GST - 2022

[junior_high]

I am a small Canadian seller that dropships items to customers mainly in the U.S. and internationally, with a few Canadian customers as well.

I just contacted eBay today, and they said that they automatically charge the taxes, depending on the country the customer lives in.

My question is this - is eBay remitting this to the Canada Tax Revenue Agency, or do we? 

Also, where can I find a report on eBay that summarize how much GST (and possibly provincial sales tax) was collected by eBay? 

Thanks in advance for your help with this.  

[junior_high]

I couldn't see a way to edit my question. I should clarify a bit....does eBay remit the GST (collected from Canadian customers) to the CRA? And if they don't, where do I find a summary of the GST that was collected and what I need to pay the CRA?

[marnotom!]

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@junior_high wrote:

I just contacted eBay today, and they said that they automatically charge the taxes, depending on the country the customer lives in.

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The boldface part is the part that's important.  eBay charges and collects tax on purchases automatically for a number of countries/regions, including the United States, the EU and Australia, but not for Canada.

[junior_high]

Thanks.  Where is that stated in their policies?  It's so confusing. 

[reallynicestamps]

A reminder, do NOT charge taxes unless you are registered to remit charges.

This includes registering to collect and remit GST and HST/PST/QST as applicable in your province. Most provinces don't want you to register until you are selling over $30,000 annually because it would cost more to process your tiny monthly payment than you could collect.

You only have a few minutes to edit replies. But click on the little arrow above  the timestamp at the top left of your post.

[junior_high]

Yes, I hit that mark last year (not with eBay, but in general with my whole online business).  That's why I had to get a GST number - notified by CRA.

[ypdc_dennis]

For the time being (subject to change):

ebay collects sales tax where required by law: most USA states, the EU, the UK, Australia (under $1000AU) and a handful of other countries. ebay collects and pays to the state/country, seller is not involved with the money flow.

If you are registered to collect GST, you supply your number to ebay and set up the tax table(s) for your Canadian sales.  When a Canadian sale is made, ebay will collect the sales tax (as specified in your listing) from the buyer and then pay the tax collected to you. You file with the government.

Do not forget to keep track of any Canadian sales tax you pay for products/services for your sales as this is deductible from the what you owe the government (if you have a lot of out-of-country sales you may get GST money refunded).

-;-

[biglittleape]

So when you did your taxes last year CRA asked you to get a tax number?  Did they make you pay the taxes you should have collected out of your pocket?

I just got a tax number myself, so I can start charging this year, and wondering if I shuld just pay out of my own pocket for the few Canadian sales I had last year before they start asking.  My Canadian sales are tiny compared to intrnational so I might be asked questions either way.

[junior_high]

As soon as I got my number, it became effective (so middle of the year).  

[junior_high]

And yes, they contacted me after I hit the threshold (from income tax filing).

[junior_high]

Do you know if there is a date in mind when eBay.ca will start collecting PST and GST and remitting it for us?  I thought that was supposed to come into effect soon.

[reallynicestamps]

The US Internet (state) Sales Tax is collected by eBay as a result of a US Supreme Court decision, which make the venue responsible for collecting and remitting taxes for their sellers, most of whom are too small to be required to do this themselves-- and of the 50 state, I think some 48 have state sales taxes to say nothing of county and city sales taxes.

And the taxes are charged to the buyer, even if the seller is in Canada or Norway or Kazakhistan.

Having eBay (and etsy, and Bonanza, and PoshMark, and eBid, etc) collect and remit these removes a huge burden from the eBay seller.

Of course, we do pay for that service. EBay charges the seller the same fee on the taxes they collect as they do on shipping and on sales.  TANSTAAFL.

The point being, that the Canadian Governments have not as yet made a ruling on this.

[junior_high]

Where do we see that fee reflected on our eBay reports (what you refer to in the second-last paragraph)?

[recped]

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@junior_high wrote:

Do you know if there is a date in mind when eBay.ca will start collecting PST and GST and remitting it for us?  I thought that was supposed to come into effect soon.

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There is no date and it's unlikely to ever happen.

The court case that decided the matter came as a result of a previous case in the 1970 (the Quill Decision) being overturned. If somebody in Canada decided they wanted to force a similar change you might start hearing about it in 2050.

One HUGE difference between the US and Canada, we have a Value Added Tax they have a Retail Sales Tax they operate completely differently.

[bepublic0]

Unfortunately as of July 1 2022 ebay will be reporting to the cra and collecting tax for sellers ebay is about to loose a huge amount of Canadian buyers and sellers

[recped]

@bepublic0 

Yeah I think it's a conspiracy by eBay and Justin to make me look bad!

That said I was right for a couple of months!

I had a similar foot in mouth experience in 2011 when I claimed that fees on shipping would never happen which is probably why this time I said "unlikely"!

[marnotom!]

@bepublic0, you do realize that eBay has been collecting and remitting applicable US sales taxes on your sales to US buyers, don’t you?

[zee-chan]

I bet @recped is hoping that the edit button still works after a few months 🤪

[bepublic0]

I don't ebay is trying to make me look bad .I think sometimes ebay employees are so accustom to following policy that they sometimes fail to see what is actually happening but sometimes you will find thoses employees that get it and understand how buyers abuse the return policy. Truth will win the day .

[reallynicestamps]

If you are talking to the phone reps, they don't work for eBay. They work for a sub-contractor in Utah.

The eBay employees are better trained and cover social media.


https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/ — Message button in upper right on landing page.
https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en



The GST/provincial sales taxes started being charged to our customers on July 1,2022.

Just as with the Internet (state) Sales Taxes our US customers have been paying for a couple of years, the Canadian taxes are processed through our customer payments and just as with our US customers, we are paying FVF on the ENTIRE payment.