Trumps 25% tarrif - will it affect eBay sellers
Summary: Participants are discussing the potential impact of a proposed 25% tariff by Donald Trump on goods imported to the USA, specifically in relation to eBay sales. rosscd57 raised the question about eBay's compliance, with some participants noting that while eBay handles state sales taxes, tariffs involve different regulations and would require more clarity and potentially new laws. There is uncertainty about the future of the de minimis exemption, which currently allows imports under $800 to enter duty-free, and how its removal could affect small shipments commonly associated with eBay sales. Some participants, like marnotom! and ypdc_dennis, emphasized that precise outcomes are unclear until detailed policies are announced. Others, like prome6926, are concerned about how these changes will affect cross-border trading practices, especially for Canadian sellers shipping to the US. There is speculation and concern that current systems may not be able to handle increased tariff processing, potentially leading to delays and increased costs for sellers and buyers alike.
So here is an interesting question. If Donald Trump imposes a 25% tarrif on all goods exported to the USA, will eBay have to comply and have US buyers pay the tarrif if they purchase from a Canadian seller?
carsnplants
·1 year agoSome news outlets are reporting that the de minimis loophole is being eliminated:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/01/politics/mexico-canada-china-tariffs-trump/index.html
recped
·1 year agoIn the three Executive Orders Trump signed on Saturday related to Canada, Mexico & China all explicitly stated that the di minimis exemption would be reduced to $0.00 (that's ZERO).
It's a mute point now and for at least the next 30 days.
sin-n-dex
·1 year agoStallion and Chit Chats are not telling us anything about not being able to ship, in fact their message was telling us shipping is back on. So I'm paying not too much attention to the order because it's paused for 30 days, which I assume is pausing the entire exective order, not just selected parts of it.
Anyway I'm not taking my 30 days for granted, I'm going to do my best to sell stuff and keep my fingers crossed that my customers haven't all abandonned me over this.
C.
geraldedgar
·1 year agoI think customs will not have the staff to address the volume of shipments if deminimus is reduced to even $100. Be prepared to wait a long time for shipments. Consider the bottleneck created with Britain's Brexit, lins of trucks to go through customs. No free trade, just inspections, tariffs and wait times.
prome6926
·1 year agoThe problem with me is that the buyer does not know that I am a Canadian, I have a US Registered LLC, and a US ship from Address, but I cross-border courier it to Montana, (the US address in my eBay account) I am Alberta Based.
How will this work, will the buyer at the end get a bill for 25% to release the package, I think that is how it would work, and the buyer will be **bleep**.
recped
·1 year agoEffectively your US LLC will be the importer of record and it will be responsible for payiing the tarrifs. Can you sneak around this? Maybe.....but it's going to cost you more money because your crooss-border courier will have much higher brokerage fees to clear your packages into the US.
How this will affect you depends on the status of the current US$800 exemption which at this time nobody knows for sure if/when this expemtion will be reduced or eliminated.
fergua3
·1 year agothe deminimus is going to be reduced. Whether it will be reduced to 0 or some higher figure is unclear. I can't imagine that USPS will be able to charge tariffs on 10, 15, 20 dollar items that come through. They have no administration or staff in place for that at the moment, so low priced items MIGHT still get through without being tariffed. On the other hand they might just sit until they can get processed and charged.
Nothing but uncertainty right now. By Tuesday there should be clarity....at least more clarity, once the legal paperwork is released by the Whitehouse. For now all we have is vague verbal communication and one comunique sent to the Canadian Gov't., which wasn't overly detailed.
sin-n-dex
·1 year agoI'm in the same boat, but I'm in Ontario, using a cross border shipper in New York.
We're thinking the cross border shipper won't be allowed to operate anymore and you'll have to start shipping your items from Canada.
I had to put my store on vacation because buyers don't know I'm in Canada (unless they bought from me before, I had included cards with each shipment), I don't want buyers getting upset with me over having to pay a tariff when they expected to be buying a domestic item.
I'm staying on vacation mode and reading this forum to see how others are handling this, and then I'm going to decide what to do. I'm afraid if I change the location of all my items to Canada what will happen is packages will be backlogged at the border (if people in the US even buy from me), and I'm going to end up with a new set of problems caused by this.
Basically it hasn't hit the fan yet, I'm waiting to see what happens this week... I might have to delete all my listings and start posting them again being selective about what's listed in my store.
C.
prome6926
·1 year agoI operated my Store (eBay.ca) for a year before setting up my eBay.com store. I sold exactly zero to the US before this change.
Unless you have something very unique, US buyers are not going to buy internationally, in my opinion.
I sell mostly used, sometimes new with tags, clothing that I thrift in Canada. My average sale is about $50, but sometimes I get up to about $150 on more unique and new with tag items, I have never been anywhere near the de minimus amount. I am very specific in that I sell mostly men's premium brand athletic wear, but that is still not unique enough to get sales from a dot.ca store.
My shipper put out a notice today that says that our stuff will still enter under de minimus, and will not be subject to the 25% tariff. As I operate a US company and I send everything one piece at a time I am thinking I will send it to myself at a value of $1.00, then have my forwarder re-label to the end user, I'll pay the 25 cents if this changes. I am well aware that this would be playing with fire. Also very correct, that this simply overwhelms the whole system with processing. Nobody will be able to get their TEMU anymore if this changes, and that would be a good riddance.
cottagewoman
·1 year agoprome6926
·1 year agoI am using DYK Post.
backpacktreasures
·1 year agoI have seen all the comments from the DYK Post. I am not sure if they know what they are talking about, so I would proceed with caution. In my opinion, they appear to be incorrect regarding the de minimus which as per the executive order seems to have been cancelled.
niceoldstuff-1
·1 year agoOf course!! No question about it!
intimewithmusic
·1 year agoDue to platform "abuse" from the likes of TEMU Biden, not Trump has been petitioning for changes to the deminimus loophole since last summer. You can bet, if not already addressed by the Senate by Trump's inauguration date, Biden's proposal to revamp deminimus will be waiting on Trump's desk.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/13/de-minimis-shein-temu-biden-china-rules.html
ypdc_dennis
·1 year agoNO.
eBay only collects Sales taxes from Buyers when required to do so. A tarrif is not a sales tax.
To force eBay to collect tarrifs, Trump's crew would have to get a law passed by Congress and the Senate to make it a requirement for online marketplaces.
-;-
niceoldstuff-1
·1 year agoYou are 100% WRONG.... Tarrif's will apply on Ebay items as much as anything else
lotzofuniquegoodies
·1 year ago@niceoldstuff-1
@rosscd57
Taking into consideration eBay and other online market places are collecting state and provincial tax (based on what the seller says something is and a known rate) duties are taxes are processed by actual border officials. See attached.
Based on the following:
Release of the shipment: The shipment is released once all duties are paid
This would be very difficult because actual goods are NOT in eBay's possession. Border inspectors are experts. eBay is not.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·1 year agoHere is the legal mumbo jumbo for shipments coming into Canada. Works basically the same way for shipments leaving depending on the country of destinations rules and regulations.
https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/courier/menu-eng.html
Again, much of this all depends on what happens with the de minimus going forward.
If Canada really wanted to make this fun for DT they would make him have to go through what everyday Joe's and Judy's have to. Like when he arrives into Canada for G7 in K Country. Hey, JT, do you have anything to declare? Sorry pal, there will be a 25% duty on that!! Dem's the rules!! 😆
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoWhile I doubt Trump has any idea what a de minimus allowance is, it is possible that one of his minions will notice that loophole.
Or Jeff Bezos will make sure he doesn't , since a lot of AZ's third party sellers are shipping directly to their AZ customers taking advantage of the $800 duty free allowance.
marnotom!
·1 year agoeBay may have responsibility for charging, collecting, and remitting state sales taxes right now, but under current legislation, duties—which are a federal responsibility—are out of its purview.
sin-n-dex
·1 year agoNo one can predict what Trump is going to do or how it's going to work, he's not even in office yet.
Right now there's the deminimis exception up to $800 tax/duty free for personal imports, and I would believe most eBay shipments fall under this. If deminimis goes away then it will be a different kind of problem.
I think we have to wait and see, we have zero influence on this matter.
C.