2021: More international sales tax collection by eBay

[ypdc_dennis]

Expect a big drop in low value sales and a profit margin hit (since Managed Payments and PayPal both have fees on the sales tax) for Sellers to Europe in 2021.

Sales tax collected at time of sale and remitted by eBay:

European Union: target is July 2021 (delayed from January 2021)

Sales tax to be collected on purchases under €150 (around 235CA$)

https://www.avalara.com/vatlive/en/vat-news/eu-2021-e-commerce-vat-package.html

https://www.tradetaxport.com/news/the-impact-of-2021-vat-import-scheme-postal-express

UK: target is January 2021 for collection of tax on goods under £135 (around 235CA$)

https://tamebay.com/2020/06/hmrc-propose-scrapping-uk-vat-free-imports-force-marketplaces-collect-va...

Norway: April 2020

25% VAT sales tax on purchases under 3000NOK (about 450CA$)

https://export.ebay.com/en/seller-updates/ebay-spring-2020-update/norwegian-vat/

United States: 2019-2020

Most States now have an internet sales tax in effect (with no upper limit)

Australia: 2018

10% VAT sales tax on goods under 1000AU$ (around 950CA$)

...

Sales tax over the limits are collected by that country's customs department on import.

-..-

[ricarmic]

I think Singapore is collecting taxes, at least via Ebay as I've seen taxes added to "Singaporian" bills....

[marnotom!]

“Expect a big drop in low-value sales. . .”

Do most European and UK buyers purchase from Canadian sellers in order to avoid paying VAT? The impression from my selling days is that our overseas buyers bought from us because our items were difficult to find in their home countries.

If anything’s an impediment to sales of low-value items overseas, it’s the postage costs. There are a few European buyers who pop up on the .com boards complaining about VAT charges on their personal imports, but I suspect they’re in the minority.

[mrdutch1001]

with my eBay selling days drawing to a close(whenever I can no longer list after receiving the MP join up or else message) I plan to return to selling more locally and via other online avenues that are much more seller friendly and have way less fees attached. Other places to sell may not have a wide audience like eBay, but I have grown very weary of eBay applying fees to everything and squeezing every last breath out of a seller. At my age I most certainly do not need the hassles of selling here.Time to get back to the basic selling avenues and leave sites like eBay to those who choose to endure this madness.

Selling can still be a fun and enjoyable venture ...just not here on eBay.

Time to get back to to the basics of just living life and enjoying it while still being a seller of those things that I choose to continue selling elsewhere...

[reallynicestamps]

The sales taxes are paid by the buyer, not the seller.

But, like the current Paypal invoices, we will pay the processor's fee on the amount of that sales tax.

European customers are more comfortable with high sales taxes, perhaps because they actually understand they are getting useful services for their tax money.

I agree that postal charges are more important than taxation in making the final decision to buy for Europeans.

Has there been a dropoff in complaints about US Internet Sales Taxes or is it my imagination that the furor lasted less than a year?

[ricarmic]

It has been a "long" time since I've had any IST complaints or grumblings about it.

I've also noticed that the buyers that "left" ebay to buy the lots elsewhere to avoid the IST are back also buying on eBay again.

[darak10]

interesting.  this is a tax squeeze on European customers, who are the most likely in the world to tolerate paying tax because they aren't as afraid of it as Americans are, and some Canadians thanks to the contagion effect.  Not sure this is going to change things much.  I've been over there enough times over the last 20 years to have overcome the shock of how VAT is applied to virtually everything, and my giddiness when I realize I don't have to pay it because I'm not a citizen of a Schengen zone member state and can have it remitted back to me in many cases if I have to pay it.  

American customers haven't gone anywhere from my perspective since they instituted the tax on here, they still come around, including obviously the states where there is none.

As a side note, I have to wonder how amazon addresses this issue - they probably offload the entire expense on to the seller so Jeff can make a couple extra zillion dollars an hour.

It will be interesting to see who disappears and who sticks around.  For items easily able to be acquired in their home countries, these sales I expect will drop or dry up altogether.  For items customers abroad are unable to find at home, I think these sales will still be around.  Still, international governments have been head scratchingly slow on the uptake with taxing e-commerce sales, following the US lead it seems.   

Norwegian customers, amongst the richest countries in Europe thanks to how well they have managed their oil & gas industry....it'll be interesting to see what happens with them.  25% seems counterproductively high, almost like a Trump tariff.  I have quite a few customers there, almost always they buy higher end collectible stuff they can't find there.  Aussie customers, they are pretty fickle, they'll probably be gone.  I watched my Oz customer base go poof when I raised the shipping rate to be in line with what it actually cost - I subsidized shipping there by a little over a buck to draw a few more customers.  After I raised it to evenly cover the actual cost of shipping there, they all disappeared, just like at tip time.  In hindsight I'm not really surprised this happened, as like the kiwis they can be frustratingly chintzy.  

I don't know why Revenue Canada doesn't have some set up on here with ebay for those of us who have to collect GST, it would make the process a hell of a lot easier than having to do all the accounting & remittances separately on my end. 

[mrdutch1001]

the sales taxes are paid by the buyer but for sellers in MP, the simplified FVFs are also on the sales tax and for non MP sellers the sales taxes currently pass through PayPal and fees are charged there so sellers get screwed anyway.

I still see many a complaint on the .COM boards from both buyers and sellers regarding the sales taxes, despite that the collection of such taxes has become a fact of life on eBay...

I shall be avoiding all such **bleep** when I am selling elsewhere as the other sites I'm working with do not have all these fees...

I no longer promote selling Internationally and prefer to sell only within North America. Would much prefer just within Canada but thus far my sales are still more USA than Canada...

[marnotom!]

“This is a tax squeeze on European customers, who are the most likely in the world to tolerate paying tax because they aren't as afraid of it as Americans are, and some Canadians thanks to the contagion effect. Not sure this is going to change things much.”

Consider that right now, items sent by mail are assessed taxes and duties at customs and held until those fees are collected from the buyer, just as they are here. In some EU countries, such as Germany, nothing gets missed by customs as it is.

It’s not a tax squeeze; it’s just an efficiency manoeuvre.

[domsvinyl]

AMEN TO THAT!!

[stv5mm]

I agree with you eBay Now it’s useless because they charge tax even you didn’t add the tax in your item so they take it from you with no annoy you when you want to Sell it And customer service so rude I sell the camera for $2200 Canadian money and I get only 1700 because fee and tax they charge me over $500 for nothing and even the buyers give me positive feedback and it’s over two weeks eBay doesn’t release my money I called them over seven times the Customer service doesn’t fix the solution I’m tired from them never come back to eBay I will sell my items in marketplace and Facebook and buy from Amazon prime

[reallynicestamps]

You sold a $2200 camera (to Europe?) and the fees were $500.

Your eBay selling fee should have been 10% or $220.

Your eBay shipping fee is based on your advertised shipping price and is 10% of that fee.  Shipping to Europe can easily be $50-$100- so there is another $5-10.

If you used any options  (like Reserve on Auctions. or Promoted Listing on Fixed Price listing) there is a fee for those too.

PL is sneaky because it is charged on the advertised price for your item, not on the selling price which might be lower if you accepted a Best Offer.

And while you choose how much you will pay for using Promoted Listings, the percentage shown is often chosen by naive sellers. Personally I never use more than 1%.

If you used PL at 1% that's another $22.  If eBay suggested 5% that's $110.

Then there are Paypal fees. Those are 30c plus 2.9% of the entire payment for Domestic (Canada) sales  but 3.9% for overseas sales.

That would be $85.80 on your selling price PLUS another 3.9% on your shipping price so up to $3.90 or so on shipping.

All those fees should be noted in your invoiced fees.

While $500 does sound high at nearly 25% of your payment, it is not unusual.

Selling high value items only domestically would reduce the fees as would ignoring most of eBay's suggested options.

[valuestore]

What your experiencing is the fallout from brexit, and  also just my opinion I think various governments are trying to  cover covid costs,  cleaning up vat is a place to get it.  It was just a matter of time, they should all collect it at the point of sale rather than at the borders...to much cost and delay that way. They are already talking about smal item relief, allot of work for the venues keeping track of each countries unique taxations.