Taxes on Ebay 0

[the blob]

8 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

Understanding exactly how this is going to roll out and my responsibilities to eBay as well as other states is seemingly beyond my comprehension. 

Guess I would just do more consignments and Facebook and Craigslist’s sales I guess.

is there a simple cheat sheet to understand what to do?  eBay itself doesn’t seem to be too clear on the issue. 

Right now it doesn't sound like you'll be doing anything and ebay will be handling it. For them it's just a matter of programming the system to do this stuff, it should be pretty automated at that point. I think they have an incentive to make this easier for us for all the reasons stated. Having to collect 50+ (or are we talking about thousands with each county potentially having a different rate...I know that is the case in my state) different sets of sales taxes will drive many sellers off ebay. This would hammer their stock price.

[Bookery]

Welcome, everybody, to my world.  As a small brick and mortar business I have to file over 100 tax forms per year (20 separate forms are due this month of January alone).  I hate the idea of all of this excessive taxation (and frankly the hours involved TO PAY the taxes is of more concern to me than the actual amount, at this point).  But our business has also been getting killed by all of the unequal applications of taxation.  I have to compete with about 2-dozen serious eBay dealers just in my local area alone.  They don't collect sales taxes.  Neither do the show dealers who set up several times a year just a few miles from my shop.  I deal in a lot of high-end items.  But it's difficult to sell, say, a $3000 copy of Hulk 181 when I have to charge $200 in sales tax, and the guy up the road at the comic convention, or the guy on eBay, doesn't.  If something isn't done soon to equalize the tax collection burden between shops and virtual shops, there won't be any physical retailers of anything much longer.  I suspect you show dealers are going to come under a lot more scrutiny in coming years as well... not only are sales taxes not being collected, but a lot of income there goes unreported as well.

 

[ADAMANTIUM]

Surely there is a way to find out now...

Perhaps buying from some of the state's where it is implemented, or simply emailing said buyer who's possibly had a sale since January 1st 2019?

[ADAMANTIUM]

2 minutes ago, Bookery said:

Welcome, everybody, to my world.  As a small brick and mortar business I have to file over 100 tax forms per year (20 separate forms are due this month of January alone).  I hate the idea of all of this excessive taxation (and frankly the hours involved TO PAY the taxes is of more concern to me than the actual amount, at this point).  But our business has also been getting killed by all of the unequal applications of taxation.  I have to compete with about 2-dozen serious eBay dealers just in my local area alone.  They don't collect sales taxes.  Neither do the show dealers who set up several times a year just a few miles from my shop.  I deal in a lot of high-end items.  But it's difficult to sell, say, a $3000 copy of Hulk 181 when I have to charge $200 in sales tax, and the guy up the road at the comic convention, or the guy on eBay, doesn't.  If something isn't done soon to equalize the tax collection burden between shops and virtual shops, there won't be any physical retailers of anything much longer.  I suspect you show dealers are going to come under a lot more scrutiny in coming years as well... not only are sales taxes not being collected, but a lot of income there goes unreported as well.

 

+1 I agree it should be a level playing field

We're or I am just concerned eBay is going to think it's "my job" to fill out the forms..... which wouldn't eliminate ebaysbusiness, but would dramatically reduce it...

[ADAMANTIUM]

1 minute ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

5 minutes ago, Bookery said:

Welcome, everybody, to my world.  As a small brick and mortar business I have to file over 100 tax forms per year (20 separate forms are due this month of January alone).  I hate the idea of all of this excessive taxation (and frankly the hours involved TO PAY the taxes is of more concern to me than the actual amount, at this point).  But our business has also been getting killed by all of the unequal applications of taxation.  I have to compete with about 2-dozen serious eBay dealers just in my local area alone.  They don't collect sales taxes.  Neither do the show dealers who set up several times a year just a few miles from my shop.  I deal in a lot of high-end items.  But it's difficult to sell, say, a $3000 copy of Hulk 181 when I have to charge $200 in sales tax, and the guy up the road at the comic convention, or the guy on eBay, doesn't.  If something isn't done soon to equalize the tax collection burden between shops and virtual shops, there won't be any physical retailers of anything much longer.  I suspect you show dealers are going to come under a lot more scrutiny in coming years as well... not only are sales taxes not being collected, but a lot of income there goes unreported as well.

 

+1 I agree it should be a level playing field

We're or I am just concerned eBay is going to think it's "my job" to fill out the forms..... which wouldn't eliminate ebaysbusiness, but would dramatically reduce it...

I just wanted to add.... if it does level the playing field, maybe people will visit brick and mortars again  I mean go through ebay and have a selling learning curve or sell to the LCS,  I hope it really evens it out.....  

[Bookery]

5 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

+1 I agree it should be a level playing field

We're or I am just concerned eBay is going to think it's "my job" to fill out the forms..... which wouldn't eliminate ebaysbusiness, but would dramatically reduce it...

Without having any chance to read the details, I'm sure eBay will be collecting and distributing the sales tax.  It's easy for a large corp. like eBay or Amazon to simply design a program that incorporates the various tax codes and automatically applies them to the auction result or sale (the govt isn't going to want to track and audit 100,000 different eBay sellers individually, either).  It won't directly affect the seller, but buyers will have to get used to paying sales tax on everything online in the future.  As Amazon expands the numbers of its warehouses, this is already happening in a number of states.  If buyers switch to Facebook selling in sufficient numbers, the govt. will simply force Facebook to do the same thing in some form or another.  Want to get an even bigger headache?  Technically, there are not 50 different tax rates for the various states.  There are thousands!  Every county in America adds to the state its own additional rate of sales tax.

[Jaylam]

I have noticed at Wizard Con in Chicago, when I have purchased from Metropolis at their booth, they have charged sales tax (at the Illinois and City of Chicago rate). They were the only vendor I bought from doing this.

[Jaylam]

Or, how would you like to be into buying and selling precious metal coins and bullion. I live in Indiana used to go to into Illinois to buy because they didn't charge sales tax on such items like Indiana did as hard as that is to believe. But in 2016, Indiana changed the law, so now my home state does not charge sales tax on these items like Illinois. Think of what a mess this is going to be on ebay, just look at this chart for bullion sales tax rules from each state, my head is spinning...

https://thecoinologist.com/sales-tax-state-by-state-breakdown/

[LordRahl]

Reading plain English seems to be a lost art  Or are people just not bothering to read what eBay has said on the topic? As a seller, you will not need to do anything for sales tax. Ebay is going to calculate, collect and remit sales tax on all transactions. I'm not sure sure how much clearer they can state this.

[Red_Hood]

Maybe this will be an advantage for us Canadian eBay sellers.  We don't collect that pesky American tax from American buyers.

[Donger]

Technically, as a seller you should be:

1) Collecting taxes from the buyer

2) Remitting said sales taxes to the state of purchase

3) Additionally sending your business income taxes on your income

For those new states involved (and eventually all states that have a sales tax)

a) They are now collecting sales taxes from the buyer

b) Since they are now collecting this tax you no longer have to do #1 and #2 above

It's unclear to me whether they are also collecting local/city tax; if someone can chime in that would be great.

This is terrible news for the buyers unless you live in one of those tax free states.

Edited January 7, 2019 by Donger

[Robot Man]

I rarely sell on eBay any more. Last night I sold about 20 items. Including one to WA. I went into the invoice to adjust the shipping for combined shipping and noticed the line with sales tax. First one I've seen. I went in and adjusted the shipping cost, refreshed the page and the tax was gone! So, I just hit the button and forgot about it. 

As a buyer, how does one with a resale number handle this? Does the buyer file the resale number with eBay? Hasn't affected my state yet but if it gets dicely enough, I might just be done with eBay anyway. 

[the blob]

4 hours ago, Bookery said:

Welcome, everybody, to my world.  As a small brick and mortar business I have to file over 100 tax forms per year (20 separate forms are due this month of January alone).  I hate the idea of all of this excessive taxation (and frankly the hours involved TO PAY the taxes is of more concern to me than the actual amount, at this point).  But our business has also been getting killed by all of the unequal applications of taxation.  I have to compete with about 2-dozen serious eBay dealers just in my local area alone.  They don't collect sales taxes.  Neither do the show dealers who set up several times a year just a few miles from my shop.  I deal in a lot of high-end items.  But it's difficult to sell, say, a $3000 copy of Hulk 181 when I have to charge $200 in sales tax, and the guy up the road at the comic convention, or the guy on eBay, doesn't.  If something isn't done soon to equalize the tax collection burden between shops and virtual shops, there won't be any physical retailers of anything much longer.  I suspect you show dealers are going to come under a lot more scrutiny in coming years as well... not only are sales taxes not being collected, but a lot of income there goes unreported as well.

 

Well, it seems taxes will be collected via ebay once more jurisdictions opt in. I don't see NY and CA opting out of more money.

[JollyComics]

3 hours ago, Jaylam said:

I have noticed at Wizard Con in Chicago, when I have purchased from Metropolis at their booth, they have charged sales tax (at the Illinois and City of Chicago rate). They were the only vendor I bought from doing this.

[999ghosts]

18 hours ago, miraclemet said:

 

are you talking about Healthcare or University? 

Healthcare wise we didn't see any issues or service gaps during our years in Belgium (and we had a range of health needs and services provided, including surgery)

University, I'd agree at the top level there is a difference (there are only a few European universities that match up to the top US universities), but mid-grade US universities (ie State universities) are pretty on par with European universities. The only catch is that US universities don't always recognize EU degrees (gee I wonder why, it's almost like there's a competitive and economic incentive to not!).

 

Healthcare is among the best over here. That is true! Everybody pays to a pot and if needed everybody will get the best care needed. You can have an extra by paying a private premium so you will get a private room at the hospital (most companies will pay that for their employees). A lot is government regulated though. Like an ambulance ride can never cost more then €60 ($70). a doctor visit will cost you about $30 and your mandatory insurance will give most of that back.

School... sure free (from tax money) but at a cost of the schooling itself (regulation and changes can only be done with government money and after long bureaucratic road. My son went to an international private school. Costly, but so much beter then the funded schools. I could write a book about that on here, but I'll stop boring you.

Still, we understandably pay high tax for this, but the VAT on goods is to high as many people buy abroad. If you live near a boarder it is cheaper to go foodshopping in another country (The Netherlands, Germany...) 

I buy my comic books in the Netherlands. Cheaper then Belgium, lost VAT income for Belgium.

[WolverineX]

Got taxed the first time this weekend.  the fun begins