Canadian Sales Tax for Books and Similar

[starbasecanada]

A number of my items I sell are books. There is no GST on books in Canada only PST. Will Ebay be distinguishing this in the upcoming tax collection? Also, do comic books fall under this catergorie?

[marnotom!]

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@starbasecanada wrote:

A number of my items I sell are books. There is no GST on books in Canada only PST. 

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Actually, it's the other way around.  There's GST but no PST on books.  You probably know this already, but other people read these threads too.  🙂

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@starbasecanada wrote:

Will eBay be distinguishing this in the upcoming tax collection? Also, do comic books fall under this catagory?

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Good question.  The official line from the eBay "tax team" that has been posted here is that the tax(es) is (are) charged on the transaction, not the item, so that could mean that full HST (where applicable) would apply to the sale.  Perhaps we can get some clarification from the tax team.  velvet@ebay?

In the meantime, for anyone who's interested in reading up on the "point of sale tax rebate" on books in most HST provinces:

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/gi-065/point-sale-r...

[cumos55]

I sell books and only books on eBay.

I am registered to collect GST/HST.

I do not charge PST for the provincial part of HST  on the cost of books.

This means that for books  the tax charged is GST = HST = 5 %.

However, the full amount for HST is charged on the cost of postage/shipping. 

This means that the tax table on eBay cannot be used because currently I cannot charge the tax for the book at a different tax rate than the cost of shipping.  All of my listings were set up with the Tax on the book included in the price of the book....  and the tax on shipping also included in the cost for shipping.

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With a point-of-sale rebate the provincial tax on the book is not charged when the book is purchased.

When eBay charges the povincial tax on the book as well as the cost of shipping, the buyer can  file a refund request  for the paid provincial tax on the book, from the provincial government. 

The rules for a refund must be followed.  For some purchases of books, no refund will be possible, because there is not enough money to be refunded

[cumos55]

Then someone will say to eBay ..... do not charge the provincial part of HST  on books.

Then many sellers will choose to put their listings in the book category

Shoes, toys, dinnerware  and more  in the book category where no provincial tax will be charged...

eBay must charge the full tax... and the buyer will file for a refund of the provincial tax on books.

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Maybe eBay can set up a site where only books are sold on eBay Canada....

and books are not charged the provincial tax by eBay.

[marnotom!]

Some useful info, @cumos55, but it doesn't address the fact that eBay considers the tax to be on the transaction rather than the item, and I don't think we know right now if "transaction taxes" equate with "item taxes."

[femmefan1946]

There doesn't seem to be any provincial tax on books in any province, but as I recall Ontario charges sales tax on children's clothing and shoes, while BC does not.

So there's that.

Velvet@ebay already has had her Monday schedule filled up by this I guess.

I wonder how our American friends are handling it. It must have come up some 45 times already there.

[velvet@ebay]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@starbasecanada wrote:

A number of my items I sell are books. There is no GST on books in Canada only PST. 

---

Actually, it's the other way around.  There's GST but no PST on books.  You probably know this already, but other people read these threads too.  🙂

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@starbasecanada wrote:

Will eBay be distinguishing this in the upcoming tax collection? Also, do comic books fall under this catagory?

---

Good question.  The official line from the eBay "tax team" that has been posted here is that the tax(es) is (are) charged on the transaction, not the item, so that could mean that full HST (where applicable) would apply to the sale.  Perhaps we can get some clarification from the tax team.  velvet@ebay?

In the meantime, for anyone who's interested in reading up on the "point of sale tax rebate" on books in most HST provinces:

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/gi-065/point-sale-r...

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I'll see what I can find out @marnotom!

[55-yard-line-sportscards]

So velvet said she would se what she could find out. That was in September, but she hasn't provided any firther information. Thatnks for that complete lack of flollow-up. Meanwhile, eBay continues to collect the PST portion of the tax on books in Canada.

As for this idea about the tax being on the "transaction" rather than the item, that's on the same level as the stuff that comes out of the south end of a north-bound horse. When I buy a book at Chapters or Indigo, that constitutes a "transaction," but they can still only charge the federal GST portion of the tax. This is just another fine example of eBay screwing buyers for taxes, then screwing sellers by charging them fees on taxes that eBay is not supposed to be collecting in the first place.

This place has gone right into the **bleep**per. They don't even understand the laws on taxes in the various different jurisdictions, so they just apply blanket policies. Google "eBay improperly charging sales taxes" to find the litany of problems and screw-ups in their polices. One is charging taxes on bullion in Pennsylvania and Indiana. The laws in those states clearly say bullion is exempt from taxes.

eBay cares only about lining their pockets by using a "shoot now, ask questions later" approach, in the hope that not enough people will complain about what they are doing. When enough people do, they then just say, "Oops, sorry. My bad," and only THEN do they try to rectify the situation. An example of this was the NY sales tax they were originally charging on medecines purchased by NY residents even though medecines are exempt from sales tax in New York state. There had to be a big fight with eBay to get that reversed, and even then eBay only provided refunds going back to a certain point in time. Who knows what they did with the rest of the improperly collected taxes?

[phc64]

Of the 3500 items I have listed, only two are books. One sold last week and I was pleasantly surprised that eBay had only collected the GST portion of the HST. The item sold for $11.00 with free shipping, and eBay collected $11.55.

[reallynicestamps]

Somewhere I have a button with Brian Mulroney smarming "Hi. I tax books."

It's the GST that is charged. Some provinces may charge PST as well, but ON and BC don't and of course there is no PST in AB.

Yet.

[flipistics]

The last book I sold only had GST applied. Keep in mind though that not all books qualify. eBay has said they'll take responsibility for any mistakes (we'll see).

[fh991586]

Concerning comic books, full taxes are applied to periodical issues, while graphic novels or collected editions (with an ISBN instead of ISSN) are only subjected to GST.