eBay

cumos55 · ‎06-21-2018

The US Federal Government has just passed a regulation that relates to internet sales in the US.

Internet sellers ... specifically those without a B & M store.....must charge a sales tax..... A destination state tax.

If a Seller in a state sells to someone that lives in any of the other 49 states, this seller must charge a sale tax if the destination state has a sales tax.

This can be most difficult.... where in the US one must deal with a state tax, a regional tax, and a municipal tax.... The regulation most likely applies only to a state tax.

This might affect Canadian sellers. However, the tax would most likely be charged when a parcel crosses the border.. from the Canada to the US.

And everything below a certain value will not be taxed..... something similar to the tax levied on items travelling from the US to Canada.

dutchman48 · ‎06-21-2018

@cumos55 wrote:
The US Federal Government has just passed a regulation that relates to internet sales in the US.

Internet sellers ... specifically those without a B & M store.....must charge a sales tax..... A destination state tax.

If a Seller in a state sells to someone that lives in any of the other 49 states, this seller must charge a sale tax if the destination state has a sales tax.

This can be most difficult.... where in the US one must deal with a state tax, a regional tax, and a municipal tax.... The regulation most likely applies only to a state tax.

This might affect Canadian sellers. However, the tax would most likely be charged when a parcel crosses the border.. from the Canada to the US.

And everything below a certain value will not be taxed..... something similar to the tax levied on items travelling from the US to Canada.

What would happen if you list on .com and ship from the US, or even sell on .ca and ship from the US?

This is going to become a nightmare for many sellers.

Wait until Canada does the same to get their pound of flesh as well!

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-21-2018

NIt was a Supreme Court ruling that allows the state to collect taxes for internet sales. It will be interesting to see how it all works out. I would guess that the venues like EBay will collect it or else just retailers who sell a certain amount each year. I think that right now each state has its own laws regarding the thresholds etc so perhaps congress will try to standardize it in some ways, I imagine that could be very tough to do.

https://www.12newsnow.com/article/news/nation-world/supreme-court-allows-states-to-collect-sales-tax...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-06-18/today-s-top-tech-headlines-video

rose-dee · ‎06-21-2018

If this ends up applying to Canadian online sellers who sell across the border into the U.S. it is going to be a real burden for those of us whose market is mainly in the U.S.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Trump's ongoing battle with (and apparent hatred of) Amazon? Or did the ruling come from the U.S. congress? Does this mean the individual states themselves will get the money collected, or the U.S. federal government? If the latter, maybe they've realized that Trump's tax giveaway to big corporations is breaking the bank -- with a federal budget coming up -- and they needed to find more revenue somewhere.

A lot of countries are realizing that there is a tax goldmine in internet sales, since so many people are now buying online, but I'm surprised to see the U.S. enact such a measure. I thought they had a Republican government (which has traditionally been against more taxation and less interference from the state).

rose-dee · ‎06-21-2018

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
NIt was a Supreme Court ruling that allows the state to collect taxes for internet sales.

Then scratch everything I said above. I was trying to figure out what "NIt" stood for in your post, when I realized it was a finger-slip. (LOL)

cumos55 · ‎06-21-2018

We in Canada already have a federally legislated tax..... GST/HST/QST.

Our tax system is applied to 10 provinces, and three territories

Compared to a US option with 50 states

and... when it comes to the US, not every state levies a tax.

When I first heard of this, It was my impression it would be a federally levied tax, the same across all states..... not so...

Perhaps the US should look to Australia for some tax guidance....

Maybe eBay will collect the tax and then send the amount collected for each state, to each state....

cumos55 · ‎06-21-2018

If I remember correctly....

Amazon moved a major service centre out of a state because that state was prepared to levy taxes on everything sold out of that centre.

ypdc_dennis · ‎06-21-2018

The A-river gave into pressure last year and has come to agreements with some states to collect sales tax on behalf of theirthird party sellers on the A-river .COM site.

The US Supreme court ruling for internet sales tax: www.bbc.com/news/business-44567545

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-21-2018

Darn fingers and darn eyes for not catching my typo!

hlmacdon · ‎06-21-2018

The US government has not passed a new regulation, there has just been a ruling in South Dakota v. Wayfair. There will have to be state and federal level legislation put forward to actually deal with the implications of this. For example some states currently place the onus on the end user to report the purchase and remit taxes . In the meantime you may see marketplaces opt to voluntarily start tax collection for sales originating within the US given past examples like Newegg being forced to turn over end user sales records so the state could pursue those end users for sales taxes. In short it solves nothing and creates a larger mess that will need to be addressed. What we'll need to see the legislation clear up is where the thresholds start for tax collection and whom the onus is on for the collection/remittance. At this stage Federal legislation is going to be required. My feel is we'll see a threshold introduced to separate level of sellers. One can see why ebay has opted to split the company structure into domestic units within certain countries.

bpl521_sell · ‎06-21-2018

I believe this is only going to apply to med and large business, if I recall correctly as a seller I am SUPPOSED to declare income from sales on my tax return after a said amount. I doubt the spirit of the legislation is to target the average Joe/Jane who is unloading a garage full of unneeded used items.

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-21-2018

Duplicate post

tyler@ebay · ‎06-21-2018

Hi everyone! A busy day on the .com boards to be sure. Just wanted to hop on this thread and let people know we have a statement about today's decision here.

The Court’s decision is focused on large retailers who engage in a significant quantity of business in a state, and the retailers involved in the case are large, national companies. In other words, it remains to be seen what today’s ruling may mean for small businesses, whether in the US or Canada.

As a next step, we are calling on the US Congress to step in and provide clear tax rules, with a strong small business exemption, to help small businesses take advantage of the Internet to grow and create local jobs.

I know that there are some great questions about the larger implications of what this means for you personally, and I don't have specifics at this point in time. We expect to have more information and will provide updates as the legal landscape from this becomes clearer. Thanks!

Tyler,

tyler@ebay · ‎06-21-2018

@pjcdn2005 beat me to the punch!

Tyler,

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-21-2018

I saw yours so just deleted mine. Yours is more official! 🙂

cumos55 · ‎06-22-2018

The US tax situation was discussed in today's Winnipeg Free Press.

This tax situation started with a South Dakota court case. If an out of state business sold more than $100,000 in value , or had more than 200 transactions to buyers in South Dakota, an out of state business must collect the South Dakota tax.

When it comes to eBay...

Is eBay viewed as one large website ... a single large business with sales..... or is it a collection of sellers, with each seller considered as a separate business. And the the seller on eBay must sell enough to be required to collect the tax..

The US tax situation will be an absolute nightmare for small businesses. The newspaper article did note that 5 states do not levy a tax. It is 45 states.... and the possibility that these states would require that the tax be collected.... and then that amount should be forwarded to each state.

ypdc_dennis · ‎06-22-2018

@cumos55 wrote:
...
The US tax situation will be an absolute nightmare for small businesses. The newspaper article did note that 5 states do not levy a tax. It is 45 states.... and the possibility that these states would require that the tax be collected.... and then that amount should be forwarded to each state.

The A-river now has a deal with some states (Washington, Pennsylvania, Minnesota) that amazon collects and remits the sales tax on behalf of their sellers (the sellers do not need to do anything). Currently only for the .com site and only for states (cities are out of luck).

Where this leaves eBay in the future is anyone's guess, although it makes selling here more competitive as long as the a-river collects and eBay does not.

www.cnbc.com/2018/06/21/why-amazon-wins-with-supreme-court-sales-tax-ruling.html

https://blog.taxjar.com/amazon-collect-fba-sales-tax-washington/

cumos55 · ‎06-22-2018

The US federal government has to step in and.... Make It Happen.

The US needs something that is the equivalent of the Canada Revenue Agency and how the rules for sales tax are administered for GST/HST/QST and how the sales tax is collected in Canada......

The US needs one rule for sales tax... not 50 different rules

reallynicestamps · ‎06-22-2018

@bpl521_sell

if I recall correctly as a seller I am SUPPOSED to declare income from sales on my tax return after a said amount.

No.

You are supposed to declare all profit from sales when you purchased the goods with the intention of reselling, on your income tax.

You are also allowed to subtract the costs of selling (including the purchase of the goods) from your selling income.

So if you bought something(s) for $100 and had $50 in various costs including packaging and listing/selling fees, then sold the something(s) for $1000, you would declare income from sales as $850.

You are thinking about the minimum amount in sales you have before you MUST register to collect and remit sales taxes.

The number we usually see bandied about on that is $30,000gross sales annually.

To confuse things, you get a percentage of the sales taxes you collect back for the work you do filling and filing the monthly tax form. And then there is the question of export sales.

I need a coffee.