Canadian sellers to be charged GST/HST/QST on all fees effective July 1 2017?

[snoopwiz]

As part of the Summer 2017 update, eBay has announced the following.   You will see all updates in the email they are sending.

Today, eBay announced changes that will impact Canadian residents and businesses who use eBay.

To better reflect how we manage and operate our platform in Canada, on July 1st, 2017 we will be changing the contracting party for Canadian residents and businesses from eBay International AG to eBay Canada Limited, a Canadian corporation.

As a result, eBay users residing in Canada will begin contracting with eBay Canada Limited. This change will impact these users' User Agreement, User Privacy Notice, Billing Agreement, and other agreements with eBay.

The new contracting entity, eBay Canada Limited, is subject to Canadian tax law. As a result, sales tax (GST/HST/QST) will be charged on eBay fees starting July 1st, 2017. The applicable sales tax rate will vary by province, which we will determined based on your registered eBay address. You should confirm that your registered address is correct. The current applicable tax rates are:

Province	Rate
Alberta (AB):	5.00%
British Columbia (BC):	5.00%
Manitoba (MB):	5.00%
New Brunswick (NB):	15.00%
Newfoundland and Labrador (NL):	15.00%
Northwest Territories (NT):	5.00%
Nova Scotia (NS):	15.00%
Nunavut (NU):	5.00%
Ontario (ON):	13.00%
Prince Edward Island (PE):	15.00%
Quebec (QC):	14.75%
Saskatchewan (SK):	5.00%
Yukon (YT):	5.00%

While the addition of GST/HST/QST on fees is new, eBay's prices will not change as a results of this legal entity change. Furthermore, you should see no interruption in your service as a result of this change, and you will not need to make any updates to your listings.

If you are a business user, we recommend that you consult with your tax advisor to understand your eligibility and the process for claiming an input tax credit on tax paid for services provided to your business.

[pjcdn2005]

Quebec is not an hst province so I believe that they will be charging you 5% on your selling fees, not 15%. Will someone please correct me if that's incorrect.

[pierrelebel]

Quebec is an HST province within QC.

It is a weird case.

If you sell to QC from outside QC, you generally charge only 5% GST on taxable services and products.

However, if CRA considers that eBay-Canada has a Quebec presence (French website may be a factor here), then they would have to collect/remit HST as if being from within QC.

Their announcement was clear: QC sellers will be subject to QC HST on eBay fees.

[pjcdn2005]

My mistake then. Thank you Pierre.

[cumos55]

Many that have come are not sure what to do.

The answer might be ---- Go to eBay  invoices  for the last 12 months.  Add up the fees for these 12 months.

Then calculate the tax for your province whether it be GST, HST  or QST.

Then ask yourself .... What next...

The biggest question .... Can I live with that tax.

The answer  are annual sales

less than $5,000

$5,000 to $10,000 or higher

Then  what becomes the second biggest question.... WHAT NEXT?

Many have decided to register to collect GST/HST   and QST if you live in Quebec.

and then What?  There is no right answer... It is each seller's choice... especially if annual income is  $5,000 or less... most likely much less than $5,000

Or can one live with the tax  and consider it the same as losing TRS status

This new eBay reality has really cased a stir......

[cumos55]

All of the tax collected by eBay is sent to CRA,  after ITC's are deducted.

This is like any other business in  Canada, registered to collect GST/HST

[fiaspice]

I'm not a "professional seller", I'm not gonna register a business (pay those fee) to get rid of some of my (and my mom's) stuff. It does seems like some province are only garged GTS and not PST, this is why I think it's not fair for the provinces that get charged both. I'm just gonna raise my prices to absob this, but this is just one step I didn't need. Math was never my forté so calculating 15% of 10% in "one shot" is hard. I wonder if ebay will have a calculator tool WITH the taxes acording to your province

[pierrelebel]

"Math was never my forté "

OK - On a lot you sell for $10.00, eBay charges fees of $1.00 and the government charges HST of $0.15 (on the fee)

That is it = you will pay an extra $0.15 in tax for a $10.00 lot.

So if you raise your price by 1.5% (one and half percent) that should cover the tax on fees.

[3islanders]

---

@ricarmic wrote:

Remembering that I sell on .COM and my target is folks in the USA.

---

So do you still have to pay GST on your fees, because you live in Canada, or are you billed without tax because you list on .com?

Sorry if this has been answered already; I didn't see it.

Wherever one's target market is, do you think it's an advantage to list on .com?

Just curious.

[3islanders]

---

@3islanders wrote:

---

@ricarmic wrote:

Remembering that I sell on .COM and my target is folks in the USA.

---

So do you still have to pay GST on your fees, because you live in Canada, or are you billed without tax because you list on .com?

Sorry if this has been answered already; I didn't see it.

Wherever one's target market is, do you think it's an advantage to list on .com?

Just curious.

---

Oops... looks like you can't edit your posts, so, I was going to add, after looking at it again, that maybe my question is already answered; if "eBay Canada Limited will become the contracting party for Canadian residents and businesses", then it looks like you'll get billed with tax anyway...?

[pierrelebel]

"So do you still have to pay GST on your fees, because you live in Canada, or are you billed without tax because you list on .com?"

ALL Canadian sellers will be charged GST or HST by the federal government and billed through eBay.  It does not matter if they list on eBay.ca or eBay.com

Sellers who are GST/HST registered get 100% of the tax back through ITCs when they file their GST/HST returns

Sellers who are not registered with GST/HST will absorb the tax as another cost of doing business.

[tobyshitzu]

Its based only on what address you have under "registration address" (there are 4 separate areas to put an address in your account).  What site its listed on, what address you have for a shipping location address nor anything else matter.

[cumos55]

Each seller has a registration address.... a main contact address.

Some sellers might consider using a US address as a Registration Address.... to escape Canadian taxes

Not an advisable action  because you might face double taxation on your business....  then the IRS in the US and CRA in Canada will both be looking at you very carefully.

Stay in Canada, learn to live with the many realities of living  in Canada, and you will not get Trumped  if you move to the US,  with only a US address  creating a major headache.

[wvoss3454]

Hello, long time listener, first time caller

Ebay itself gives detailed information on how to wipe out your account and erase your tracks.  This tells me that there is some bad joojoo afoot.

The article mentions how to change your email addy before you quit ebay so that your history will change to that addy. Leading nowhere.

How far back will they go?  Canada is in love with retroactive taxation, but not so much in retro reparations.  Customs are so small that they could only drop fees on an nth of the mail going through. Now I wonder if they will collect the taxes like UPS does and keeps the money, or if they will actually lay money on revenue canada

[wvoss3454]

I joined ebay back in 02 and have had the same id for that long.
when I first joined, you could buy an mp40 no questions asked
The mentality was 'you can't sue the gymnasium because someone in the flea market was selling something inappropriate'

[pierrelebel]

wvoss3454 "Now I wonder if they will collect the taxes like UPS does and keeps the money, or if they will actually lay money on revenue canada"

I suggest you be more careful when making accusation of tax fraud on a public forum.

UPS remits tax collected on a monthly basis.  To make a claim to the contrary without evidence may be subject to a libel case against you.

eBay also remits taxes collected on a monthly basis.

[amcdc79]

I have no problem paying GST/HST on the fees that ebay charges us. That said, I do wonder when they are actually assessed.

Since all sellers are billed monthly, why can't ebay, add up all the fees for the month, and then add the applicable tax on top when we are billed?

When we purchase multiple GST items at a grocery store, the tax is added to the total of the cost of said items.

Is it because it's a service, and not a goods thing? 

Please forgive me if it's been asked, and answered before, and Tia.

[ypdc_dennis]

---

@amcdc79 wrote:

... I do wonder when they are actually assessed.

Since all sellers are billed monthly, why can't ebay, add up all the fees for the month, and then add the applicable tax on top when we are billed?

---

The eBay fees are charged as you go and billed monthly. eBay is on the hook for the tax when the fee is charged (even if you never pay).

The grocery stores I go to charge when buying stuff and assess tax immediately on the transaction (which is the entire bill as you checkout). They do not wait until the end of the month to add up all my visits and then ask for tax and payment.

...

It also keeps eBay's accounting simple -- since sellers do not list just on ,CA in Canadian -- they also list on other sites with exchange rates involved.  And transaction fees can end up getting refunded -- so best to treat separately to avoid errors.

-..-

[irepressed]

Just sold an item on eBay, my first in the past 10 years.

My account was initially created about 20 years ago, I had sold items in the past, and obviously bought some too, but nothing recently.

This time, I got charged taxes at a rate of 14.975% on my sale since I live in QC.

The problem I'm having is that the invoice that I got is in US dollars, even if I sold my item from Canada, and sold it on ebay.ca to another Canadian.
Because my account was created a while back when eBay Canada did not exist, even if I had been using ebay.ca right after its creation, my account was supposedly still set to US dollars, which was the default back in the days.  

I contacted ebay since the invoice amount was wrong, they were able to convert my account to CAD$ (had an error on my end telling me to contact their customer service) but they couldn't do anything about the current invoice in US$, I still need to pay it.

It's not such a big amount, I just don't understand why I should be charged 15% Canadian tax rate on an invoice calculated in US dollars.

By converting the final amount, my sale fees came up at about 13% and eBay says they can't do anything about it.

Does that sound right? Has any of you ever had this issue in the past?

Thanks for any info anyone can provide.

[recped]

The currency of the invoice is irrelevant, eBay are registered to collect GST for services provided to Canadians, what currency the billing is done in doesn't matter.

Interesting that the change billing currency bug is still around (must be done manually), it's been around for years but at least customer service makes it a painless and quick call (at least they did for me).

[pjcdn2005]

 You are registered in Canada so you are taxed on the fees regardless of which currency you choose to be invoiced in. I'm also billed in $US but if you are listing in $Cdn it makes sense to change your billing to Canadian dollars. But for the transaction that you are referring to, you should end up paying the same whether you are billed in US or Cdn $.

For example, if you are billed in Cdn currency and your item sold for C$100 your fvf would be C$10 + 14.975% tax for a total of about C$11.50.

If you were billed in US currency it should work like this.  C$100 x 10% = C$10  That amount gets converted to $US,   C$10 x .787 = US$7.87   (using xe.com rates just for the example) 

The tax gets added to that so US $7.87 x 14.975% = US$1.18  Your total fees with tax would be US$7.87 + 1.18 = US$9.05

 If you were to convert that amount back to Canadian - US$9.05 x 1.27% = C $11.50 

(1.27% is the xe rate for US to Cdn)

I haven't double checked my math so I apologize in advance if I goofed up somewhere along the line.