Ebay Sales Tax Question

808

I won an item on ebay and asked for the total amount from the seller. The seller responded with the price and I sent a m/o for the item. I received the item a week later and now the seller emailed me and is asking me for sales tax on the item. In the auction TOS, it does say that tax is required but when I asked for the total they did not add this. I'll probably end up sending another payment but wondered what other board members thought about this situation. Thanks.

WinPitcher

do you live in the same state as the seller? if so then yes I believe sellers can add state sales tax to your purchase price. however at this time since it wasn't part of the tos, you as the buyer assumed it was a tax included sale.

MRyanF

I would normally say that their error should be their loss and would not recomend sending another payment.

However, do you plan to deal with this seller again? If so, you probably need to pay it to preserve goodwill with them.

Personally, I have wondered if this is just another area ripe for fraud: a personal seller adds sales tax to items, giving him an extra few bucks on each sale. Hmmm...

Snowball

Can you charge sales tax even if you don't own a store/business?

I've seen sellers charge sales tax (to buyers with same state as sellers) but don't look like they own a store/business (some are small time sellers with low FB).

I thought you must have a certificate to charge sales tax (?).

MRyanF

You mean legally? Its real easy for an ebay seller to force people to pay it. I wonder how much actually gets remitted to the state though.

DirtyHarry

If you are a sole propreitor with a registered business name and tax ID# you should charge state tax on "within state" sales.. Either way, it should have been identified in the listing from the start. You shouldn't pay it, as your bid was a "contract" basis the stated listing. IMO. Bye.

Vargha

You are required by law to collect it on in-state sales, whether you have a tax certificate or not, in that the state can go after you at any time for the uncollected revenues plus penalties and interest. That being said, they have bigger fish to fry than onesey-twosey eBay sellers. Eventually, look for software changes that will enforce the collection either through databases that are available to the states from eBay or an automatic inclusion of the tax.