Most small sellers here are not registered to collect or remit any taxes.
Instead ,and this maybe new since you last sold here, eBay does this for almost all taxing entities.
Which is why you paid Canadian taxes on purchases from American sellers.
The law started in the USA about four years ago, and last year here in Canada.
But as a seller you have no concerns.
You don't need to be a Business. You don't need to collect or remit taxes.
EBay will include your buyer's sales taxes in their invoice and when the customer pays the WHOLE payment including selling price, shipping costs, and those taxes will be subject to the Final Value Fees eBay collects.
There is a silly fuss about this, easiest solved by thinking of the calculation, collection and remittance of taxes to over 100 taxing entities in North America as a service and the part of the FVF covering those taxes as a service charge
Because you don' t know what sales tax is in New York City which has not only state taxes but also borough taxes .
The Business Number Revenue Canada wanted was your GST number. You are not registered to collect and you don't have to be registered to sell. The request has nothing to do with your eBay account.
Mostly Revenue Canada wanted to make sure that you were not charging but not remitting taxes, and that you were claiming all the deductions you were eligible for.
Now.
What you should be concerned about is that you have set up a Managed Payments account so that eBay can transfer your customer payments to your chequing account.
You will be asked for government ID. Your SIN is requested, but you don't need to use that. I used my passport and DH used his driving license. You will also need a checking account with a Canadian bank.
Don't try to use Tangerine-- long story, but don't.
