hdwrench, I've been done this road and I sympathize with every thing you are going through.
I have tried limiting my auctions to US bidders only. Not a good idea. Boy, can Canucks ever get nasty when they see that. I have never had so much hate mail.
Many Canadian buyers ignore the clear statements I put in my auctions and emails regarding taxes and make a quick PayPal payment and run. I say ignore because I find it very hard to believe that 90 percent of Canadian buyers don't read the auctions or emails. This is not an exageration - 9 of 10 Canadian buyers give me grief about the taxes.
When they do that you are faced with the dilemma of refunding their payment and asking them to pay again (time consuming and some just refuse to make another payment) or do you hold on to their payment and ask for another payment of the taxes only (also not good - you wind up eating a lot of extra PayPal charges).
I have been toying lately with not allowing Canadian buyers the luxury of using PayPal by changing my settings so that I will no longer accept payments from unconfirmed addresses. There does not seem to be any easy solution until PayPal figures out how to allow Canadian sellers to automatically calculate our complex tax scheme on instant payments.
bargoonsports, I also use AuctionWorks but they still don't allow you to calculate HST for NB,NL,NS - GST & PST for ON and just GST for all other provinces and territories.
If you ever find a solution, OP, make sure you come back and share it because, as you can see, many of us face this problem daily.
Bill
I have tried limiting my auctions to US bidders only. Not a good idea. Boy, can Canucks ever get nasty when they see that. I have never had so much hate mail.
Many Canadian buyers ignore the clear statements I put in my auctions and emails regarding taxes and make a quick PayPal payment and run. I say ignore because I find it very hard to believe that 90 percent of Canadian buyers don't read the auctions or emails. This is not an exageration - 9 of 10 Canadian buyers give me grief about the taxes.
When they do that you are faced with the dilemma of refunding their payment and asking them to pay again (time consuming and some just refuse to make another payment) or do you hold on to their payment and ask for another payment of the taxes only (also not good - you wind up eating a lot of extra PayPal charges).
I have been toying lately with not allowing Canadian buyers the luxury of using PayPal by changing my settings so that I will no longer accept payments from unconfirmed addresses. There does not seem to be any easy solution until PayPal figures out how to allow Canadian sellers to automatically calculate our complex tax scheme on instant payments.
bargoonsports, I also use AuctionWorks but they still don't allow you to calculate HST for NB,NL,NS - GST & PST for ON and just GST for all other provinces and territories.
If you ever find a solution, OP, make sure you come back and share it because, as you can see, many of us face this problem daily.
Bill
On the other hand, I much prefer to tell my buyers right up front that they are buying from Canada. Some of the emails I was getting when I made it less clear were really quite angry... "Where's my widgit?" three or four days after shipping.
No, I won't be absorbing the taxes any time soon. At some point a solution will come along and Canadian buyers will have to make some decisions. If they want to buy on eBay they can either pay taxes to Canadian vendors or, if they prefer to import, to CanadaPost on behalf of Revenue Canada and provincial RST branches.
No, I won't be absorbing the taxes any time soon. At some point a solution will come along and Canadian buyers will have to make some decisions. If they want to buy on eBay they can either pay taxes to Canadian vendors or, if they prefer to import, to CanadaPost on behalf of Revenue Canada and provincial RST branches.
I don't consider myself any less concerned about net profit which is all the more reason that I won't absorb the taxes. Does it drive away some sales? Probably, but a black market for untaxed goods, has and will, always exist. The underground economy exists on ebay as it does everywhere within our country. Some people play above the board and some not.
Our tax system in Canada is largely a consumer based one which is why the old Federal Sales Tax was done away with. As I am not the consumer of the goods I sell so applicable taxes are for the buyer to pay.
Canadian Tire is not going to start absorbing taxes tomorrow because some people complain or dislike paying them. Neither will the Bay, Sears or any other retailer - large or small.
Henry's is one of the larger Canadian companies on eBay. I notice they don't absorb the taxes. I wonder if they are any less concerned about profitability.
I'm sorry, but I don't consider asking for applicable taxes to be paid as "making a point" of any kind. It is just as much a part of the total selling price as the item price or S/H but a part that many Canadians seem to want to overlook.
The real solution is for Paypal to address the issue and allow businesses selling on eBay to charge applicable taxes. After all, if they can allow for different tax rates to be applied for 50 states they can certainly allow for 10 provinces and three territories. The will just has to be present for them to implement the changes.
Our tax system in Canada is largely a consumer based one which is why the old Federal Sales Tax was done away with. As I am not the consumer of the goods I sell so applicable taxes are for the buyer to pay.
Canadian Tire is not going to start absorbing taxes tomorrow because some people complain or dislike paying them. Neither will the Bay, Sears or any other retailer - large or small.
Henry's is one of the larger Canadian companies on eBay. I notice they don't absorb the taxes. I wonder if they are any less concerned about profitability.
I'm sorry, but I don't consider asking for applicable taxes to be paid as "making a point" of any kind. It is just as much a part of the total selling price as the item price or S/H but a part that many Canadians seem to want to overlook.
The real solution is for Paypal to address the issue and allow businesses selling on eBay to charge applicable taxes. After all, if they can allow for different tax rates to be applied for 50 states they can certainly allow for 10 provinces and three territories. The will just has to be present for them to implement the changes.
chic-shopper, unfortunately that won't help if you have to charge HST for NB,NS & NL, GST/PST for Ontario and GST only for the rest of Canada. PayPal has applied a simplified solution (a single tax rate) for all of Canada.
Yes, Todd, I just did my Tele-file this morning for the last quarter (the slow one). I will be getting back a little over $800 in GST.
Its a nice little "extra" paycheck every three months. I'm hoping to get back close to $1500 on the next one in January. That's if sales go as planned. :<)
Its a nice little "extra" paycheck every three months. I'm hoping to get back close to $1500 on the next one in January. That's if sales go as planned. :<)
Thanks... my books are pretty organized as it is. And compared to the old manufacturing sales tax (FST), I do consider this closer to an extra pay. If you remember what it was like to try and claim the FST back for exports (I do), this is much easier and more readily accessible.
Thanks for the advice on filing frequency but it is Revenue Canada that determines how often you file. I guess some businesses could even file weekly but that is a determination they make based on total sales and whether money is owed to, or by, them. They allow you to file more frequently if you owe them money but less frequently if they owe you money. No different than paying and clawing back income taxes.
Without getting too political, I do remember that campaign promise. I also remember who gave us the GST and FTA. The damage that those pieces of legislation did to the old structure of taxation could not be undone by a political promise.
Once the old FST system was ripped out of place it was not an easy thing to re-install.
People seem to think that GST is some kind of extra tax we pay. It isn't. In fast, the old FST was 9%-12% and invisible to consumers. It was there but it was invoiced by manufacturers to the distribution chain without any easy provision to claw it back for exports. At least now we can see it and it is readily refunded by the Feds. The FST was a tax on manufactured goods... the GST is a consumers tax on goods and services. That's why businesses are also required to charge FST on S/H (a service).
I hear a lot of complaints about the GST - most people don't remember that it was not some kind of "extra" taxation.
Thanks for the advice on filing frequency but it is Revenue Canada that determines how often you file. I guess some businesses could even file weekly but that is a determination they make based on total sales and whether money is owed to, or by, them. They allow you to file more frequently if you owe them money but less frequently if they owe you money. No different than paying and clawing back income taxes.
Without getting too political, I do remember that campaign promise. I also remember who gave us the GST and FTA. The damage that those pieces of legislation did to the old structure of taxation could not be undone by a political promise.
Once the old FST system was ripped out of place it was not an easy thing to re-install.
People seem to think that GST is some kind of extra tax we pay. It isn't. In fast, the old FST was 9%-12% and invisible to consumers. It was there but it was invoiced by manufacturers to the distribution chain without any easy provision to claw it back for exports. At least now we can see it and it is readily refunded by the Feds. The FST was a tax on manufactured goods... the GST is a consumers tax on goods and services. That's why businesses are also required to charge FST on S/H (a service).
I hear a lot of complaints about the GST - most people don't remember that it was not some kind of "extra" taxation.
