New Canadian taxes on eBay.ca. How to setup multi regions?

[mkahiel]

The new eBay.ca setting for Canadian taxes is confusing as it asks for only one province and one tax value. Any idea how to benefit from this and any possible conflicts with PayPal tax setting?
Thanks

[eserafini]

? where did you see that?

[mkahiel]

Under payment and shipping above return policy. Also, you see it when you send invoice after auction close.

[wrightcomputes]

These guys are total idiots. Years of waiting for them to implement taxes for Canada, and they do it all wrong. Don't they know that there is a federal tax and (depending on the seller's province) a provincial tax? How could they implement something that allows the specification of a tax for only one province? Canadian businesses have to charge GST/HST in all provinces, PST (if applicable) in their province, and -- in some cases -- in more than one province (if they have a presence in more than one). It shouldn't come as a surprise though, they even have it wrong for the USA. There they -- again -- allow for one tax, in one state -- which doesn't account for companies that have to charge tax in more than one state, and it doesn't deal with cases where the tax rate in a state varies depending on the county or city. I wonder how is it that eBay could have grown to be so successful, when their software developers are such complete morons.

[discountlabelsupplies]

I don't know about you guys but 95 out of 100 auctions I sell go to the U.S. My guess is that Most US buyers don't even know I'm in Canada. They never look at the "registered in Canada" that appears in the auction. I figure this is a good thing

For orders that are shipped within Canada I just adjust the selling price so that the GST and PST if applicable is shown and that the "total" invoice price is what they paid.


Sure I'm making less money on Canadian orders but I think I'm scaring off LESS U.S. buyers that compensates for it. I can almost guarantee that my sales would plummet if I had a whole schpeal in my auctions about Canadian buyers must pay PST, GST etc.

[discountlabelsupplies]

Just want to clarify, labels4less is incorporated and I do submit the taxes, I just absorb it though and give the Canadian buyer a discount. I'm paying the tax for them pretty much.

[recped]

I was doing a similar thing (selling tax "included") and just avoiding mentioning the whole subject.

With the exchange rate deterioration and fee increases etc I could no longer afford to give this bonus to my (limited) Canadian buyers.

I now charge GST/HST to Canadians (I mention it in my TOS) and so far have had only 2 buyers question it (after they had purchased), naturally enough both buyers were from the land of the "taxless" (Alberta).

I don't think anyone reads the TOS so I doubt the fact that I mention it has much effect on buyers.

In most cases Canadian buyers have to pay these taxes when they buy from the USA (CP/Customs collects it) so they have no reason to bitch about it. The people who do are also the ones to complain about my shipping charges which in Canada are actual postage plus less than $1. These buyers will complain about anything!

Wrightcomputes....you're right about eBay, they haven't a clue but the same could be said for most programmers...they have NO real life experience which is why so much software works just fine in the "lab" but not in the real world.

I presume that ALL eBay.ca programming is done in the USA, when the day comes (and it will) when the US (state) authorities start cracking down on internet sales (tax) things will change. As you said the situation in the USA can be even more complex than Canada as in some states there are numerous different tax rates depending on the location of the seller and buyer.

Ben
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

[wrightcomputes]

About 75% of PayPal payments we receive from Canadian buyers are refunded because they omitted taxes. It matters little how we say it, or how many places we state that in, Canadians just ignore it. My latest attempt has been not to specify shipping charges (so they get automatically invoiced), instead, I have a table in the listing, and right besides it, I mention that taxes must be added. But nothing works. Without a properly-implemented tax in eBay's invoice, Canadian sales generate a lot of overhead.

But taxes are not the only problem. eBay also fails to recognize that Canada's geography results in a wide range of shipping costs, and makes no provision to specify shipping charges in a way that addresses this.

For all the money eBay makes, they don't seem to have real professionals running their IT development.

[can-import]

On paypal, you can specify a Canadian tax that applies to all Canadian Payments... I just put 7% there and I at least get the GST... for the PST (I am in Quebec) I just absorb it!

Can-Import

[wrightcomputes]

You also lose 8% on NB, NL, and NS.

I think doing it the PayPal way would just cause problems and confusion. I need to specify in the listing that taxes apply (not everyone pays with PayPal). I don't know how that integrates with eBay's invoice. If I specify 7% on PayPal, would I invoice an amount without tax, and then PayPal would add the tax when the buyer goes to make payment? I think buyers wouldn't like that. The tax should be included in the invoice. Some buyers can be very picky about that.

It's just appalling to see how amateurish their solutions are. They didn't get it right in either Payal or eBay.

How dumb can they be?

[gezeilstra]

I have a question related to this, someone in a much earlier post had mentioned that they charge GST on the item price & shipping charged, since shipping is a service. I have recently come across several Canadian sellers that specify that GST is only on the item price, anyone have a definitive answer on this?

FYI, I add the tax to the shipping on my Ebay invoice, if the Canadian buyer has not already paid through Paypal. When they do pay first, and omit the GST, I simply keep the first payment and send a money request for the GST, seems easier than refunding the payment and risking them not bothering to pay again...

Their item does not ship until I get the GST, no matter how small the amount!

[recped]

I'm 99.999999% sure, GST applies to shipping charges, in some provinces PST does NOT apply to shipping (but I'm only 98% certain on that part).

FYI, I add the tax to the shipping on my Ebay invoice, if the Canadian buyer has not already paid through Paypal. When they do pay first, and omit the GST, I simply keep the first payment and send a money request for the GST, seems easier than refunding the payment and risking them not bothering to pay again...

PayPal msut love you, I know that refunding can leave you with NO money but if the amount is small the double PayPal "transaction" fee will kill you (even if it doesn't kill I just hate to give PayPal any more money than they already burn me for).

The easiest way to avoid all of this is to turn off checkout and send your buyer an invoice or email with the actual total.

Ben
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

[shooger]

I only list on .com even though I'm registered and located in Canada. I've never heard or seen anything taxes, and I don't want to. 🙂

[mirakbiz_inc]

I used to have lots of headaches regarding taxes, that was the main reason I started to use Marketworks, since they allow me to customize my own tax table. I can Charge GST, PST or HST depending on where the buyer is. My only questions regarding taxes come sometimes because I do the whole thing in USD and people sometimes ask why do I charge tax if the sale is in USD. A simple email informing them that the tax is a % of the sale regardless of the currency solves the problem.

The tricky part is reporting the tax, since I have to convert the sales to Canadian to do so, but I total sales for the month and then convert that to Canadian (including the appropriate tax and expenses like eBay and paypal fees) and multiplying by the exchange of the day I convert that amount to Canadian

[bh542]

mirakbiz_inc:

Did any buyer refuse to use Marketworks checkout (paying by PayPal is much easier -- my thoughts)? If so, what % is that?

Thanks,
Andrew

[mirakbiz_inc]

Marketworks has now a new feature, it's called checkout re-direct so even if the buyer tries to pay using the ebay checkout it gets redirected to Marketworks.

Now if they pay via PayPal directly (usually Americans) without going through marketworks, I usually miss their orders and don't notice until I'm checking for unpaid items to file NPB (10 days later) or until they email and ask about their order. At that point I ask them to complete checkout and then I update payment and ship. I don't do that intentionally (non shipping) but since I pull all my order processing data from Marketworks, sending a paypal payment just get's lost in mi email (I ran rules that move all paypal emails to a folder, because I have the payment info with marketworks) I have missed 3 or 4 in the last few months and all apologized for not following my auction terms.

[wrightcomputes]

I have recently come across several Canadian sellers that specify that GST is only on the item price, anyone have a definitive answer on this?

If you go to Canada Post's Web site, and request a shipping quote, you will see they charge GST on the total. However, their quote system is not accurate. For example. if you use a NS postal code, it will show a GST (7%) charge on the quote, but they will bill you HST (15%). Also, in some cases PST applies (when shipped within the same province, where PST/RST exists).

This is from Canada Post's Postal Guide: "All prices and fees published in the Canada Postal Guide are subject to the Federal Goods and Services Tax (GST), and to the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) or to the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), where applicable."

[gezeilstra]

Not really the definative reply I was looking for, just because Canada Post charges GST does not necessarily mean that I should, anyone have an answer from Revenue Canada?

[mirakbiz_inc]

Actually, yes you have to according to Revenue Canada. You must charge GST on Goods and Services (shipping is the service part)

CPC charges you, you charge your customer = You don't pay

If CPC charges you and you don't collect back from your customer = Expense for you (less profit)
If you sell less than $30,000 a year. You don't have to collect GST (But you can if you wish to after registering) It makes better sense if you do this as a business because you can claim it back.

If you pay GST in Canada and ship a good portion to the US (non charging GST) You can claim a GST return (I'm getting over $3,000 this year fro last year credits!)

[bh542]

Thank you so much for your reply, mirakbiz_inc.

I have one more question: Can Marketworks checkout data be output to a database or spreadsheet?

Andrew