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eBay will only tax the buyer of the item. However, it seems that eBay in a large amount of auctions will "incorrectly" collect the correct amount of tax for that purchase. Every time I buy from eBay they charge double the correct tax rate...first world problems.Wait, so they tax the seller AND they tax the buyer?
I lost it when AliExpress caved in to US pressure and started collecting sales tax.I think they started doing this in October of 2019. I get taxed on cheap fishing crap from China. Heck, if I buy a used for parts phone, it's taxed, too.
The holiday is over, the government(s) have really failed to keep up with the times.I lost it when AliExpress caved in to US pressure and started collecting sales tax.
Yep, I paid nearly $18 tax on a $250 purchase this past month.eBay will only tax the buyer of the item. However, it seems that eBay in a large amount of auctions will "incorrectly" collect the correct amount of tax for that purchase. Every time I buy from eBay they charge double the correct tax rate...first world problems.
Or US to US.Not from US to canada or europe to canada or china to canada.
just canada to canada.
I totally get that, but that wasn't my point.The holiday is over, the government(s) have really failed to keep up with the times.
With all the recent tariff increases it wouldn't surprise me one bit. Might end up being a smart play for them in the end.I totally get that, but that wasn't my point.
The Chinese don't give a damn about US copyright laws, among other things. Why would the largest direct-to-American-consumer Chinese retailer start collecting sales tax? Bangood, Gearbest, DHGate, FastTech, and countless others don't. There are still plenty of counterfeits and knockoffs on AliExpress... There is no way they expect to be considered a "legitimate retailer" in the eyes of the US government. Maybe this is just AliExpress leadership trying to play both sides of the table.
Not true, I recently sold some bike gear on eBay and I was charged sales tax as the seller.eBay will only tax the buyer of the item. However, it seems that eBay in a large amount of auctions will "incorrectly" collect the correct amount of tax for that purchase. Every time I buy from eBay they charge double the correct tax rate...first world problems.
How does that work?Not true, I recently sold some bike gear on eBay and I was charged sales tax as the seller.
I'm not sure, but attached is a snipping from my PayPal invoice for the sold bike parts. The winning bid was 195.16 in my case and as you can see they deducted taxes from my available total. And that's not counting the final value fee I've been assed from eBay of $19 that I have to pay next week. I avoid buying or selling anything on eBay unless it absolutely cannot be helped.How does that work?
As a buyer I would assume to pay for the tax liability of the item. As a seller why would one be taxed for selling the item at the time of the sale. Seems a bit...potato.
They collected the tax from the buyer when the item sold (looking like it went to you).. and then they collected that same exact amount from you. The tax doesn't actually get payed to you, it goes to the state.I'm not sure, but attached is a snipping from my PayPal invoice for the sold bike parts. The winning bid was 195.16 in my case and as you can see they deducted taxes from my available total. And that's not counting the final value fee I've been assed from eBay of $19 that I have to pay next week. I avoid buying or selling anything on eBay unless it absolutely cannot be helped.
Yep. after the Wayfair case, the floodgates had opened and more and more states quickly started passing legislature forcing the internet transaction facilitators (eBay, Amazon, Newegg marketplace - any platform that "facilitates" transactions) to collect taxes on sellers behalf.
Some states, like NY, have gone even further and now force any online retailer that does more than $10,000 in sales to the residents of NYS to pay taxes to the state of NY. Hence why some smaller sellers can still ship "tax free" and others don't. I say "tax free" because it was never tax free: there is a question on state tax returns that asks if you've made any out of state purchases that you did not pay tax on. The filer was supposed to self-report and pay taxes. Few did, as you can imagine...
Before this, Amazon, for example, only had to charge taxes in states where they had physical presence. CA, of course, and NY came not long after as soon as AZ opened some offices there.
But, the whole "tax free" internet purchase thing was bound to end sooner or later. I'm surprised it even lasted as long as it did, to be honest.
I dunno, I very rarely use eBay. Why does my eBay page list the winning bid at 195.16 then? Did they just calculate the tax based on whatever the winning bid was before the buyer paid for the item?They collected the tax from the buyer when the item sold (looking like it went to you).. and then they collected that same exact amount from you. The tax doesn't actually get payed to you, it goes to the state.
eBay did NOT charge you sales tax.
And the winning bid was NOT 195.16. That was the total paid by the buyer not including tax and shipping.
I'm gonna guess a glitch. 195.16 is the total the buyer paid. Of that, $14.99 was for shipping and $10.17 for tax that eBay collected on your behalf. Winning bid was $170 (195.16-14.99-10.17)I dunno, I very rarely use eBay. Why does my eBay page list the winning bid at 195.16 then? Did they just calculate the tax based on whatever the winning bid was before the buyer paid for the item?
It should be illegal for adults not to be able to do relatively simple multiplication in their head before they buy something.It should be illegal to show a price without the tax included; not just eBay, but anywhere.
It's not hard to make that work, they have your account if you're able to bid, and your address is part of your account. At the very least, it should say what you just wrote somewhere ... anywhere on the screen when you bid and have a demo tax rate/price included. But no, it's deceptively excluded on purpose as a gotcha.It's simple, sales tax is paid by the buyer, to their local Gov't. So for eBay to include this in the price it would be wrong for everyone, unless you told eBay what region you were from.
Your edgy "I'm so good at math" response is just ridiculous. Of course I know math, I can do that calculation instantly; I'm a programmer. For me, it's not just relatively simple multiplication, it's effortless. The fact that places are actively hiding what rules even apply for a given purchase, is a the problem. But lets say someone who doesn't know math, like a teenager wants to buy stuff; why do you need to deceive them?It should be illegal for adults not to be able to do relatively simple multiplication in their head before they buy something.
Thing is.. eBay used to not charge fees on the shipping. That led to people gaming the system by posting stuff for like $1.00 and then charging the rest as "shipping and handling".I don't have a problem with eCommerce sites charging sales tax - I don't want businesses in my state to be at a disadvantage. I do have a bit of an issue with taxing used items - I only sell a few items per year on eBay so it should be pretty obvious I'm not running a business on eBay. I agree with the classified ad analogy.
What really gets me with eBay is that the final value fee eBay collects is based on the total including tax and shipping. I find this absurd. Say you sell an item for $100, shipping is $10, and the buyer lives in a state with 10% sales tax. eBay will collect 10% of $120, not 10% of $100. It's incredibly disingenuous.
I sold a CPU on eBay last month. Final value was $407, shipping was $8. eBay took $55 - 13.5% of the final value. Part of this is that they now process their own payments, so there's a payment fee. Then they took 10% of the final value, shipping, and tax. F&^% eBay.
I figure when we're all 85, we'll get this surprise bill for billions of dollars in back taxes, fees and penalties.
I was always disappointed by this.
If it is a store, that is one thing, but for used items sold between individuals, not as a business it makes no sense at all.
eBay is the modern version of classified pages. Since when has selling something used in classifieds been subject to taxes? (except maybe for cars, where sales taxes are typically - depending on state - due when you register them)
I'm not usually one to complain about taxes. I view them as a necessary evil that pays for things we need in society, but in this case the item has already been taxed once when I bought it. Taxing it again when I sell it to someone else seems like double dipping, and just plain wrong.
All of that said, I gave up selling on eBay years ago. Between eBay and Paypal fees they were just taking too much of a chunk of the sales price to make it worth it. I sell things locally on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace, or in places like the [H] classifieds these days. It makes me a lot less angry.
That's a pretty good sign that the keys are completely legit. You might as well get a key generator yourself and skip the payment.
The problem here is ebay is running a business and does make a profit. Fine, then why not charge sales tax on the profit margin? If you sell a $100 item and ebay's profits are $10, you should get charged sales tax on the $10 profit margin.
I don't sell on eBay anymore after I got scammed selling a hi-end MiniDisc recorder I got the buyers broken POS (not even an ES Model) back and I had to pay to even get the wrong item back! I only buy stuff there now
Probably the danger of being scammed by the seller outweighed the risk of a buyer scamming though. 99,9% of my Ebay purchases have been positive.Yep, ebay is a shitshow. I was burned twice by idiot buyers and I will never sell anything there again.
Ebay's original purpose was to be an online marketplace for individuals to sell things, sort of like a consignment shop but online. 10-12 years ago this rapidly morphed into what Ebay is today, an online storefront of mega sellers that list thousands of items. They've progressively implemented policies that have effectively eliminated small sellers. Sellers today have no rights or protections on their platform, so if something goes wrong, like the buyer is a scam artist, there's basically nothing you can do.
I've seen a steady decline in individual small sellers over the years on Ebay, which has rapidly accelerated over the last year due to covid. It will probably never recover because there is no incentive to sell on Ebay with other markets available.
Probably the danger of being scammed by the seller outweighed the risk of a buyer scamming though. 99,9% of my Ebay purchases have been positive.