Canadian Sales Taxes - Questions

[velvet@ebay]

Hi everyone –

We know you might have questions regarding the email you recently received about eBay Canada collecting Canada Sales Tax (GST/HST/QST/ PST) on behalf of our sellers. Please feel free to leave your questions and comments here and we’ll get them answered as soon as possible. Keep in mind there could be a delay as we check with internal teams to ensure we’re getting you the right answers to your questions.

Thanks for your patience!

[ez2curgr8]

I just noticed effective Jan 1, 2023 ebay is charging an additional 7% on fees not just the correct 5% GST in my province.  I can only think 7% is PST. From my PST knowledge I understand PST is charged on tangible goods (can touch) and services to tangible items except for legal fees.  Is this correct and if so why has there not been a bulletin since this would be a Canada wide impact?  Is ebay thinking the ebay fees which i consider to be 'administrative fees' as forming the cost of the tangible item sold where they correctly charge both GST/PST? An ebay rep was based in Filipinnes then I got transferred to a guy in the US so both knew absolutely nothing. What is going on ebay as there should be some justification if you are going to charge sellers more.

[rex_nemo]

I totally agree as well and I think this will be very damaging to both buyers and sellers, and eventually to Ebay itself.

Whether is solely a political decision or a combination of gov and corporate greed, it doesn't change the fact that is that this is preposterous !

I have seen a lot being 22 years on Ebay, but sadly this is something that is directly affecting the fundamental concept of what Ebay was meant to be.

I already gave up selling a few years ago, but now I will even keep the buying to a bare minimum (as close to zero as I can) because of this. It's like it wasn't enough that the astronomical shipping fees (sometimes overinflated by certain sellers) were already killing most of the deals, now I am being charged taxes on top as well ?! 

I have read this whole discussion and it seems that certain Ebay "groupies" missed a few important points:

1- in a flea market you have 2 types of vendors: (1)-  sellers registered as a business which MUST charge taxes like any retail business AND (2)- occasional private persons that sell their odds and ends with NO TAXES added to their negociated price.

Both of them still have to pay some fees to the fleamarket in order to be able to sell there. Fair enough.

As a buyer, is totally up to me to decide from which seller I want to buy, if at all. But it is a CHOICE I do have.

See the resemblance ? The flea market is Ebay, or at least it used to be. That was the whole concept at its inception time: an online flea market.

2- stop comparing Ebay to thrift stores like Value Village, they are two totally different concepts !

[mrdutch1001]

don't know how many times one has to say it but this is NOT about eBay...this is Canadian Law/Government Law and other online selling sites are also required to follow the taxation laws for marketplace facilitators.

eBay,Etsy.,Amazon,etc,etc are required by law to implement and carry out the taxation.

[reallynicestamps]

The sales tax is charged on the ENTIRE PAYMENT made by the buyer, including his provinces' sales taxes.

This has been Standard Practice in the payment processing industry since at least the 1980s when we got our first merchant credit card account, and probably for decades before.

1- in a flea market you have 2 types of vendors: (1)- sellers registered as a business which MUST charge taxes like any retail business AND (2)- occasional private persons that sell their odds and ends with NO TAXES added to their negociated price.

There is a third group which is registered to collect taxes and remits them, even though they apparently do not collect them, usually to give the buyer the illusion of a bargain.

Those simply include those taxes in the asking price for the item. Just as online sellers offer Free Shipping by including their costs for shipping in the asking price.

[escarpmentsportscards]

Does anyone know where to send the billing authorization form.  The email they provided doesn't work, and I'm on my fifth eBay representative and they have no clue.  

Thanks in advance

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@escarpmentsportscards wrote:

Does anyone know where to send the billing authorization form.  The email they provided doesn't work, and I'm on my fifth eBay representative and they have no clue.  

Thanks in advance

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@escarpmentsportscards 

Good chance they won't see unless you will need to tag eBay staff to confirm.

velvet@ebay 

devon@ebay 

-Lotz 

[flipistics]

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@escarpmentsportscards wrote:

Does anyone know where to send the billing authorization form.  The email they provided doesn't work, and I'm on my fifth eBay representative and they have no clue.  

Thanks in advance

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CanadaGST/PST@ebay.com

[devon@ebay]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

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@escarpmentsportscards wrote:

Does anyone know where to send the billing authorization form.  The email they provided doesn't work, and I'm on my fifth eBay representative and they have no clue.  

Thanks in advance

---

@escarpmentsportscards 

Good chance they won't see unless you will need to tag eBay staff to confirm.

velvet@ebay 

devon@ebay 

-Lotz 

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Hi @lotzofuniquegoodies! Thank you for the tag on this! @escarpmentsportscards just as @flipistics metioned you can email your competed form to CanadaGST/PST@ebay.com. 

[west-coast-seller]

Hi devon@ebay velvet@ebay 

Could someone please help clarify whether or not I need to fill out a billing agent authorization form if I'm a seller that operates in BC and we only have GST/PST here? 

On top of this, I'm an incorporated business but not currently registered with CRA to collect/remit sales tax but was plannig to register in the near future and now im not sure if I need to since ebay is collecting and remitting sales tax on my behalf. Would you be able to confirm if I still need to regsiter with a sales tax account with CRA?

Also this email CanadaGST/PST@ebay.com did not work for me; address rejected when I tried to send an email there. Please advise if there is another email that we're suppose to be using. Thank you.

[boxbrnd]

I had submitted the GST/PST authorization form filled with my business/hst information to the CanadaGST/PST@ebay.com email as instructed back in June 2022. I did not receive a response back from ebay regarding the form.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? I believe I should also have a full signed copy (agent section 5 on form) from the ebay side of this form in case if I have to provide this to the CRA.

[flipistics]

You should contact them about that. I got the countersigned form back. It took a few weeks if I remember right, but I did get it.

[marnotom!]

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@west-coast-seller wrote:

Could someone please help clarify whether or not I need to fill out a billing agent authorization form if I'm a seller that operates in BC and we only have GST/PST here? 

On top of this, I'm an incorporated business but not currently registered with CRA to collect/remit sales tax but was plannig to register in the near future and now im not sure if I need to since ebay is collecting and remitting sales tax on my behalf. Would you be able to confirm if I still need to regsiter with a sales tax account with CRA?

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I'm no accountant, but I'd say it would be in your best interests to register with CRA no matter how much income you're deriving from your eBay sales.

[poupas2]

devon@ebay

velvet@ebay

This has been mentioned on this thread already, but I have not seen a response.

I sell on . COM and .CA. Almost all sales are to the US. I have a Canadian 'ship from' address on .CA and a US 'ship from' address on .COM. I recently had a Canadian buyer purchase an item listed on .COM. I noticed that there was no charge of any GST/HST to this buyer. I went back in my records and noticed that all Canadian orders from .COM, after July, were not charged any tax(I might have had 5-6 CA orders since July).

So, for me anyway, it looks like there is a glitch in tax collection on Ebays part. They collect the proper GST/HST from .CA with my Canadian address, but they are not collecting GST/HST when a Canadian buys from .COM with my US address. I ship all Canadian orders from within Canada, and there is no option to put 'ship from Canada' on the .COM listing form. This means Canadian buyers can purchase from me, tax free, from my .COM listings. This is a big problem, I signed off on Ebay collecting my GST/HST, and they are not doing it correctly.

Most importantly: Prior to July, when I collected my own tax, all Canadian buyers(.com and .ca) were charged the appropriate tax, regardless of whether it was from the US or Canadian site, regardless of my 'ship from' address, every time.  The system worked properly then.

[low_flite]

devon@ebay

velvet@ebay

Can you respond, please?

[marnotom!]

@low_flite, @poupas2 started a new thread on this issue and received some feedback from forum users that would likely amount to the same as what the eBay "Tax Team" would pass along to the board liason:

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Any-sellers-on-COM-using-a-US-address-Ebay-not-charging-...

[709_games]

velvet@ebay velvet@ebay

@devon@ebay

I need to file my HST/GST return. I filled out the form that was requested of me (election form) but I never got a response with the filled out copy. How am I suppose to prove to the CRA that eBay remitted this tax on my behalf. This is a utter nightmare for trying to get my ITC's. 

The email address provided for questions does not work.

Please get back to me asap.

[low_flite]

velvet@ebay

devon@ebay

The email address: CanadaGST/PST@ebay.com located on the how-to page: https://pages.ebay.ca/salestax2022/ does not work. 

How do new members, or members like me trying to catch up, get the GST506 into their eBay account?

The eBay phone reps are not capable of doing this for some reason. I was on the phone for 1:08 today. 

[brettjet38]

Velvet left the building over a year ago, and you are barking up the wrong tree branch...

[marnotom!]

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@low_flite wrote:

The email address: CanadaGST/PST@ebay.com located on the how-to page: https://pages.ebay.ca/salestax2022/ does not work. 

How do new members, or members like me trying to catch up, get the GST506 into their eBay account?

The eBay phone reps are not capable of doing this for some reason. I was on the phone for 1:08 today. 

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The address I see on that page is CanadaPST/GST@ebay.com. Try reversing the taxes for whatever version of the address you were trying. This was an issue several months back.

As for the phone reps, I suggest you try contacting customer service online. The reps working chat, Facebook, and Twitter seem to do a better job or are, at least, able to get you someone who can deal better with any issues you have.

By the way, @low_flite, your question about the email address was posted and answered here:

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Canadian-Sales-Tax/Ebay-Collecting-GST-HST-and-the-Billing-Agent-Author...

If my suggestion didn't work, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know.  😁

[low_flite]

@marnotom! , I either need some sleep or the trouble ticket "Jessica" created after today's call did something.  

From my reply here on 24 Apr: https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Canadian-Sales-Tax/Ebay-Collecting-GST-HST-and-the-Billing-Agent-Author...CanadaGST/PST@ebay.com  did not work. This morning (27 Apr) it still did not work. 

While on the phone with Jessica for 1:08 today she took me to: https://pages.ebay.ca/salestax2022/

which I had visited before. Note the address there is CanadaPST/GST@ebay.com. I tried that address while on the phone through 3 different programs and 2 different addresses. They all bounced.

After reading your reply above, I again tried CanadaGST/PST@ebay.com and it did not bounce! I asked for confirmation they have a GST506 Election Between Agent and Principal on file for me. 

What may have happened is that the trouble ticket got them to fix CanadaGST/PST, but the page explaining the process still has the address as CanadaPST/GST which bounces.

Thanks for pushing me in the right direction.

I now eagerly wait for a reply from CanadaGST/PST@ebay.com