I live in Minnesota and we have no tax on bullion purchases. I buy a lot of one ounce World silver rounds on eBay and my last purchases made me pay sales tax even from other states that don't have taxes on bullion. Until eBay corrects this I will be no longer purchasing thru ebay. Their customer service gets worse all the time, as they have been no help in giving me any answers for why this is happening.
Same problem in Illinois. I posted a thread about this earlier this month. Illinois doesn't tax coins but eBay is charging taxes for it. Ten percent makes a big difference.
Michigan as well. Bullion and coins are tax exempt, eBay has been charging me tax on coin purchases recently. I called customer service and was told they would send it to the tax team, after about a week and a half with no further reply, i filed a complaint with the Michigan state's attorney general. We'll see how it plays out.
If only someone could have predicted this sort of thing might happen before the relevant laws were passed and court decisions handed down. Oh, wait, everyone predicted this.
I'm upset because, per NH State law, remote sellers in NH are not required to withhold for taxing states, yet eBay is forcing the tax on buyers of my eBay-listed coins when they check out. That being the case, I'm letting my eBay listings whither on the vine . . . If eBay doesn't change their practices, eventually, after all of my eBay-listed coins have all sold, there will be no more.
Well, eBay's tax scam isn't limited to coins. In November (2019) I made 3 purchases from 3 different eBay sellers who were from outside the US. The 3 items shipped from outside the US. eBay charged me tax on all 3, even though they have no taxing authority to which to submit these "taxes". The transactions showed up on my acct (credit card) as 6 transactions: 3 purchases & 3 tax collections. Since the taxes totaled (only) just under $10, I merely closed my eBay (& PayPal) acct & I am done with them after almost 20 yrs. eBay does not care! Their only mission is to separate people from their money, by whatever means they can. eBay has many income streams. Their excess, unpayable tax balances are growing by the day. States don't care because it's "small potatoes" to them, & eBay is doing them a big favor by collecting legitimate taxes (they don't want to kill the golden goose). And, states are not interested in taxes they are not entitled to collect. JMHO & experience.
If I may suggest, that sounds like a matter for the Federal Trade Commission. I haven’t been hit by this, so I don’t have standing to file a complaint. The agency’s website will tell you how to do it. Nothing stops complaints with multiple agencies.
Actually they do. The taxes are based on where the items are delivered TO not where the item is coming from. If your state charges sales tax and you make an online purchase from ANYWHERE the state levies sales tax and ebay is collecting it for payment to the state.
So these taxes that are being erroneously collected . . . where is it all going? Is it forwarded to the tax authorities in those states, or to Ebay's bank account?
So, you're saying that if I am in North Carolina, & buy something from someone overseas, & it is shipped from overseas, then by the mere fact that I have it shipped to my home address in Texas, it's taxable in Texas (even though the seller has no physical presence in Texas)??????
Yes, that in effect is what the supreme court's Wayfair decision means, states can now require sales taxes to be collected on sales by out of state merchants even if they do not have a physical presence in the state. I know at least 34 states have passed legislation now requiring sales taxes to be collected on out of state sales. I'm sure more states will jump in eventually. So yes, the taxes will be applied based on where the merchandise is delivered to.
To follow on to Conder's post, most of the states have a two-front plan - if you sell into the state and pass a minimum (e.g. 100 transactions or $100,000 or whatever the state picked) you have to collect the tax and remit it. if you sell through a marketplace (e.g. fleaBay) and the marketplace passes the minimum, then the marketplace has to collect the tax and remit it. WRT sales overseas, did you use eBay's global ship? I wouldn't doubt that is seen - for tax purposes - as a sale into whatever state the service is located in. Finally, WRT the general problem - if eBay is implementing YOUR state's tax rules incorrectly, pick up the phone, call them and explain the rules (it's helpful if you can point them to the state's rules). We've seen several cases where incorrect implementations have been fixed... Or I guess you can whine and whinge here. It does nothing but inconvenience a few electrons and certainly doesn't take a single step towards solving the problems.
Yes, nothing was ever accomplished by discussing a topic and finding out what other people think about it. Oh, wait... Seen them? Where? Perhaps mentioned in a CoinTalk thread?
To their credit (I guess credit?), they fixed the erroneous sales tax collection in Illinois (after about 3 weeks) and in Utah (after about 3.5 months). I called two times and didn’t get much help, but enough people must have complained to get eBay to fix it. I haven’t heard anything about a refund for the tax I already paid, but given it was only $10, I’ve dropped it (as it would take more time and effort than it’s worth).
