Sales Tax on Coins Question
pocketpiececommems
Posts: 5,873 ✭✭✭✭✭
If your state doesn’t collect tax on coins and eBay collects it anyway is there a way to get your money back from them. I have avoided purchasing more expensive coins for that reason
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Have to call eBay and they will partner with their tax team to initiate a refund. It was taking over 90 days to get the refund, but they always get the problem resolved.
I was charged tax once a couple years ago on a purchase, probably 15 calls to ebay over 8-9 months. Never got past "we'll look into it and you'll hear something in a couple weeks". Finally gave up on it.
I didn't notice the tax until after I paid. Now I always look and will have it removed before paying if it happens again.
No taxes on coins and bullion up here in The Commonwealth. God bless The Commonwealth. RGDS!
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
No tax on coins or currency in North Carolina but a couple years ago they did it a couple of times to me after several calls I did finally get the money back about two months later.
Just bought a piece of currency today in fact, and didn’t have any issues so they apparently got it fixed on my end.
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It took me 6 months and about 12 phone calls to get my money back.
I quit buying off ebay because of it.
If a vendor collects and remits tax in error, only they can receive the tax back from the state. That's a generalization, but the various states differ in how difficult they make it to recover the overpayment.
For example, here in Taxas they require a NOTARIZED form to pay out the overpayment to somebody other than the emitter. So you are screwed either way. eBay hopes you give up and go away. Meanwhile, they took an offset on next month's remittance as soon as you reported the issue.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
SEEMS TAX IS ALSO ADDED ON SHIPPING.
Shipping is taxable in some states
Same here.
I haven't bought a coin via eBay since they started collecting sales tax, The STATE charges it, but eBay et al COLLECT it. Contact your state dept of revenue.
Since the tax is not really owed to some states, does E-bay keep the money? Might be why they are in no hurry to address it.
https://www.smallcopperguy.com
The should be looking into why their system is still collecting it when it shouldn't be.
They have known about it for 4 years and have done nothing to correct the problem.
If it were costing them the amounts they are illegally collecting they would have corrected the problem long ago.
It is just another source of revenue for ebay and they will not stop because they are making money from it.
It's really quite simple, and it's why there are several companies whose entire business revolves around software to collect and remit sales taxes.
SALES TAXES are blasted complex.
Texas imposes a 6.25 percent state sales and use tax on all retail sales, leases and rentals of most goods, as well as taxable services. Local taxing jurisdictions (cities, counties, special purpose districts and transit authorities) can also impose up to 2 percent sales and use tax for a maximum combined rate of 8.25 percent.https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/sales/
Well, not that simple
Texas Administrative Code
TITLE 34 PUBLIC FINANCE
PART 1 COMPTROLLER OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS
CHAPTER 3 TAX ADMINISTRATION
SUBCHAPTER O STATE AND LOCAL SALES AND USE TAXES
RULE §3.336
https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=34&pt=1&ch=3&rl=336
...
Simple, right, that 1/10oz AGE is not taxable. Except, while it is a bullion coin, it's not an ingot, bar, or plate. AND
` (3) Numismatic coin--A coin that is not used as a medium of exchange or whose price depends more on characteristics such as beauty, rarity, and condition than on its metal content or its face value.
AGEs track bullion prices with a premium. Is that numismatic? Maybe Maybe not
And,
` (1) This exemption does not include gold, silver, or numismatic coins, or gold, silver, or platinum bullion in the form of jewelry or other items of adornment.
Stick it in a bezel on a neck chain (the bezel and chain aren't bullion so are taxable) AS is the AGE!!!!
How does fleaBay know? Well, the software scans the listings for keywords, looks at the categories it was listed in, and applies some Kentucky windage (i.e. guesses). If it guesses wrong, some % of people will complain, a human eyeballs things, and an adjustment is made. If people don't complain, the tax is remitted to the state and nobody cares.
Now there are 56 states, commonwealths, territories, etc.
Plus some county / city / other jurisdictions that have their own tax rules.
https://tax.colorado.gov/sites/tax/files/Sales60.pdf
Transportation District/Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, county and state-collected local taxes. Please contact
home-rule cities for their regulations
and
That AGE (or ASE) has a value, it's legally a coin, so to Colorado, it's (probably, I'm not a lawyer) exempt. Take that exact same planchet, strike it with Greatest Generation dies, it's a commemorative and it's taxable.
Lather, rinse, repeat...
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
Here in Iowa there is a form you get from the dept of revenue. I believe that you have to provide a copy of the item sale showing the tax that was improperly collected. There may be a minimum that they will mess with. Now is probably not a time to expect prompt service.
I'm assuming (maybe incorrectly) thar ebay just turns the tax over to the states. So Ebay doesn't care, and they states certainly don't, either, since it's free money for them.
Maybe someone needs to initiate a class-action lawsuit against eBay. That will guarantee a response.
eBay won't care. They will simply say that the seller didn't properly identify the item and they did the best they could and remitted the tax collected.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
Ebay likely won't care until there's an expensive enough lawsuit about it.
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
When they first started collecting tax I had a few transactions where that happened but unlike the others here mine was cleared up very quickly with one contact to customer service.
One approach you might take if you're not getting the correct response is to make a consumer complaint to you state attorney general office and they should forward your complaint to ebay's legal dept who will probably make sure this gets taken care of.
Had this happen late last year. eBay case filed with their tax department …was told wait six months for a decision.