Became harder to compete on ebay since canadian sellers registered on .com don't charge tax

lud-4367
Community Member

It's has become harder to compete on ebay as a hobby seller ever since ebay started charging tax by themselves. It's not that charging tax is wrong, but the problem is US sellers don't charge tax, and canadian sellers who registered on .com don't charge tax. I haven't had any sales for 3 weeks for the first time. I know there's inflation thing going on still, but zero sales for 3 weeks is unprecedented. I guess I should join the fun by setting up .com account, but then I wonder will it be changed eventually?   

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Became harder to compete on ebay since canadian sellers registered on .com don't charge tax


@pjcdn2005 wrote:

The site of registration isn't really relevant since tax info is based on the sellers/buyers address. 


The ship to address was Winnipeg. Registration was Hong Kong. International fee was applied. 

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Became harder to compete on ebay since canadian sellers registered on .com don't charge tax


@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

The site of registration isn't really relevant since tax info is based on the sellers/buyers address. 


The ship to address was Winnipeg. Registration was Hong Kong. International fee was applied. 


I'm referring to the buyers registered address, not their shipping address.  Their registered address is in HK so an international fee was charged.   If they have actually moved to Canada permanently than yes, they need to change their registered address.   Is that the situation in this case?  

 
It used to be easy to change country of registration before MP  but I'm not sure if it is still possible.  A user might have to start a new ID to change their country.   

Message 22 of 28
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Became harder to compete on ebay since canadian sellers registered on .com don't charge tax

I was under the impression that the buyer's payment method also played into this.

That the HK buyer was living in Winnipeg, he would be paying Manitoba taxes, but if he used his HK bankcard, the seller would be paying for an international sale.

The excuse/reason being "inter national banking charges" or something like that.

I may go lie down with a cologne soaked handkerchief on my fevered brow after this rather confusing discussion.

It's been fun!

Message 23 of 28
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Became harder to compete on ebay since canadian sellers registered on .com don't charge tax

Just noticed this slight discrepancy on my last 2 orders.

 

Order shipped to Winnipeg address

 

International Fee
Charged because the buyer’s registered address is in Hong Kong. 
 
Order shipped to US address:
 International Fee
Charged because the delivery address is in United States. 
 
Again. Optics and consistency.
 
-Lotz
 
 
Message 24 of 28
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Became harder to compete on ebay since canadian sellers registered on .com don't charge tax

The international charges that Lotz and I are referring to are seller fees, not a fee charged to buyers.   It is based on the buyers registered address regardless of where they are at the time of purchase.   This is the same fee that PP used to charge sellers but now MP charges it. 

 

The international fee that you are referring to is something that the buyer pays based on the currency that they originally paid in.  If they used a HK bank card they would pay a currency exchange fee, regardless of where they are living.  If they paid with a Canadian currency credit card they would not pay a currency exchange fee.  Either way, this does not affect what the seller pays in fees and afaik, the seller has no idea if the buyer had to pay a currency fee or not.


It wasn't mentioned if the buyer paid Manitoba tax, they might have but I'm not really sure how that works in Canada.  If the buyer was registered in HK and had the item sent to NY, they would have paid NY tax because sales tax is based on delivery address.  I'm guessing that it is set up the same way here but I'm not certain. @lotzofuniquegoodies  Did the buyer pay Manitoba sales tax?  You should be able to tell if you paid fvf based on item plus shipping or if fvf was based on item, shipping plus sales tax.

Message 25 of 28
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Became harder to compete on ebay since canadian sellers registered on .com don't charge tax


@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Just noticed this slight discrepancy on my last 2 orders.

 

Order shipped to Winnipeg address

 

International Fee
Charged because the buyer’s registered address is in Hong Kong. 
 
Order shipped to US address:
 International Fee
Charged because the delivery address is in United States. 
 
Again. Optics and consistency.
 
-Lotz
-------------
What  is the discrepancy?   You are a Canadian seller. Both of those buyers are registered in a country different than Canada.  That is when the international fee is charged.   When it was charged in PP they would simply add percentage amount to the 2.9% that we paid for Canadian transactions so it wasn't as obvious.  EBay just singles our the charge by specifying it as an international sale charge.
 
This charge has nothing to do with Canadian sales tax do we have really gone off topic here.
 
 
 
 
 

 

Message 26 of 28
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Became harder to compete on ebay since canadian sellers registered on .com don't charge tax

Here is the ebay info..

 

International fee

If your registered address is in Canada, we charge an international fee of 0.4% to the US and 1% to all other countries if either:

  • The delivery address for the item (entered by the buyer during checkout) is outside Canada, or
  • The buyer's registered address is outside Canada (regardless of the delivery address for the item)

This fee is automatically deducted and is calculated based on the total amount of the sale.

 

https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4822&st=3&pos=1&query=Selling...

 

Message 27 of 28
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Became harder to compete on ebay since canadian sellers registered on .com don't charge tax

@pjcdn2005 

 

Yes on MB sales tax. As for sellers fees they would be based on the final total so international fee would be included in that.

 

-Lotz

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