Sales taxes on eBay
TxCollector
Posts: 441 ✭✭✭✭
In the past month I've won 7 auctions on coins off of eBay and I've been charged taxes on two of them. Is there anyone else who has been getting incorrectly assessed taxes on their transactions and if so are there any recommendations for how to have eBay make a correction to prevent this from continuing? I called them after noticing the first error and it took almost a month for them to get it reversed. I called them just now to let them know about the 2nd instance. It's not a huge amount of money but just enough to be annoying.
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It happened to me last year, on currency Like you, it took a month to get it refunded. It makes shopping on ebay a lot less desirable for coins/currency.
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Doesn't it depend which state you're residing in? I'm in Maryland... they tax pretty much everything...:-/
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I've come to expect it from currency purchases since unfortunately TX is one of the states where those are taxable. It's just bullion and coins here.
Definitely. I saw something from 2019 that said that there were only 6 states that taxed on coins and bullion.
Ebay has been illegally collecting sales tax for some states for a long time and makes it a long process to get your money back.
I was having problems back as far as 12/11/2020 so they have known about and not fixed it.
I quit buying off ebay because of it.
There are several threads here about it if you search.
@asheland said:_ It happened to me last year, on currency Like you, it took a month to get it refunded. It makes shopping on ebay a lot less desirable for coins/currency._
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If there's one thing this guy Asheland hates...
www.brunkauctions.com
What category are the items listed in? One of the issues eBay has is that it charges sales tax based on the category, even if the item itself doesn't qualify based on the buyer's locale (similarly, tax could be skipped if a taxable item is listed in a category that is generally non-taxable).
All of them that I have had problems with were listed in "coins & paper money"
But it could go deeper than that. Washington state, for instance, has tax on paper money but not coins. A state that taxes bullion but not coins or vice versa may trick eBay into not charging tax or incorrectly charging tax if, for example, a Silver Eagle is listed under bullion or US/other, or perhaps both categories.
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They were both listed in that same category with the sub category underneath that being US coins. What is odd is that I have previously bought coins from both sellers (one of them just a few months ago) with no sales tax charged. Also, both of these sellers are coin dealers and one has over 200k reviews so I can’t think the issue was with them. I’m not sure how this is a complicated issue that eBay can’t figure out.
Oh. It's more than 6.
Doesn’t surprise me that it’s more now. I thought I had read somewhere about people in states where taxes apply having a friend or family member in a non-taxable state buy the coin/currency then mail it to them.
This is a constant issue. I'm curious if any ebay sellers here have seen a drop in their sales since this was implemented. I have bought a lot less on there due to the sales tax and I don't want to spend my time fighting to get the tax money back with no guarantee they will return it to me.
Since E-Bay started collecting tax, My Double Eagle sales have greatly increased.
Gold/ collectables/ easy money has been the culprit.
Problems (rising costs to buyers) , in all markets , are seen when the tide goes out.
There was an adjustment period. However, if you are in a state that charges sales tax, you pay sales tax virtually everywhere.
I was getting hit for sales tax in Florida from eBay. Took me a while to get it straightened out. I finally sent them the actual law. They could have fixed this very easily,
There’s no rhyme or reason why about 1 out of every 8 ebay purchases get hit with sales tax. Very easy fix, just call them and the tax is refunded every time in about 2-3 weeks.