eBay

velvet@ebay · ‎05-03-2022

Hi everyone –

We know you might have questions regarding the email you recently received about eBay Canada collecting Canada Sales Tax (GST/HST/QST/ PST) on behalf of our sellers. Please feel free to leave your questions and comments here and we’ll get them answered as soon as possible. Keep in mind there could be a delay as we check with internal teams to ensure we’re getting you the right answers to your questions.

Thanks for your patience!

flipistics · ‎05-25-2022

@mrdutch1001 wrote:
I hardly think driving to the post office to drop off packages and/or out scouting for items to resell equates to a reason for voiding one's insurance should there be an accident...LOL!

I don't know what the threshholds and requirements are for various companies, but when I asked mine was very specific in telling me that I would not be covered and had to get commercial insurance (which they did NOT offer), and I have a perfect driving record and had been with them for > 10 years. If yours does, great! I wasn't able to find any that did (although when I looked it was at the start of the pandemic and not all of them got back to me).

ricarmic · ‎05-25-2022

The problem isn't as likely if it is a small claim, it will be more likely if it is a large claim, that's when the companies start looking for reasons to not have to pay, so a trip to the PO becomes a problem if you run over someone on the way to the PO who's disabled for the rest of their lives and it generates a large claim. (Even things like driving without snow tires when you're saving the $30 a year because you told them you do type stuff is like this too, at least that's my perhaps incorrect understanding).

Hugh Wood Canada provides commercial insurance at least for collectibles type enterprises (like mine).

It is not cheap, and comes in two parts, one for the "liability" piece and one for the "stock" piece (I'm simplifying it a bit for brevity and as a rule of thumb you can figure in the range of $2,000 - $3,000 or more a year for both depending on your stock size but that is ONLY a rule of thumb in general across companies, so I understand).

If you google Hugh Wood Canada you'll get the link to their website.

flipistics · ‎05-25-2022

Yeah, I meant I couldn't find non-commercial insurance that would cover it. I ended up with Trushield which is underwritten by Northbridge and costs me about $1500 a year just for the car (but I have an old car and am in a rural area). I'll have to take a look at Hugh Wood, thank you.

I'm also curious if anyone has any experience with Zensurance. They have some interesting offerings that seem to be tailored to small businesses and sole proprietorships . They were unfortunately one of the ones that never got back to me at the start of the pandemic.

Sorry for hijacking the thread btw. That wasn't the intent.

cgphile · ‎05-28-2022

Hello,

Can you please tell me when ebay will be sending out the billing agent authorization form for me to complete?

And what is the CRA form number?

Thanks 🙂

-----

Edit: A reply to your question can be found here.

velvet@ebay · ‎05-30-2022

@cgphile wrote:

Hello,

Can you please tell me when ebay will be sending out the billing agent authorization form for me to complete?

And what is the CRA form number?

Thanks 🙂

Hi @cgphile! We've been told that communications are going out about this tomorrow. Stay tuned! 😊

sixtiescardspecialist · ‎05-31-2022

Since I'm a small supplier (under $30 K annually sales) how do I set up ebay so that they don't collect sales taxes from my customers? This $30K limit is defined by CRA as for 4 consequetive quarters. If you don't hit this limit, you don't have to charge these taxes nor collect and remit to Canadian government. Why does EBAY not make this clear as I suspect most suplliers are under this threshold?

sixtiescardspecialist · ‎05-31-2022

Again, trying to clarify. Will Ebay charge VAT taxes to my Canadian and American customers even though I am a small supplier as per Canadian tax law and should be charging these taxes to either?

ni-205356 · ‎05-31-2022

As a registered GST/HST seller I have received the PDF form that we must return to eBay.
Could you please answer the following questions, I am confident it will be of use to many others.

1. Is there a deadline by which the form must be signed and sent back to eBay?

2. What will happen to sell privileges of GST/HST registered eBay sellers that DO NOT sign and return the .PDF form?

3. Since eBay will start collecting GST, HST, PST, and QST taxes on behalf of ALL sellers does that mean that even though I am GST/HST registered seller I 'DO NOT HAVE TO REPORT' GST/HST taxes collected from eBay sales after July 1, 2022 to the CRA?

4. How will the Input Tax Credit work since eBay will be collecting GST/HST on my behalf?

marnotom! · ‎05-31-2022

@sixtiescardspecialist wrote:

Since I'm a small supplier (under $30 K annually sales) how do I set up ebay so that they don't collect sales taxes from my customers? This $30K limit is defined by CRA as for 4 consequetive quarters. If you don't hit this limit, you don't have to charge these taxes nor collect and remit to Canadian government. Why does EBAY not make this clear as I suspect most suplliers are under this threshold?

All sales from all sellers--GST/HST registered or not--will be subject to eBay charging buyers taxes and collecting them from their sales.

@sixtiescardspecialist wrote:

Again, trying to clarify. Will Ebay charge VAT taxes to my Canadian and American customers even though I am a small supplier as per Canadian tax law and should be charging these taxes to either?

Sales to most US buyers have been charged Internet Sales Tax (state sales tax and any relevant local sales taxes) for roughly two years now. Most of your sales to the US have US tax charges on them. If you sold to the EU, Australia, UK and a few other international destinations, your buyers from those locations would also have to pay taxes on your sales which eBay would collect and remit.

Anonymous · ‎05-31-2022

Im not totally understanding this completely regarding the form.
I understand it as if I'm not registered to collect tax I dont have a bussiness license (I'm selling my own movies) that I'm not required to fill out the form Ebay just will collect on behalf. Now here's my problem I'm on a disability pension and only allowed to earn so much a year (personal sales count apparently) will ebay tax me on shipping so now my net sales will look higher?? Any help thanks I'm seriously ready to throw in the towel.

ricarmic · ‎05-31-2022

I'm seeing that folks have received the form, I haven't yet, unless there's someplace I need to go looking for it.....

I'm not sure how they know who to send it to, if it is based on whether or not one has their tax tables set up, then I'm going to have been misssed because I've up until now, covered the taxes for Canadians and as a result don't have any tax tables set up. I can't imagine I'm the only one doing that but one never knows.

marnotom! · ‎05-31-2022

@Anonymous wrote:

Will ebay tax me on shipping so now my net sales will look higher?? Any help thanks I'm seriously ready to throw in the towel.

I'm not sure I'm understanding your question correctly, but I'll give answering it a shot. The taxes that are being introduced here are on the transaction and are the buyers' to pay. Sellers are charged taxes on the fees they pay to eBay. Among other things, the fees include a percentage of the total transaction value which would include any shipping amounts and taxes that were paid by the buyer.

Does that help at all?

snowbankcreek · ‎05-31-2022

So the form came today and there is NO place to enter my PST number. Once again the only tax i am obligated to collect AND obligated to remit quarterly and registered for is BC PST. My sales are under 30k so no GST number required. Also as most of my items ship to the USA and overseas so no GST/HST etc. is collected on my part. I still am not sure how the heck ebay is going to file my quarterly PST paperwork? Also if my total PST collected is under whatever the threshold is ($21 I think) then it's kept as a commission and added to my income. So if eBay is collecting the commission are they keeping it or sending it on to me? If GST is collected on my behalf what happens with that money as well since I am not registered or obligated to collect it.

This is a whole lot of confusion.

velvet@ebay

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flipistics · ‎05-31-2022

@snowbankcreek wrote:
So the form came today and there is NO place to enter my PST number. Once again the only tax i am obligated to collect AND obligated to remit quarterly and registered for is BC PST. My sales are under 30k so no GST number required. Also as most of my items ship to the USA and overseas so no GST/HST etc. is collected on my part. I still am not sure how the heck ebay is going to file my quarterly PST paperwork? Also if my total PST collected is under whatever the threshold is ($21 I think) then it's kept as a commission and added to my income. So if eBay is collecting the commission are they keeping it or sending it on to me? If GST is collected on my behalf what happens with that money as well since I am not registered or obligated to collect it.
This is a whole lot of confusion.

This is my understanding, so you should verify everything with an appropriate professional:

There is new legislation requiring all online marketplaces in Canada (that process payments) to collect and remit tax on sales within Canada. It doesn't matter whether the seller is over or under 30k. It doesn't matter whether or not the seller is registered to collect tax. It doesn't matter whether the goods are new or used. If you currently do not need a GST/PST number, you still won't need one.

eBay is taking over the collection and remission of all the taxes. They will be remitting it under their own tax numbers (I think). I believe they will be giving us a monthly statement showing the tax that was collected from our sales. We don't need to do anything with this except keep it as proof (if we're registered to collect tax) that taxes were in fact paid on the sales in the event we are ever audited. Sales to the USA will only be charged the appropriate USA taxes depending on the destination, the same as they are now. US buyers will not be charged Canadian taxes.

If you have a GST or HST number (maybe some of the provincial ones), you can get back the tax YOU pay for services the same as now (which has the added benefit of not double-taxing you and the buyer on shipping). When filing an HST return, you would then get 100% of the tax amount back you paid on those outlays rather than offsetting it with what you collect as happens now.

This is my understanding of it. I am not a tax professional. I hope that helps.

phc64 · ‎05-31-2022

Hello Velvet,

I have been an Ontario-based GST/HST registrant since 1993. Today I received the billing agent election form, and I have a couple of questions.

1. The form states "This form must be completed by a principal and the principal's agent in order to make a joint election to have the agent collect the GST/HST and the QST on supplies (not by auction) made by the agent on behalf of the prinicipal, and to have the agent report and remit those taxes to Revenue Quebec." (emphasis mine). I am at a loss to understand why this form authorizes you to remit all taxes you will collect on my behalf to Revenue Quebec instead of to the Canada Revenue Agency. Is it possible that I was erroneously sent the form intended for Quebec-based sellers?

2. In order to claim input tax credits, I intent to continue to file quarterly GST/HST returns. Currently, 100% of my sales are eBay sales. When reporting the sales amount on my GST/HST return, do I report the amount as nil or as the actual amount?

ricarmic · ‎06-01-2022

Hi velvet@ebay

I've still not received the billing agent notification form, and I'm strongly suspecting the "tool" used to identify who to send the forms to was whether a seller had their tax tables set up, which makes a lot of sense.

However because I've always covered the taxes for Canadian customers I never have had any tax tables set up, so I'm presuming this is why I've not been tagged to receive the form.

So my question is how or who can manually tag me as needing to be a recipient of the billing agent authorization forms?

I'll be surprised if I'm the only person in this situation, especially in my category (stamps) world I have to expect there are other businesses doing the same thing.

Anyway any help would be much appreciated!

pauwoz-66 · ‎06-01-2022

A few questions in regards to the changes:

1. Since eBay will be collecting and remitting the HST on the principal's behalf, will copies of the HST remittances be provided to the principal?

2. If the principal collects Input Tax Credits (ITCs) would an ammended HST return need to be prepared in order to claim these credits?

3. If a principal is on multiple selling platforms on which the princpial is responsible for collecting and remitting the HST, would an ammeded HST return need to be prepared in order to report the sales collected from other platforms?

Thank you.

toddmarde · ‎06-01-2022

Hello,

I am a seller based in QC and registered to sale taxes.

How will it work for the monthly report we currently have to fill on the government sites ?

We were preivously entering our sales figures for the month, taxes collected and taxes on intrants.

1- Will I still have to fill this report and if yes do I have to declare my eBay sales or eBay will already declare them? Don't want to double the numbers there.

2- How will I be able to get my credit on intrants?

Thanks,

Mat

janetbargainboutique · ‎06-01-2022

I wonder if eBay understands how taxation for a reseller work.

We, as registered resellers, pay tax to government when we purchase goods to resell and then collect that tax when we sell the same goods.

So, we have already paid the tax to government.

When we sell the item in eBAy, we ask the buyers to pay tax back to us. Then we OFFSET the collected tax from the buyer with the amount of tax that we originally paid.

As a rsulyt, we ,as reseller ,are not paying tax. Which is the way it should be. We are NOT users and we are not supposed to pay tax.

By the new unwise change that eBay is imposing, we will not be able to collect back that we originally paid.

It is a HUGE burden for re-sellers as for example in Ontario, we pay HST of 13% but we can not get it back from the buyers.

Other words, the cost of buying an item for us will rise 13% . If for example we bought an item for $500 plus HST for an amount of $565 , we could not get back that $65 anymore.

The matgin for selling on eBay is thin and eBAy alone take a big chunk of any money and now with this decision, it even increases our cost.

I tried to explain it understandably and hopefully and manager in eBAy will understand my point. If you deprived sellers like me from collecting back ,then I have no way other than leaving eBay.

fbijocko · ‎06-02-2022

Will seller's and buyer's who are tax exempt (Indian Status) be effected by the new taxation being implemented? If so this would be in violation of Canada's treaty rights with the Indigenous people. Part of those treaty rights I know of is products sold on a reservation are not taxed. So if a seller who lives on a reservation should not have tax on items sold seeing as product or item will be coming from a reservation.