and left me out to dry for a $14,000 order. Thankfully I withdrew the money before hand. Left me with a PayPal account that's negative $14,000 and for that I can never use eBay or PayPal again.

Screw em.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 
I'm more concerned about this as a seller than buyer. I haven't sold any tooling items on eBay in a long time but have in the last few days I have....and was shocked eBay is adding sales tax appropriate for the buyers state. This would expecially suck on larger ticket items. As to paying the state involved a random discussion from a year ago indicates eBay collects and pays the tax .... but in my case the invoice and Paypal seem to collect the tax in my account thus making me responsible ... did they change the policy to put the "send the tax to appropriate state" burden on the seller ?? :ill:

Ill. and several other states passed internet commerce laws in 2019 that now require Ebay and PayPal to collect the sales tax for the states directly. Prior to this the buyer was to report the transactions to their resident state and submit the taxes due. I doubt if many people did.

Here in Ill., the new governor has come up with a multitude of ways to extract money from the state citizens in an attempt to prolong the time before Ill. declares bankruptcy. The internet sales transaction state sales tax was one of many laws passed.
 
I've forgotten exactly how to do it, even though it's been only a month, but all you have to do designate yourself as sales tax exempt. In my case, the seller helped. Somewhere on ebay's site....
 
This is why I am hoping I can sell my Deckel FP2 and Hardinge HLVH here instead of feeBay and PainPal.

Seriously.

I NEVER had any wish to SELL on eBay. Too much like work, and LAZY, Iyam.

But it has gradually dropped off my menu for purchases as well. Could was, they actually ARE trying to ease the pain of Laws they did not make, and even doing a better job of a managing that pain-in-all-asses than we have yet realized.

Even so, if PM tilts a tad more to a marketplace as well as a knowledge exchange?

I'm all for it!

PM had already displaced ebay for MY sourcing 2 or 3 years back, and become the ONLY place I sell a damned thing at all. Mind I'm not a merchant, don't need to sell, can scrap if less work, not miss a meal.

Neither am I exactly the Lone Ranger on that score. Many of us sell on PM just to help keep stuff working, some other member's shop. And the reverse. Works rather well. But no relation to the "mainstream" of eBay..which isn't really tools or tooling, anyway.

Otherwise, for "incoming", I go direct to the OEM maker as it is not only a choice more universal than ever - it has become CHEAPER, faster, and EASIER than eBay, regardless if new, surplus, or "remaindermen" - NRI to name the most recent - than eBay is for the same item, same warehouse shelf on eBay or the vendor's direct website and shopping cart.

"Paypal" still an option, but almost NEVER the only option.

"Better model than eBay?" Assuredly so, already.

We are right smack-dab in the MIDDLE of a de-facto paradigm shift. Amazon next on the list, see FedEx and UPS actions of late.

The "killer" dynamic? Damned-near universal websites. Matured ones that simply WORK. Tracked and indexed into search engines.

Ebay became mostly but my SEARCH engine a while ago, and they have even f**ked that up far worse that anything ELSE.

BFD. So Gross Google the Sovietski spymasters will just have to serve.

Wuddn' yah know it? Google actually finds the same damned goods, MORE suppliers, and waaay faster..... if only yah know how to ask half-way sanely! As-in pin-shapers for wood choppers, stroke shaper or metal shaper .. rather than a million hits for uplift bras and such as guidance systems for "weaponized" tits and asses!

Invest in honing yer search term skills, and off we go to the evolved market model.

E-prey shudda known it's biz model couldn't dominate FOREVER, any more than Sears-Roebuck, Marshall-Fields, or Monkey-Ward catalogs did.. once store-bought bumfodder became affordable for the common can.

"Seek and ye shall find".

Do yer selling website well, and BECOME easily and rapidly "found".

Not hard to create. Annual cost can be less than eBay fees on but a few transactions.
 
I'll never use PayPal or eBay again, not because I don't want to but because I can't.

Had a customer insist on paying with PayPal for a 1000 piece order. Parts all to spec, lots of proof, material certs the whole works and they disputed after receiving the parts. PayPal sided with the buyer and left me out to dry for a $14,000 order. Thankfully I withdrew the money before hand. Left me with a PayPal account that's negative $14,000 and for that I can never use eBay or PayPal again.

Screw em.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

I have a feeling that was a premeditated theft of your services.
 
It used to be a seller only charged sales tax if they had a physical presence in the state the item was shipped to. It appears that has changed, McMaster Carr is now charging me sales tax on shop supplies, they didn't used to do that. There isn't any presence of McMaster in Virginia.
 
It used to be a seller only charged sales tax if they had a physical presence in the state the item was shipped to. It appears that has changed, McMaster Carr is now charging me sales tax on shop supplies, they didn't used to do that. There isn't any presence of McMaster in Virginia.

Virginia's OWN Law has required ALL of her her citizenry and biznesses to pony-up VA tax on "imports" on their OWN hook for easily - what? 20 years?

Biznesses generally do that - they've got to have bean-counter services hired if not under-roof, anyway.

VA Gov isn't really interested in what private citizens might go to court to CHARGE them for the effort involved that collection- around 2,000 Euro a day, no partial day's offered unless on retainer, then two-hour minimum, even I lift a finger, my own case. Or I could hire a CPA at better than $200 to the hour to track a five-dollah tax?

Cost of admin and chasing-up could make what US Grant did to renovate Richmond look like a bloody bargain.

Ergo it is easily as widely ignored as magazine capacity limit damned-foolishness may run as NEXT universal pound-sand fuck-offery 'til greedy Lawsters break the State Treasury in half in Folderal Courts, Nary a shot fired, nor even a harsh word. It's all about the MONEY. Plus, the Old Dominion had Lawsters and similar whores plying their trade before Philadelphia had ever had a European foot tread is wilderness and our Western border was still the Pacific Ocean.

Democratic party's latest rota of looter-lie-bore-alls hired-in to fuck-up the Old Dominion as a low-tax, low-cost, higher quality-of-life competitor to New Yawk (you already KNEW Bloomberg was all about GREED, not creed, yah?) ... know what they have been ordered to want.

But I did say "Democrats"? As usual the poor sods can't count any higher than "Bought and paid for! TAX MORE NOW!!!" so end up with the usual calluses inside their lower GI tract every damned time. Suspect Tim Kaine has wore-out half a dozen barbed-wire dildos by this late date? Pure fool for greed, that one be.

No fear.

Virginia having invented BOTH major political parties (there be a double-barreled "guilt trip" for sins against humanity if ever was..).. we have our ways of balancing the idiots.


Sic semper tyrannis, whether 12 cents at a go, or two large as Euro, works as well as any other number, yah?

:D
 
I love that PM is here as a resource for the community with so many people willing to help.
I agree with you that it would be nice if PM expanded their marketplace capabilities.
I’m not sure what underlying forum software system PM uses, but by today’s standards it is pretty cumbersome and slow. It needs some serious updates and improvements before it could be a large, viable marketplace.
It’s easy for me to armchair quarterback and say that that the underlying forum software needs updates and improvements since I’m not going to quit my day job... :-)

As for eBay, I know I could do a way better job of creating and maintaining an auction site: WAY better UI, simple fee structure, automatic accounting and tax handling, ...

Why haven’t I created a better auction site and become rich already?
1. I love my job working in science/solar physics.
2. I invest my time and what money I have in my kids.
3. eBay really does have name brand recognition and inertia. There are many other auction sites out there already for years that do it better than ebay and they are all still small. DealDash, the one auction site that I see occasionally advertising on TV definitely feels like a gimmick/scam; they even say “fair and honest bidding system” and my skin crawls.


Even so, if PM tilts a tad more to a marketplace as well as a knowledge exchange?

I'm all for it!

"Better model than eBay?" Assuredly so, already.

We are right smack-dab in the MIDDLE of a de-facto paradigm shift. Amazon next on the list, see FedEx and UPS actions of late.

The "killer" dynamic? Damned-near universal websites. Matured ones that simply WORK. Tracked and indexed into search engines.

Ebay became mostly but my SEARCH engine a while ago, and they have even f**ked that up far worse that anything ELSE.

BFD. So Gross Google the Sovietski spymasters will just have to serve.

Wuddn' yah know it? Google actually finds the same damned goods, MORE suppliers, and waaay faster..... if only yah know how to ask half-way sanely! As-in pin-shapers for wood choppers, stroke shaper or metal shaper .. rather than a million hits for uplift bras and such as guidance systems for "weaponized" tits and asses!

Invest in honing yer search term skills, and off we go to the evolved market model.

E-prey shudda known it's biz model couldn't dominate FOREVER, any more than Sears-Roebuck, Marshall-Fields, or Monkey-Ward catalogs did.. once store-bought bumfodder became affordable for the common can.

"Seek and ye shall find".

Do yer selling website well, and BECOME easily and rapidly "found".

Not hard to create. Annual cost can be less than eBay fees on but a few transactions.
 








 
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