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Ebay Tax on coins.
bestday
Posts: 4,220 ✭✭✭✭
Been buying 2020 privy gold & silver eagles on ebay ..with many sellers in states adding 10% tax .... Does tax apply only to American Eagle ,bullion..or all coins? I have not bought any from sellers with 10% tax
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Ebay does not tax coins. Your state does. Ebay just collects the tax for the state. Is your state sales tax 10%? I am in Pa., There is no state sales tax on coins in Pa.
What state are you in? If it's Illinois, there should not be any tax on coins or bullion (only on tokens and supplies). Some sellers mistakenly apply the tax. There was a point in time when eBay was adding the tax too, but that was resolved after a month (in early 2020).
yes.. IL
As long as it’s in the coins and paper money category (and not in the supplies subcategory), there should be no tax added. Ask the seller (if they added it manually) to remove the tax. You can send them the following link:
https://www2.illinois.gov/rev/research/legalinformation/regs/Documents/part130/130-120.pdf
thanks
Ebay has been illegally collecting sales tax in states that do not charge sale tax on coins for 6 months.
It is not the seller adding the tax.
You can call ebay and request a refund.
They will tell you it will take up to 10 days, sometimes you need to call them back after 10 days and request again.
States impose taxes based on law, eBay collects tax from the buyer to remit to states on my behalf. I don’t add tax to purchases nor have any idea nor time research what amount should be or not be added.
I have no control whether your state charges tax or not or eBay tacks it on the sale to remit to your state. Consequently it is the buyers who need to take responsibility for any tax issues. I don’t have time to worry about state sales tax issues beyond my state.
Ditto. eBay has billions of listings (or so it seems) and, perhaps, a few hundred employees. They don't have the resources to inspect every ad before it goes up for compliance. If they had the legal power to, they should simply absolve themselves of any legal obligation to collect the taxes and to tell the seller they are required to know if sales tax applies, and to apply it manually if the law requires it. Or allow sellers to "opt out" of mandatory sales tax collection and allow them to manually apply it at their discretion. Of course, sellers would be legally responsible for applying it when it counts.
An opt-in or opt-out system, in either case, would be better than the no-option system we have now!
Ebay had everything working correctly when they were forced to collect sales tax.
It was changed and ebay has been made aware of the problem and has no intention of correcting the problem.
If they are going to collect tax they need to do it legally.
As it stands it just just a way to rip off buyers and gain another 5-10% on a sale.
Then if the buyer notices the tax and wants a refund they have to call ebay at least once if not twice and wait up to 20 days to get the money back. Very poor customer service for buyers & sellers & also illegal.
It’s still happening in some states but I’m not sure this is the case with the original poster. I’m also in Illinois and I don’t have that issue when buying (it happened in January 2020 but was fixed by February 2020 for all of Illinois). The one time I did have tax added was an auction where the seller sent an invoice and manually added the tax (when they should not have done so). It would be unusual for two people in the same state to have different tax experiences on eBay (unless the original poster is in a city that has some special case regarding taxes on coins-which I doubt eBay would know about even if it did exist).
Sellers can NOT independently add sales tax to anything.
I think the sales tax rate is 10% in California. So the seller may be adding this in the auction by mistake.
The seller can't do it. I don't have the ability to change the sales tax at all. Since the Wayfair laws came into effect, it is all done by ebay.
In the screen shot shown, there is a line for sales tax, you can add the state and the %. A seller can mistakenly put this in. I dont know what the Wayfair laws are, or when they went into effect. Ebay collects the taxes and sends them to the appropriate state.
Agree that ebay applies the tax, not the seller. I sold a gold watch a while back, ebay added the taxes to it, not me. And I know it doesn't go to the seller also. Not sure how ebay distibutes that back to the states but they automatically charge the buyer, not the seller. I live in Tx. so coins are not taxed. Everything else I buy on ebay is though.
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My understanding is sellers can/should only be able to add taxes for the states in which they reside as the internet sales tax laws and SC decision affected interstate commerce not intra. There are cases where sales tax is incorrectly applied in interstate sales. eBay will refund the sales tax if you give them a call though it does take about a week. This issue getting less common as they fix things. Also if you are a dealer/reseller you can file a sales tax exemption license to not be charged the sales tax. Hope this helps, just my opinions/understandings.
That field is largely superseded. The only time that might work is if you live in a state that has no Wayfair marketplace laws and you have to charge tax to someone in the same state. Doesn't apply to California or Pennsylvania. I'm not sure there are many states left that don't have Marketplace laws.
Actually, eBay charges for intrastate also. The only time they MIGHT not, I don't know, is if the State hasn't passed a marketplace law.
I live in NY. NY has such a law. Ebay now collects NY state sales tax on my behalf.
You said that you could not do it. I just showed you that you can do it. I do not know what "That field is largely superseded.", is supposed to mean. I have to remember when I sell coins to not put in Pa. 6%, as coins are exempt from sales tax in Pa. as is a bunch of other items.
eBay is collecting sales tax on behalf of just about everyone. According to this, 44 states have passed Wayfair laws:
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/service-and-payments/tax-information.html#ist
The seller can NOT change the sales tax in any state that has such laws. That box doesn't work. That's what I meant by "superseded". I can put whatever I want in that box and it simply won't do anything in states that have marketplace laws. The only time that box MIGHT still work is if the buyer AND seller live in the same non-Wayfair state. Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California (the states mentioned here) all have Wayfair marketplace laws so that box is completely inactive for the seller in those states.
P.S. Here's the list of jurisdictions for which eBay collects the sales tax and, therefore, the jurisdictions for which that box is "superseded". Sellers have zero ability to adjust sales tax in any of these jurisdictions.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/taxes-import-charges?id=4121#section2
Oh, Ok, Thanks!
I just spent 50 minutes on the phone with ebay to request a refund of sales tax illegally collected on 2 items purchased.
At the same time I had to make another request for items I had already requested a refund for on 5/1/2021.
It is just not worth it to buy on ebay if you have to spend an hour for every purchase to get your money back.
EBAY SUCKS!
Interesting, thanks for the heads up! Will look into this next time I get a sale to my home state and make sure it's true where I live as well. Don't want to double pay my taxes haha so very good to know.
It is definitely possible when sending an invoice after the auction is over. I won an auction and there was no tax. I didn't pay right away as the seller had another auction and I was bidding on that too (waiting to combine shipping). I did not win that item but the seller still sent an invoice a few hours later. On the invoice there was 10% sales tax added.
Illinois has no sales tax for coins but has the tax for almost everything else. Some sellers incorrectly invoice. I doubt this is an eBay issue unless the coin was in a non-coin category. How else would it be possible for two people from Illinois to have different taxes charged on coins? Did eBay only add the needed tax exempt categories for certain residents while forgetting others?
It's based on category, at least in part. So if one is in bullion and one is on coins, eBay might treat it differently.
There is no tax on any coins sub categories I've bought from besides "publications and supplies" and I'm in Illinois. So how do you explain the difference in tax between what I experienced and what the original poster experienced?
Edit: and I don't have any resale certificate filed with eBay
Even though e-bay is most likely legally charging me Sales Tax (I'm in MN) , it has changed my buying behavior. I noticed tax just recently on a $2300 purchase (so that's over $150 in tax) so I returned the coin. Heritage is also now charging me Sales tax which will reduce my likelihood of buying from them. Most dealers - maybe considered small - are not charging it (like Pinnacle, Legend, Gerry Fortin) so my point is this has changed where I acquire or plan to acquire coins. This is unfortunate.
Ebay Sellers that charge sales tax on coins are at disadvantage ...was going to buy a 1oz gold eagle ,at checkout over $200 sales tax change added to total...passed
+1 ..more ebay hassles ,taxes ..unless no tax taking a pass
If you live in a state that charges a sales tax....good luck in finding a major on line retailer that won't do the same. Get used to it, it's now part of doing business over the internet until the Wayfair laws are "axed" or changed. Smaller retailers with annual sales of less than $200k in your state, may for now, get away with not charging you a sales tax. (Note that $200k threshold is only applicable for some states)
OPA, right?
Everyone blames eBay when they should be blaming Wayfair.
At least blame your state and not eBay.
This!
Talk to your state. Blaming people for complying with the law is misplaced.
I've already reached out to my local politicians as well as an e-mail to our governor. I don't think I was blaming others, just saying it will change my buying behavior and noted where I've seen the tax applied. It was e-bay where I first noticed the tax, but think it is unfortunate for the larger 'retailers' as well as limiting my choices. Our State is already one of the highest taxed in the nation, so this just seems very unnecessary - especially given our usual annual budget surplus.
I feel I pay my fair share of taxes, and don't think I'm alone in avoiding Sales tax where possible.
https://www.jmbullion.com/tax/
Thanks ...used Sellers from Oregon ,South Carolina to avoid taxes
Politicians want every buck they get their hands on