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Ebay Taxing Numismatic Coins (Utah)
Peace_dollar88
Posts: 1,220 ✭✭✭✭✭
I have been avoiding buyings coins from ebay since October or so of last year when Ebay starting collecting tax for the state of Utah. In the state of Utah their is no Tax on Bullion or Numismatic coins. Yesterday i won an auction that was around $400 was super stoked to see that they didnt charge tax on the purchase. HUGE win for us Utah collectors.
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Ebay slowly working the bugs out of their blanket application of tax collection.
Keep an open mind, or get financially repressed -Zoltan Pozsar
Agree. They do eventually get it right.
Based on the opening post, the thread title gives the wrong impression.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Purchased a xf 20.00 lib from eBay about a week ago. When it came time to check out there was a 90.00 charge for State of Michigan sales tax. There is no sales tax on bullion or “rare” coins in the State of Michigan. I called eBay, they said it is considered to be an on line sale subject to sales tax even though, as I mentioned there is no sales tax on those items in Michigan. The extra 90.00 isn’t going to kill me, but I’m not going to make that mistake again.
some states want to tax everything and indirectly are killing coin collecting there
Check the Michigan laws. I haven't yet heard of a state that didn't have the same online exemptions as in-state.
Well not really.
Which more accurately reflects the first post:
Ebay is a 25 years old company and has been anticipating state tax collection for years yet continues to F it up.
I can certainly understand why you'd prefer not to answer the question I asked. I'm curious, though- why did you quote it?
edited to add... And as far as F'ing it up goes, they got it right here. Just sayin'.
Buzz... but thanks for playing.
It's only in the last year or so that this (sales tax for online marketplace purchases) became a reality and there are 56 different sets of rules applied across 10,000 taxing jurisdictions.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
Taxation has been on the radar for ten years. Inevitable for at least 5. Ebay makes a practice of sleeping at the switch and waking up with a groggy," duhhhh what,: when a screw up is called to their attention.
A dozen decent New York accountants and tax attorneys could have seamlessly initiated the multiple mandates. The San Fran guys could not get it together.
Too bad. I suspct that some Utah coin buyers have been lost for good.
I'm confused. The OP stated that eBay correctly did NOT charge sales tax. Your posts would only make sense if eBay incorrectly did charge sales tax.
Or perhaps Utah coin buyers have been lost for good because they were not charged sales tax.
Don't be. Coinstartled is invested in the idea that eBay is incompetent and is going out of business because of it. In his view, eBay is wrong regardless of what they do.
You are correct, this is confusing. Rereading this at 2 am, it is not clear whether the OP had been charged tax earlier on a coin purchase through Ebay or had just assumed that Ebay would charge him a tax erroneously as had happened in other states where coins and bullion are exempt.
The first two responses by Derry and JM sort of reinforced the idea that an error regarding that state had been initially made and then corrected.
Mark Feld got it right regarding the title line giving the wrong impression...I think.
Perhaps the OP can clarify what actually happened...or didn't happen.
Sorry for the confusion. I have made purchases as of recent on Ebay and have been charged tax on numismatic items. Two days ago i made a purchase and the tax was not collected. Seems as though ebay has fixed this tax issue for at least Utah residents.
which is why your title is misleading as noted........
Successful transactions with-Boosibri,lkeigwin,TomB,Broadstruck,coinsarefun,Type2,jom,ProfLiz, UltraHighRelief,Barndog,EXOJUNKIE,ldhair,fivecents,paesan,Crusty...
@Softailridery2k2....Welcome aboard....Sales taxes are a nasty issue... one gets taxed on wages, then taxed when spending wages that have been taxed....BST here is good...Cheers, RickO
Shame so many people apparently post after only reading the title and not the three sentence post. The last two were "Yesterday i won an auction that was around $400 was super stoked to see that they didnt charge tax on the purchase. HUGE win for us Utah collectors." The post itself was completely clear.
Perhaps when the title fits with one's opinions, actually reading the post to understand is not needed.
Glad to hear that Ebay fixed their tax issue for Utah buyers. I’m still waiting for my tax refund from a purchase earlier in January, and for them to fix their tax table for Michigan.
"A penny hit by lightning is worth six cents". Opie Taylor
Well I know Sunday is a good day for preaching, but you are wrong here. The title was appropriate if perhaps incomplete. The problem was the opening post which the author clarified. So in fact he had been charged tax on Ebay coin purchases which should have been exempt.
If they are hitting you with undue taxes you could file a complaint with the CFPB, easy to do on consumer issues. Also your state consumer rights arm of the AG may also be good venues to file that or the state of CA. Last time I tried to file a complaint on an ebay issue, it had to be done in the county that ebay operates in.
Again, you are incorrect. From the OP's clarifying post "Two days ago i made a purchase and the tax was not collected." It does not get clearer than that. Unless you are trying to play semantics because the OP's additional information indicated that in the past tax was not handled correctly, but now it is handled correctly.
Just to make it beyond abundantly clear...
eBay correctly does NOT charge sales tax on bullion or numismatic purchases for Utah buyers. Repeat: eBay correctly does NOT charge sales tax on bullion or numismatic purchases for Utah buyers.
Concerned this will hurt my online sales. Terrible situation.
Time to sell out? Whatever party caused this want vote against in fall.
And yet the thread title implies otherwise.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Sigh, yes. I don't know how to make a sad trombone noise here
On the plus side, it's a great opportunity to jump right in for those who are unhappy with eBay.
I wonder if "bashebay.com" is available
Only 122 weeks left, then no more eBay. The good news is, I assume that means Sears will be reopening. Online had its heyday, Brick & Mortar is forever.
Well no, Mark. The title alerts us to the taxing situation in Utah regarding coins. The op was vague in describing the situation as to whether he had been incorrectly charged at an earlier time and he later clarified that he had.
Maybe we can send the thread to Fred Weinberg for a final determination.
The title has an implied "is" such that it reads "eBay Is Taxing Numismatic Coins in Utah." The title isn't vague, it just isn't correct. Use of the word "not" would make it correct. If the goal is to have the reader look at the post before knowing the details, then the title should say something along the lines of "eBay's Policy for Taxing Numismatic Coins in Utah," which doesn't imply what is actually being done. But as written, Mark is correct in his analysis.
You would be correct Jeremy if Ebay had not been errantly collecting taxes on numismatic coins. I considered that and asked PeaceDollar88 to clarify the opening post.
As they had been, but now were not, the title was not optimal, but still correct.
If I understand the OP’s first post correctly, the thread was started one day AFTER a transaction for which he was NOT taxed. He posted “Yesterday i won an auction that was around $400 was super stoked to see that they didnt charge tax on the purchase.”
The thread title didn’t say “EBay no longer taxing..” or “EBay not taxing...” or “EBay taxing of...”
It said “EBay taxing...”
I don’t understand why this is so difficult - I give up 😉
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
It’s been very inconsistent. I’m a Utah resident and coin related purchases for the last month have been hit or miss. I have been taxed roughly $80 dollars that I shouldn’t have been over this time. What action do I take to get that money back?
Nick
Can folks read and understand what they read these days? I don't know if the OP updated his thread since I have been following this the last few days. But it was perfectly clear to me. He bought a coin awhile back and was charged sales tax. Later he was not as ebay fixed the system.
What's all this P*ssing back and forth accomplishing?
It's been hit and miss with me over the last week or so. I've had approximately 10 transactions of buying coins and all but two have NOT had any sales tax. Like nk1nk said, how to we get back sales tax that was inappropriately charged?
I’m going to call Ebay tomorrow and see what I can find out. I’ll report back any news I get.
According to the General Sales Tax Act, Section 205.54s, "a sale of investment coins and bullion is exempt from the [sales] tax."
The law defines bullion as "gold, silver, or platinum in a bulk state, where its value depends on its content rather than its form, with a purity of not less than 900 parts per 1,000." "Investment coins" is defined as "numismatic coins or other forms of money and legal tender manufactured of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, or other metal and issued by the United States government or a foreign government with a fair market value greater than the face value of the coins."
I called Ebay today and was asked to give all 8 of my item numbers that were charged a sales tax that shouldn’t have and was put on hold while she checked them. She came back on and said it did appear that I shouldn’t have been charged sales tax on those items but she has to send them to Ebay’s tax division and they will verify if I will be given a refund. I was told I would be getting a call within 24 to 72 hours. The total tax came to $82.36. I’ll update when I hear back.
Nick
Holy $@&(! What a joke. I’ve been trying to get this resolved for over 3 weeks and I’ve gotten nowhere. My original call seemed promising, the lady agreed I was charged tax in error and sent the refund request to the tax division of Ebay. I missed a follow up call and when I called back I talked to someone who was completely clueless, she kept telling me I had to submit a tax exemption form, We went in circles for about 5 minutes she obviously had no idea what she was talking about but that call ended with her telling me she would send an update request to the tax division. No contact since. I just called them back and this lady tells me that Ebay charged me tax and sent it to the state so now I have to contact the state to get my tax back, I was livid! Hell no am I going to try and track my money down from the state of Utah when Ebay charged me in error, you can go and get that money from the state. She quickly got itratated with my hostility and said she would send a completely new request to the tax division and earned it could take up to a month. Ebay is a joke. I see this being a bigger hassle than it’s worth. I’ll only be buying from eBay things I can’t live without. I’d say half of what I would typically spend there is going elsewhere.
Nick
I live in Texas and numismatic and bullion are tax exempt, and never had an issue with eBay charging tax on coins purchased. I get taxed on everything else that I buy on eBay. It appears eBay has a glitch in there system for Utah. Good luck on getting your money back.
As the Chairman of ICTA, we've brought many of these issues to the attention of eBay and are attempting to work with them to recognize the tax exemptions in 30+ states. Unfortunately it is a huge organization and the tax structures vary by state to state which adds to the complexity.
For more information on Wayfair versus South Dakota and how it affects collectors throughout the hobby, please support ICTA www.ictaonline.org so that we can work together to get this issue addressed legislatively.
For the more immediate need of getting your sales tax back, if the seller is a member of ICTA they can contact us and we can help expedite the issue with eBay for you.
President of David Lawrence Rare Coins www.davidlawrence.com
email: John@davidlawrence.com
2022 ANA Dealer of the Year, Past Chair of NCBA (formerly ICTA), PNG Treasurer, Instructor at Witter Coin University, former Instructor/YN Chaperone ANA Summer Seminar, Coin World Most Influential, Curator of the D.L. Hansen Collection
And...we get taxed on a tax on social security!
Well you get taxed on a conventional 401k and/or IRA too. At the most 85% is taxable and if you're that well off why would you care? FWIW Iowa and smoe other states don't tax SS, plus you get to exempt $12,000 of pension income.
I don't particularly care for it, but it is what it is. Too bad that they don't dump the resulting tax back into SS.
MY COINS FOR SALE AT https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/other/bajjerfans-coins-sale/3876
PA does not tax pensions.
IRA Etc are federally taxed on required distributions and elective non penalty ones but the money was untaxed when earned. SS taxation is IMO larcenous.
Ebay should not be in the tax collection business.
Iowa taxes pensions AND IRA withdrawals. There are a lot of people who don't pay income taxes on SS either because they don't draw that much SS or they don't have enough "other" income to make their SS taxable. Be thankful that you're not in their shoes.
MY COINS FOR SALE AT https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/other/bajjerfans-coins-sale/3876
That is good. They were (correctly) not charging sales tax on coins for me (Connecticut resident), but recently I got charged sales tax (improperly) on a purchase from a week ago. I e-mailed ebay about it, so far crickets. Very infuriating.
GET IT RIGHT EBAY!!! You are killing COIN SALES!!
Since the states "won the right" to have it collected, they are much better prepared to do it. Be thankful that they relieved you of the burden. Might be a PITA, but at least the states offer a means to recover that tax which was improperly collected. The first order of business if you're improperly taxed is to save "proof" of it.
MY COINS FOR SALE AT https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/other/bajjerfans-coins-sale/3876