eBay

tch_ca · ‎06-27-2022

I'm currently an HST/GST registered seller (not this account). Ebay has my BIN and HST#. I collect Canadian tax across all provinces. I never received the form, I've sent numerous emails to CanadaGST/PST@ebay.com requesting one without ANY response. Finally after 45 minutes (because no one there knew what was going on) on chat I was given a link to the form. I filled it out and sent the form to the above email. Because of the lack of respose from the previous emails, I requested an ackoledgement but never received one. There is no messing with the CRA, the tax eBay will be collecting on MY behalf is an ITC for my CRA registered buisnersses. I'd really like to know that eBay has put in place appropriate mechanisms in place for this no not become a total s***t show. I pay thousands of dollars in fees to eBay every year, when will eBay start providing its clients some sort of coherent service??????? You guys put this in place, how about supporting it properly!!! Get it together!!!

marnotom! · ‎06-27-2022

I don’t understand the statement “you guys put it in place.”

E-commerce intermediaries such as eBay are collecting and remitting taxes on transactions going through their site not for funsies, but because the CRA now requires them to do so.

This requirement actually took effect last July, but intermediaries had a year to comply. I’m confident that eBay worked pretty closely with the CRA during much of this time and will continue to do so in the event of problems when this procedure is rolled out.

The hypothesis in place as to why some sellers collecting GST/HST did not receive the form is that these sellers do not use tax tables to charge the taxes as separate line items but, rather, fold the taxes into their selling prices. Nothing wrong with doing that, of course, but it just meant that these sellers inadvertently got overlooked when it came to emailing the link to the Revenue Canada/Québec form.

Is the link the same as the one that’s been mentioned on the discussion boards a few times already?

tch_ca · ‎06-27-2022

I appreciate your stance as the defeneder af all eBay. You found a new mission in life, Great!....However, no matter how you slice it, this is a botched operation. A year was more than enough time to get this right. The assumption that ebay worked closely with the CRA is also highly unlikely. The more likely scenario is that the CRA provided eBay with guidelines and gave them a date. And finally, I run tax tables and my taxes are not included in the prices and I AS MANY OTHERS did not receive the forms via email nor have I received a single reesponse from that email. Worse yet, NO ONE in any of the support groups knows what's going on.

Cheers!

ricarmic · ‎06-27-2022

This is another what can/'t we change scenario.

We can't change the fact that the government is forcing eBay to implement this.

We can't change the fact that eBay is a very large company with a very large application and changes like this may seem small but they aren't. As with any of the large eBay changes we've survived in the last few years there are going to be problems.

I was also one of the missed folks, and I managed to get the form (from another board poster) and send it in on June 2nd, also with a request for acknowledgement, which has not yet happened for me either.

So given I can't stop the changeover, my plan, as I've done with the other big changes is to figure out how to survive this change as well. My plan is to document what does/n't happen so I can present that to the CRA if the day ever comes that they audit me regarding it. There's lots of pre implementation stuff that supports what's happening, as long as the reporting happens as it is supposed to we'll also likely have sufficient documentation in the event of an audit that we did our part.

As well, I'll continue to pursue getting the filled out form back etc.

Of course I'll be keeping my eyes open here to see what other options arise to move things forward too, these boards are a life saver in situations like this.

femmefan1946 · ‎06-27-2022

So if a seller needs the form and eBay isn't supplying it, some boardies who do have it can send a copy to those who don't ?

Via Messages?

Or just post it here ?

ricarmic · ‎06-27-2022

It was posted in early June by @regs43 in response to my note that I hadn't gotten it in the seller central board.

Here is the thread, it is currently message 40 of 42. It has the link and the email address.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/eBay-will-start-collecting-taxes-on-our-behalf-effective...

marnotom! · ‎06-27-2022

@ricarmic wrote:

Here is the thread, it is currently message 40 of 42. It has the link and the email address.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/eBay-will-start-collecting-taxes-on-our-behalf-effective...

I don't see the link or the email address in the messages you referenced, but the link and the email address were posted early in the thread by @regs43 in message 3, and that message number shouldn't change at this point.

ricarmic · ‎06-27-2022

@marnotom! Hmm it looks like we have our items in reverse order, going from oldest to newest it is #3, mine is sorted by newest to oldest. My order isn't as good because if #43 comes along it will be mumber #41 of 43 my way....

marnotom! · ‎06-27-2022

@ricarmic wrote:

@marnotom! Hmm it looks like we have our items in reverse order, going from oldest to newest it is #3, mine is sorted by newest to oldest. My order isn't as good because if #43 comes along it will be mumber #41 of 43 my way....

Ah, right. I forgot that threads could be arranged either way now. I guess I'm a chronological kinda guy. 😋

The "jump to last post read" function (or whatever it's called) is working now, too. I think @pjcdn2005 pointed out a few months ago that it wasn't.

tch_ca · ‎06-28-2022

That's all fine as long as eBay provides some sort of coherent reporting what it collected from a seller's sales. The concern is that (I might be wrong on this) I read somewhere that eBay will only be providing tax reports to seller's who have registered for HST/GST/QST. Since I never received an acknowledgement of receipt, its a potential problem. And before the "yay eBay" comittee responds with "you can always calculate your own", its not the point peeps.....

ricarmic · ‎06-28-2022

The good news is that the transactional reports today show the eBay collected taxes, (as in IST, VAT etc) so theoretically the GST/HST won't be any different reporting wise.

The announcement documentation says that specialized reporting will be provided GST/HST specific, but if that isn't the case in a disaster scenario one can still just sort the downloaded transactional spreadsheet to add up the GST/HST as proof to CRA if ever that is necessary.

As long as I have a "back up plan" I'm less nervous.....

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎06-28-2022

@ricarmic wrote:
The good news is that the transactional reports today show the eBay collected taxes, (as in IST, VAT etc) so theoretically the GST/HST won't be any different reporting wise.

The announcement documentation says that specialized reporting will be provided GST/HST specific, but if that isn't the case in a disaster scenario one can still just sort the downloaded transactional spreadsheet to add up the GST/HST as proof to CRA if ever that is necessary.

As long as I have a "back up plan" I'm less nervous.....

According to post 175 (June 15) from the original eBay created discussion on our tax questions with answers should have been compiled by now. In reviewing that discussion, majority of questions were NEVER answered. This rolls out in a couple of days. Not really a good way to leave something in total limbo that will be very critical to Canadian sellers and will affect each seller to different extents. All relevant questions need to be addressed in a proper faq. There doesn't even appear to be an official dot ca announcement on the subject.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Canadian-Sales-Tax/Canadian-Sales-Taxes-Questions/td-p/478117/page/9

-Lotz

marnotom! · ‎06-28-2022

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
According to post 175 (June 15) from the original eBay created discussion on our tax questions with answers should have been compiled by now. In reviewing that discussion, majority of questions were NEVER answered. This rolls out in a couple of days. Not really a good way to leave something in total limbo that will be very critical to Canadian sellers and will affect each seller to different extents. All relevant questions need to be addressed in a proper faq. There doesn't even appear to be an official dot ca announcement on the subject.

The fact that this had to be rolled out just after we lost a very experienced (at least when it came to handling Canadian matters) board liason probably put a big monkey wrench into things, but I agree that one of the first orders of business should have been a FAQ page that came out at the same time as the announcement. I wouldn't be surprised if more of the work on preparing for this change has been done by American eBay staff rather than the small handful of staff that's eBay Canada.

Having said that, I think it's hyperbolic to say that the "majority" of serious questions about this have gone unanswered. While I'm pretty sure the handful of questions about the "quick method" haven't been addressed, I can't think of any other questions that haven't already been asked that require a response.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎06-28-2022

@marnotom! wrote:
@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
According to post 175 (June 15) from the original eBay created discussion on our tax questions with answers should have been compiled by now. In reviewing that discussion, majority of questions were NEVER answered. This rolls out in a couple of days. Not really a good way to leave something in total limbo that will be very critical to Canadian sellers and will affect each seller to different extents. All relevant questions need to be addressed in a proper faq. There doesn't even appear to be an official dot ca announcement on the subject.
The fact that this had to be rolled out just after we lost a very experienced (at least when it came to handling Canadian matters) board liason probably put a big monkey wrench into things, but I agree that one of the first orders of business should have been a FAQ page that came out at the same time as the announcement. I wouldn't be surprised if more of the work on preparing for this change has been done by American eBay staff rather than the small handful of staff that's eBay Canada.

Having said that, I think it's hyperbolic to say that the "majority" of serious questions about this have gone unanswered. While I'm pretty sure the handful of questions about the "quick method" haven't been addressed, I can't think of any other questions that haven't already been asked that require a response.

Just would have been more professional if they had their ducks in a row. it doesn't seem like they do. As for the answers it would be better if they were official rather than Canadian sellers having to play a major guessing game with interpretation of what eBay is going to do. Something this important needs to roll out smoothly...not kinda okay?

-Lotz

marnotom! · ‎06-28-2022

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
Just would have been more professional if they had their ducks in a row. it doesn't seem like they do. As for the answers it would be better if they were official rather than Canadian sellers having to play a major guessing game with interpretation of what eBay is going to do. Something this important needs to roll out smoothly...not kinda okay?

In your eighteen-plus years on eBay, Lotz, how often has a new initiative on eBay rolled out smoothly? 🤪

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎06-28-2022

@marnotom! wrote:
@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
Just would have been more professional if they had their ducks in a row. it doesn't seem like they do. As for the answers it would be better if they were official rather than Canadian sellers having to play a major guessing game with interpretation of what eBay is going to do. Something this important needs to roll out smoothly...not kinda okay?
In your eighteen-plus years on eBay, Lotz, how often has a new initiative on eBay rolled out smoothly? 🤪

The cobwebs of my mind would catch fire trying to remember that when!!! Nothing wrong with trying to be optimistic!!! But a refuse to defend poor rollouts!!

-Lotz

sabresoftware · ‎07-02-2022

As a private individual selling a few used personal items, these sales are not GST/HST taxable. eBay is adding GST/HST to the invoice. I imagine that most Canadian buyers buying a used item will not be amused with this.

Also to add insult to injury, when you use the eBay option to ship an item, the shipping cost which already includes GST/HST is also being fully taxed for GST/HST, so a double dip on the taxes.

The upshot of all this will quite possibly include trouble with CRA (double dipping for sure), maybe a few lawsuits, and probably lost Canadian eBay members who will drop eBay.

I also have a problem with eBay's shipping service as the shipping price that gets added to my items when I create the listing is often less than the actual shipping cost when I go to actually ship the item, making me look like an idiot.

Just sold an item today and anticipate an angry email from the buyer when he sees the invoice.

marnotom! · ‎07-02-2022

@sabresoftware wrote:

As a private individual selling a few used personal items, these sales are not GST/HST taxable. eBay is adding GST/HST to the invoice. I imagine that most Canadian buyers buying a used item will not be amused with this.

They probably won't be amused, but they'll also be part of a massive education campaign as used items are not exempt from taxes. Have you purchased a used car lately, for example?

@sabresoftware wrote:

Also to add insult to injury, when you use the eBay option to ship an item, the shipping cost which already includes GST/HST is also being fully taxed for GST/HST, so a double dip on the taxes.

It's not a double-dip for GST-registered sellers who claim the GST they paid as an ITC.

@sabresoftware wrote:

I also have a problem with eBay's shipping service as the shipping price that gets added to my items when I create the listing is often less than the actual shipping cost when I go to actually ship the item, making me look like an idiot.

Do you mean "shipping service" or "shipping calculator"? I think you mean the latter. Are you measuring and weighing your items accurately using metric measurements? Are your measurements and weights the same as what the counter clerk comes up with when you send your items off?