eBay

gwrocen · ‎11-30-2019

Does anyone know what the US and Canadian laws would be on this? Can eBay legally deposit and withdraw the tax, that eBay is required to collect, through MY PayPal account? I am really bothered by this. We do not have a nexus in the US and are not registered to collect taxes from anyone. I would like this to be spelled out very clearly.

Can anyone help on this?

Thanks.

melissasminis · ‎12-22-2019

I see now, I can list 50 items on dotca and 50 on dotcom, from one ebay.ca account, and same with the ebay.com account. I don't really need a subscription after all lol. I will be cancelling. Thanks for all the info, very helpful!

gwrocen · ‎12-28-2019

@gwrocen wrote:
@marnotom! wrote:
No quibbles with most of what you've said here. The only thing I'm not sure that you understand is that as you're using the services of a Marketplace Facilitator, a different set of rules apply. If you were selling directly off your own website, you may well be able to get away without having to collect and remit sales taxes from US buyers.
Who's "trying to get away" with anything? The law is the law. I am not required to collect US state taxes.
My understanding is that since I DO NOT have nexus in the USA and I do not meet or exceed the threshold for sales into any state, therefore I am not required to collect US state taxes.
It is illegal for eBay to put those taxes on my customer's PayPal invoice making it "appear" that I am collecting taxes. Then PayPal allows eBay to withdraw that tax amount from my personal private account.
eBay has nexus in the USA. Therefore eBay has to collect taxes on its own behalf.

So yes, I guess I don't know that a different set of rules apply. What are those rules? Please explain them to me.

eBay is using my PayPal account for processing the collection of State taxes that are not my responsibility

I am not required to collect taxes for any US states. I am not registered to do so.

Here is a screen shot (see below) of my invoice from PayPal showing a payment

made to me by a buyer from Japan who has a shipping address in the USA.

His payment to me includes a TAX amount of US$10.60.

This customer who knows I am in Canada is not pleased that I have included

a tax amount in what he had to pay through PayPal.

This is the invoice I use for my accounting.

How do I explain to my accountant that I did not receive that tax

when it clearly shows in this invoice that I received that payment.

eBay is forcing me into an illegal situation.

I don't appreciate it that eBay is using my account to collect a tax that

I have no right to even appear to collect.

gwrocen

tyler@ebay

lady.stark · ‎12-31-2019

Wow, this is really upsetting to say the least. Just because the buyer has a US shipping address, he needs to pay taxes even when this is clearly a forwarding address? So stupid!

EBay, get your act together!!

richardcm · ‎12-31-2019

There is no way for eBay to know it is a forwarding address. Just like eBay does not know when a Canadian living near the border uses a PO Box in the USA and the state has a sales tax.

All based on delivery address. Makes sense to me how this works. No different than GST/PST on items delivered in Canada. I expect Canada to force eBay to collect the GST/HST/PST on sales to Canada soon. So easy to make money for governments this way forcing big companies to collect taxes rightfully due.

hlmacdon · ‎12-31-2019

@richardcm wrote:
There is no way for eBay to know it is a forwarding address. Just like eBay does not know when a Canadian living near the border uses a PO Box in the USA and the state has a sales tax.

All based on delivery address. Makes sense to me how this works. No different than GST/PST on items delivered in Canada. I expect Canada to force eBay to collect the GST/HST/PST on sales to Canada soon. So easy to make money for governments this way forcing big companies to collect taxes rightfully due.

A strong precedent has already been set so Canadians should definitely get ready for this sort of thing to roll out. In the pre-HST days this sort of situation displaced a lot of retail activity that should have been taxed and having been involved in those days I can say the impact was very, very large and displaced not only taxes but local jobs. It's a net negative in the end. If the market dominant players are going to use every trick in the book to wiggle their way out of paying corporate taxes you need to tax the activity. As a small business it may not seem palatable but the manner of implementation also levels the playing field via taxation based on destination. It is a strong dereliction of duty that this hasn't already been addressed.

reallynicestamps · ‎12-31-2019

@richardcm

I expect Canada to force eBay to collect the GST/HST/PST on sales to Canada soon.

Canada already does.

Our duty-free allowance is only $20Cdn. Anything over that can be assessed for duty and more importantly Sales Tax, since tax can be charged even on duty-free items.

Not sure what will be the standard under the new NAFTA agreement. There was some talk that our duty-free allowance would rise to $140 but the sales tax would kick in at a lower value (perhaps $60? I may be thinking of the current duty-free level for "gifts").

So, if an import is brought into the country by GSP (or UPS or FedEx etc) and is valued over $20 (~$15US) the applicable provincial rate, from 5%-15% is charged on delivery, along with a service/customs brokerage fee from the carrier.

reallynicestamps · ‎12-31-2019

Or do you mean interprovincial sales?

The reason CBSA/Canada Post don't collect duty and sales taxes on most low value packages is that it would cost more than could be collected.

A wise decision on the part of the public servants.

Putting the collection of those import fees on a Marketplace Facilitator would take care of that high cost and make it feasible to collect at least GST on imports.

marnotom! · ‎12-31-2019

@reallynicestamps

I read @richardcm’s post as a musing on the possibility of eBay collecting sales taxes and value added on sales to Canada in a manner similar to what it’s doing for many sales to the US (and Oz?) right now.

doc_scribe · ‎12-31-2019

FTR, my once routine and robust sales to Oz have plunged over the past months. Coincidence???

What will next be considered fair game here: the auto-witholding of Canada's GST and HST (even though I live in a GST-only province, sell to Canadians with GST in, and am up to date with my quarterly returns)? Or what about all of those punitive U.K. and Euro VAT taxes? Or whatever other obscure regional regulations are suddenly deemed applicable to even casual online sales worldwide? Global tax architects must be smacking their weasel-thin lips this New Years eve.

And how many of these invisible-until-checkout global tax grabs will also get auto-funnelled through our PayPal accounts...on our dime no less...assuming that the buyer even bothers to complete checkout once that bloated total is displayed? My gut tells me that for every Buyer cool with this, there will be at least 2 or 3 others who will experience 'sticker shock' one too many times and simply stop shopping Internationally.

So New Years 2020 has become an approach-with-caution milestone for me.

"Golden Goose"* meet "The Cleaver"**???

* Cottage online sales to the collector market worldwide.
** Global tax architects devising ever more self-defeating value-add schemes in an attempt to paper over their own fiscal inefficiencies and incompetencies at someone else's expense.

gwrocen · ‎01-21-2020

@gwrocen wrote:
Does anyone know what the US and Canadian laws would be on this? Can eBay legally deposit and withdraw the tax, that eBay is required to collect, through MY PayPal account? I am really bothered by this. We do not have a nexus in the US and are not registered to collect taxes from anyone. I would like this to be spelled out very clearly.
Can anyone help on this?
Thanks.

Canadian sellers being required to pay PayPal fees on tax payments being collected by eBay for many US states is still a very valid issue.

The discussion continues for a while and then is forgotten. As usual, eBay is waiting for the discussion to die down and go away. That is what often happens with many concerns.

There now have been several posts about this concern but no proper resolution.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Canada-Town-Square/All-Canadian-sellers-getting-ripped-off-by-ebay/m-p/...

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Selling-on-eBay/Ebay-sa-es-tax-collection/qaq-p/427630/jump-to/first-un...

mrdutch1001 · ‎01-22-2020

Apparently it doesn't matter how sellers feel about this; sellers are expected to accept this as is since eBay has no plans to change it.

ricarmic · ‎01-22-2020

This is yet another consequence of retail globalization.

It is likely to get worse before it gets better as countries/municipalities around the world try to deal with it.

Ohhh the simple days when more than 95% of my customers were Canadians..... and oh I made about 3% of what I make now, so I'm not complaining!

mrdutch1001 · ‎01-22-2020

Over the years, my eBay customers have always been a high percentage to the USA. Even looking at the fact I don't sell much on eBay anymore, and don't have a lot of sales here, it still remains that about 75% of my sales go to the USA. Me thinks I'm going to have to see what I can do to entice more Canadian buyers.

silverpinups · ‎01-22-2020

"This is the invoice I use for my accounting.

How do I explain to my accountant that I did not receive that tax

when it clearly shows in this invoice that I received that payment.

eBay is forcing me into an illegal situation.

I don't appreciate it that eBay is using my account to collect a tax that

I have no right to even appear to collect".

You simply ignore it.... I doubt that your Accountant is going to be looking at a individual sales invoice. My Accountant looks at my yearly sales summary, Canadian sales for GST purposes, Inventory Totals, Shipping Charges, All my expenses including the GST and the list goes on....

The US Tax thing to me is a simple inconvenience and alittle extra work in my record keeping.

I'm subtracting the US Tax charged for the month from my Gross Monthly Sales Total. That's it... The PayPal percentage/fee charged is a write off. Is what eBay is doing is wrong, definitely, but there's nothing you can do about.

If you get audited by the CRA then you can put your US Tax burden on eBay's shoulders.

marnotom! · ‎01-23-2020

@gwrocen wrote:

Canadian sellers being required to pay PayPal fees on tax payments being collected by eBay for many US states is still a very valid issue.

There now have been several posts about this concern but no proper resolution.

There is a "resolution"--if you want to call it that--but it may be a little while in coming:

Ditch PayPal and move to eBay's Managed Payments system as soon as you're able.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Seller-paying-PayPal-fees-on-sales-tax/m-p/30415514

lady.stark · ‎01-23-2020

I think eBay will do the same... funnel the tax through our account and then take a percentage of the total sale.

lady.stark · ‎01-23-2020

@mrdutch1001 wrote:
Over the years, my eBay customers have always been a high percentage to the USA. Even looking at the fact I don't sell much on eBay anymore, and don't have a lot of sales here, it still remains that about 75% of my sales go to the USA. Me thinks I'm going to have to see what I can do to entice more Canadian buyers.

My sales have dropped and dropped over the last few years (since the C$ enforcement). They were also mainly to the US. And now with this tax, they are non existent.... I think my days here are numbered.

mrdutch1001 · ‎01-23-2020

I KNOW my days here are numbered....I will NEVER sign up for Managed Payment system when it becomes mandatory for Canadian sellers...

fashionoutletdeal · ‎01-29-2020

PayPal charge you for proceeding the payment .Whatever tax its show for this transaction if you are not registered and you dont collect the tax its eBay responsibility to collect and remit the taxes .The same princip has the RIVER . After all when you do your montly sales report ,you will calculate your sales without this taxes that was collected and remited by eBay.

If you have your own website when you are paid you could see on PayPal that there isnt any USA taxes added or proceeded because you are not require to charge USA tax.eBay has an agreement to so .

gwrocen · ‎01-29-2020

@fashionoutletdeal wrote:
PayPal charge you for proceeding the payment .Whatever tax its show for this transaction if you are not registered and you dont collect the tax its eBay responsibility to collect and remit the taxes .The same princip has the RIVER . After all when you do your montly sales report ,you will calculate your sales without this taxes that was collected and remited by eBay.
If you have your own website when you are paid you could see on PayPal that there isnt any USA taxes added or proceeded because you are not require to charge USA tax.eBay has an agreement to so .

@fashionoutletdeal

You have missed the gist of this discussion.

No one is saying that eBay shouldn't collect those taxes. They can collect all they want.

What eBay is doing is downloading the PayPal fees on the backs of sellers.

eBay is forcing sellers to pay the PayPal fees on the taxes that are collected BY eBay FOR US States. Those taxes are not the seller's income. Why do sellers from ALL countries have to pay the fees for eBay or the States on those taxes?

eBay is worth 42 Billion Dollars - that's 42 with NINE zeroes. That's two million times my annual income. I think they should be able to afford to pay their own fees.