Sale canceled - buyer did not want to pay CA sales tax.

I just had a ebay sale go south, requested a cancelation, because the buyer did not want to pay California sales tax. I asked if they knew a "work around" not paying the sales tax, but probably won't hear from them again.
Rant off.
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Block & move on.
You might have to wait for them to figure out what a "work atoind" is
, but the sad reality is that there's now a ~20% buy-sell spread on eBay in many cases. Social media venues will benefit from this.
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Okay so not too long ago someone posted about speculation of no more coin sales on EBay. Guess they're not too far off.
I don’t think I would be offering a “work around “ to an anonymous bidder. Relist the coin. Better for the sale to be cancelled then for the buyer to return it.
I try so hard to get Sellers to contact me here or anywhere other than eBay so we don't have to play that game (more for them, less for me), but cancelling a sale after the fact ... WTF??? ... no class.
Yep, block and move on
FWIW, eBay is a great venue for eyeballs and bringing buyers and sellers together, and I don't push it if they want to do it there, but my offer has to reflect my out of pocket.
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Buyer changed his mind about the coin and looked around for an excuse.
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Agree, since ebay has been collecting state sales taxes for more than a year, unless the buyer has been living in a cocoon and hasn't made an ebay purchase for over a year.
What was the sales price and how much was the tax?
Yes, a large enough tax in absolute dollars might give me second thoughts. I don't always look at the tax implications. Blocking may be unreasonable depending on the dollars involved.
I dont know what the state tax (CA) would be for 1500 usd.
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I wish I could read minds like you (apparently) can.😉
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The internet should've remained tax-free.
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Taxes, taxes, taxes... have they figured out how to tax a tax yet??
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Work in progress 😝
Well, if the price was $1500.01, then the sales tax would be $0. Was this sale exactly $1500?
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In California, the sales tax on $1500 would be at least $108.75. More if the buyer's city and county added on to the CA baseline.
US and British coin collector, and creator of The Ultimate Chuck E. Cheese's and Showbiz Pizza Place Token & Ticket Guide
County and city sales taxes should be outlawed. When are people going to get sick & tired enough of this crap do do something about it?
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Sales tax in California varies by county. It can be as low as 7.25% and as high as 10.25% in parts of LA County.
Perhaps it was an educated guess?
A couple of months ago, I had a buyer click the buy it now button and then request that I cancel the transaction because he didn't want to pay the sales tax. So it's not like it couldn't happen.
Yes, it might have even been a correct educated guess. But it was stated as fact.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Used to be you'd get your tax notice, it would ask how much you made, send 35% of that in, then it went to 57%, then 68%. Now it says " how much did you make, send in 115%.
If the sales tax was anywhere close to $1500, offer to throw in a silver eagle and add it the invoice. You will save the buyer $125 and take away an excuse....
It happened to me when I was a dealer. I used to include the tax in the price. The state didn’t like that, but if I announced that I was charging it by adding it as a line item on the invoice, I would sold almost nothing that came to less $1,000. Invoices over $1,000 were exempt from the tax.
I priced a coin to a guy, and he said “Yes.” Then he asked if if sales tax was included in the price. I said, “Yes.”
“Why should I have to pay sales tax?” he asked. “I live in Connecticut. They don’e charge sales tax on coin in Connecticut.”
“That’s true,” I said, “but this show is In Massachusetts which means that the tax is due.”
He threw up the deal.
A couple of weeks later, the Grey Sheet number had gone up, and I sold the coin in New Hampshire, a no sales tax state, for a little more.
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GST is applied to our property taxes here in NZ. But it's only 15%...
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In a round about way capital gains tax does that. Have you figured out why the government wants inflation? If capital gains tax was based on buying power I would not have a problem with it. But it is based on the dollar, which has pretty much lost buying power since it's inception!
You are, of course, correct.
About 6mo ago I bought my first coin on eBay In a long time. I was shocked to have to pay tax. Quick research let me know that was life now, so I sucked it up because I wanted the coin (and the price was still fair - I made the offer).
I can understand being upset about an extra 7-10% that wasn’t built in to the bid. Not sure about cancelling the sale, though. Research ahead of time would have let them (and me) know the rules of the game.
Personally, I have no problem paying state sales tax on internet purchases. It levels the field for brick and mortar stores to some extent.
All things being equal, I would NEVER knowingly pay 7.5% sales tax to Kalifornia. Really? 7.5%?
Not only is the percentage uncompetitive with other states, I don't support where the money goes.
That said, I doubt I will ever buy an expensive coin from any dealer in CA.
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If someone who lives out of state buys something mail order from a dealer in CA, does he pay the CA sales tax or the sales tax for his home state?
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There are a lot of work arounds. On some coins try the buy sell trade sections of coin forums; bypass ebay with paypal, a 3% fee is connected to the usps tracking to discourage fraud. Buyer could get a sales and use tax license if they qualify. Tax enforcement has collapsed in recent years, just read articles by David Cay Johnston on the subject. Oliver Wendell Holmes was quoted on that subject. It makes no sense to me that taxes would be generated on precious metals and many of the numismatic coins.
Including shipping or plus shipping? I think eBay charges tax on the sale including shipping, so there shouldn’t have been tax on that sale. Unless you meant including shipping. In which case you could have added $0.02 to your shipping charge and then it wouldn’t charge him tax.
US and British coin collector, and creator of The Ultimate Chuck E. Cheese's and Showbiz Pizza Place Token & Ticket Guide
Good question Perry. I don't know the answer. I do not want any of my tax dollars to go to the left coast under any circumstances.
FWIW, I buy premium spirits on the web that are not available in my state due to their monopolistic control and limited selections. When I do that, I pay my state taxes, plus shipping and handling. It does not appear that I pay the sales tax of the originating state. (only the local sales tax).
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I wouldn't waste my time with him.
That's why I don't buy anything from someone in CA. on EBAY>
Sales tax should be charged based on the purchaser's state of residence...
For this transaction, I think the 1882-CC was around $1350 so I looked at the seller's other items and added the 1878-CC to ensure a tax-free transaction. At $1499.99, you could add a one ounce silver bullion round ($30) to the invoice and help the buyer avoid sales tax:
Isn’t eBay notoriously bad at calculating the tax? Has anyone in CA paid over $1500 on eBay to tell us whether or not they actually dropped the tax from the transaction?
Yes, see the post directly above yours. It is from earlier this year. $1700 and no sales tax.
One caveat - the $1500+ total must be on the same invoice.
Tim
I’m not sure if you can still do this. It’s the old empty box trick. Buy something in California from a physical location and the seller sends a package to someone out of state negating sales tax.
illegal
Yes, over $1500 no tax. Go figure. Caliunicornia makes no sense.
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Thanks @pointfivezero. I was reading and writing while that was being posted.
The State of Utah doesn't charge sales tax. They had finally made that change after many months. Then on my last purchase I made on ebay, I was charged sales tax. I petitioned ebay and a couple of weeks later received a refund on my paypal account.
Fortunately I don't have to do that often since auctions do not appear on ebay very often.
I do agree that unless the seller hasn't bought a coin in a long time, he should have known that sales tax was going to be added.
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Absolutely. Just reporting what I have heard.
I remember 20+ years ago some very high end jeweler in New York got caught doing that on high ticket items. They had to pay the back taxes, which they had not collected from the customers, and some very hefty fines.
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you have the buyer's contact info, the workaround shouldn't be too difficult.