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Buyer Wasn't Charged Sales Tax - Why Not?
Summary: nostalgicaftertaste expressed confusion about a sales tax issue where a buyer did not pay the required 13% tax for an Ontario purchase, despite the seller's listings being configured to charge tax. They suspected the buyer might have a tax exemption, although it's usually limited to certain US accounts. grooviest shared a similar experience buying from the USA, where taxes weren't charged upfront, leading to additional costs upon delivery. marnotom! clarified that digital marketplaces like eBay are only required to collect taxes for sales within Canada, and international shipping might result in taxes due upon delivery. kh-phdan informed participants of the thread's closure due to age, suggesting new threads for further discussion.
A buyer purchased an item yesterday, and although I have all my listings configured to charge sales tax, somehow they didn't pay what should have been a 13% tax rate for Ontario. Only the base price is what they paid for.
When I received the notification, I immediately thought that perhaps I made a mistake in the listing somehow, since it's an older one that was created prior to when I started collecting sales tax. However, I checked the back-end again and saw that the sales tax box is indeed checked off, and under Shipping & Payments, it does indicate that I collect sales tax depending on the province.
I further tested it out by adding another stock and attempting to check out in incognito mode as a guest, and sure enough, tax is displayed after entering my information.
I'm confused as to what possible explanation there could be for this discrepancy. The only thing I could think of is that perhaps the buyer has a tax exemption on their account, but to my knowledge that only applies to certain US accounts that are eligible for this status in some states.
Has anyone who charges tax ever had this happen before? Any idea what could have caused this? Thought I'd ask this helpful community before contacting the short-staffed Customer Service team. Thanks!
kh-phdan
·2 years agoHello Everyone,
Due to the age of the thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue discussing this topic.
Thanks for your understanding!
grooviest
·2 years agoI am in Canada. I bought an item from the USA. They did not charge me the tax at check out so I had to pay the tax at the door and a handling fee on the tax !!!!! of $6 and tax on the handling fee. Ebay you need to ensure all international orders are charged the tax at check out to prevent this cartwheel of CDN tax. It appears to be a glitch in the ebay Global Shipping thingamagoo.
marnotom!
·2 years agoIt's not a glitch, @grooviest. Digital marketplaces such as eBay are currently only required by law to charge and collect taxes on sales from Canadian sellers to Canadian buyers. If you purchase an item that's forwarded through eBay International Shipping (the successor to the Global Shipping Program that you posted about a few years ago), it varies according to the nature of the item, its value, and the carrier assigned to get the item to your door.
If you were to buy from a seller who didn't use eIS, you'd likely have to pay taxes owing at the door, after the fact, or before receiving your item, depending on the carrier used, and the handling fee could be pretty steep depending on the carrier and the item's value.
FYI: This thread is quite old and it's usually better to start a new thread than tack onto one that's only slightly related to your concern. Expect this one to get locked by a moderator in due course.