Ebay Tax, I'm in England buyer in California (what's the law?)

I live in England, I just sold an item on EBay (which I had listed on Ebay.co.uk) for $230 to a lady in California. Seems Ebay/Paypal have charged her an additional $23.50 (it comes up on the paypal purchase details as "Tax collected by Ebay". I've never seen this before. I don't really understand US Sales tax but does it really apply to 2nd hand items bought overseas? Item was a book published in 1958 if that makes any difference.

Only issue for me is that I think Paypal include this extra $23.50 when calculating the fee I pay.

 

OK I've read a few other threads and seems this is going on in most states in the US, it doesn't matter where the item originates from. So my one outstanding question is: are Paypal allowed to charge me a percentage of this "Tax Collected by Ebay"?

 

Paypal takes a % of full amount you receive. If that total includes the sales tax then yes, Paypal will take a %.

I know that initially eBay would take the sales tax amount themselves so the seller never received it, but they said they would be changing it to the seller receives it and then eBay takes it back when they send their monthly bill. If they started doing that in the UK then you'll lose a % of the tax to paypal's commission.

 

Thanks Eddiel, seems to me Paypal & Ebay have colluded to fleece sellers for more charges. If it's an Ebay collected tax they should not pass it on to Paypal who then charge me a fee and then later deduct that tax.

I think someone with more legal nouse than me should look into this.

 

Whatever way they can find to take your money they will. Ebay has been collecting final value fees on the postage buyers pay for years now. Supposedly this started to insure they collected something from Sellers who would sell an item at a great crazy low price and then tack on a huge postal charge to avoid paying final value fees. For the Buyer the cost overall would be fair so it wouldn't matter to them how the Seller divided up the true price. Now I can see where Ebay would feel cheated by this, but instead of policing these obviously bogus listings they just hit all Sellers with their taking a cut of the postage, ridiculous!

 

Yes it sucks how Ebay do this, but I feel it's a different situation with final sale value + postage vs a state sales tax, that then gets passed to a 3rd party (Ebay don't own Paypal any more) who then charge you a percentage of that sales tax.

 

OK looking at various Ebay forums it's upsetting a lot of sellers here's a quote from one

"I opened an investigation with the NY State AGO, and they forwarded it to the NY State Taxation & Finance office for investigation. I am waiting for their update now. I also opened a complaint with the BBB and the Consumer Protection Agency. Now I wait to see how this will play out."

Another mentioned that the legality of this needs a court judgment, so I hope a case is brought against Paypal soon.

 

Are eBay taking their commission % from the total including sales tax?

 

That I don't know as the listing was for a fixed £1 fee, so I am presuming not, just PayPal.

 

I better check my last eBay invoice just in case.

 

In AU we're getting charged our GST on ebay regardless of where we buy from.

 

This is due to the Wayfair US Supreme Court decision from a couple of years ago, which permits states to collect sales tax on internet purchases. eBay collects the sales tax from the buyers and pays them directly to the states, much as a seller would with a non internet purchase. On PayPal the tax appears as a separate line item.

 

I actually believe eBay may be overstepping the boundaries of that Supreme Court decision - they have apparently decided to charge state tax on everything and let someone else sort it out.

It's ripe for a class action lawsuit or aggressive attorney general from a state not begging for sales tax scraps.

 

I agree. When I buy cds from Japan, I’m getting charged sales tax. Are they paying the tax to the applicable Japanese authorities? They better be. I don’t this is what the Supreme Court had in mind. The tax should apply to US sellers and buyers.

 

I do not believe eBay is remitting tax to the states, much less a foreign tax authority. I am just waiting for the day where a whistleblower in eBay comes forward on this.

My eBay purchases have dwindled to virtually zero after a) this extremely liberal interpretation of the SCOTUS decision and b) getting burned by unscrupulous sellers.

Going forward, I am going to try to buy through great communities, such as the one here.