Ebay Collecting sales tax from the sale of OUR items ?

[qtraxs]

I don't quite understand how a 3rd party has the authority to charge tax on an item they are not selling ? They can charge HST for services, but collecting taxes on an item they don't own or sell, someone explain this for me please ?

[recped]

Federal Government rules which I think were part of the 2021 (2022?) Budget.

Are you registered for GST/HST?

If not then you are not affected in any way (your buyers will pay the taxes)

If you are currently registered to collect GST/HST it will change your reporting procedures but the bottom  line won't change.

eBay will have the "authority" because YOU will give them  the authority. If you choose not to your selling days here will end on July 1st.

For sellers who have not been registered in the past it will increase your overall eBay fees related to sales within Canada.

[reallynicestamps]

EBay not only has the authority to collect and remit taxes from our customers, they have the responsibility to collect and remit taxes on transactions.

[aramatic]

Will eBay base final value fees on the total including tax? They already make a bundle out of basing the fee on selling price + shipping, which is charging for a service they don't perform, so it'll be interesting to see if they do the same with tax.

[msau4301]

Yes, final value fees will be on the transaction total (item + shipping + taxes), the same way as it has been for all US transactions (for last couple of years since they started the internet tax requirement) and sales to Europe (since July 2021 VAT tax implementation).

[marnotom!]

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@qtraxs wrote:

I don't quite understand how a 3rd party has the authority to charge tax on an item they are not selling ? They can charge HST for services, but collecting taxes on an item they don't own or sell, someone explain this for me please ?

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The eBay "tax team" explains it as the tax being applied to the transaction, not the item. 

As suggested by @msau4301's post, most eBay buyers from the US, EU, Australia, and a few other countries have been paying taxes at point of sale for their purchases for a while now.