Beware of refunds

[2756anderson]

Not only is the seller due back what they paid for the item, shipping, etc., but you are on the hook for the TAXES now being charged by Ebay directly, as opposed when the seller receives them.  California is a good case in point.

[esclyons]

Ebay doesn't charge tax on any items sold.   Seller's charge tax..  If you charge tax as a seller, and you have to do a refund of course you would have to refund everything including any taxes you charged.

Ebay charges seller's in Canada, taxes on listing fees, final value fees, and store subscriptions, but none of that has anything to do with refund amounts..

[pjcdn2005]

Are you speaking as a seller or buyer?  Why would California tax affect you in any way?

[reallynicestamps]

of course you would have to refund everything including any taxes you charged.

If the seller is charging taxes, he is remitting them to Revenue Canada and the provincial authority monthly.

He gets a small rebate on the amount collected for doing this, by the way.

When he calculates the amount to remit, he would take the total sales within Canada /his own province, NOT those for other jurisdictions, and calculate the amount to remit from that total.

The total sales in a month would not include refunded sales, although the refund might not appear in the same fiscal period as the remittance.

The number of midnight runs to the dropbox outside Revenue Canada on St Laurent Blve I've made cannot be calculated.

[melissasminis]

Yes we know we pay tax on items sold and on our subscription fees. When you refund a buyer, is the tax amount refunded as well?

[recped]

If you mean for a full refund for a Not Received or Not As Described claim the answer is yes.

If you mean the GST/HST on fees then yes if eBay returns any fees to you they will also refund the associated GST/HST.

If it's a partial refund issued using the refund button in PayPal the answer is no, the most common thing here would be a shipping discount, the buyer doesn't specifically get back any taxes they paid and since eBay isn't refunding any fees there is nothing for them to give back.

[zee-chan]

When you return something non-perishable to the grocery store etc, you get everything refunded, including the tax. Why would it be different at eBay?

[reallynicestamps]

@recped  said:

If it's a partial refund issued using the refund button in PayPal the answer is no, the most common thing here would be a shipping discount, the buyer doesn't specifically get back any taxes they paid

BUT

There is nothing that says your partial refund should not take the taxes into account.

If your partial refund is going to be $10, but you know you won't be getting back $1.50 in GST/HST, it's up to you to decide if the refund should be the $10 or only $ 8.50.

And remember, if you bought your shipping label for the purchase through eBay/PP/Shippo/SnapShip, you got a discount on that too.

What you lose on the roundabouts, you make up on the coconuts.