Quote:
Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes
Noticed the following message posted on ebay:
As you may know, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of South Dakota in June 2018, which removed the requirement that certain retailers have a physical presence in a state in order for that state to impose sales tax obligations on these retailers.
Some states have extended the tax collection obligation to marketplaces. We believe this ruling is unfair to small businesses and will continue to call for greater simplicity. In the meantime, we’re working to find the best way to support our sellers.
What this means for eBay sellers: Regardless of where you’re physically located, if you sell to buyers in certain states, those states may require you to collect applicable taxes on your transactions.
Therefore, based on these new laws, we will calculate, collect, and remit sales tax for orders shipped to customers in the following states on the following schedule:
•Washington—starting Jan 1, 2019
•Pennsylvania— starting July 1, 2019
•Oklahoma—starting July 1, 2019
Once we start collecting tax in these states, you do not need to take any action. There are no extra charges or fees for this service. Prior to these dates, please continue to collect and remit tax in these states and comply with any other applicable requirements they impose.
There are no opt-outs for selling items into the states listed above, or out of eBay automatically collecting sales tax for items shipped to the states above.
Additional states will likely be added to the above list. Stay informed on the Help pages.
For more information on these new tax requirements, we recommend that you consult with your tax advisor. If you do not have a tax advisor, we’ve partnered with Avalara and TaxJar and they will have specific insights into the best course of action for you.
It appears for the first three states they mention, that ebay themselves will not only calculate, but collect and remit the taxes at no extra cost to the seller.
My only question is will re-sellers buying through ebay still be required to pay the sales tax?
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If what is being said is true, that in those listed states Ebay will start to bill and collect the sales tax and there are absolutely no opt outs, that is 100% wrong and going against basic sales tax laws. If a bona fide re-seller purchases something through Ebay that they then turn around and sell to others, they should not be charged sales tax on the purchase. Here's a link to one of Washington State's websites talking about and explaining the use of a Re-Seller Permit in the State of Washington. It clearly states how a buyer that is going to resell something should not be paying sales tax on it.
https://dor.wa.gov/find-taxes-rates/...seller-permits
This could become a nightmare for anyone that buys items for their business through Ebay to then resell if Ebay is not going to honor their re-seller and sales tax exemption certificates. This could become a real paperwork and tax nightmare if this happens. I've got to believe Ebay hasn't fully explained what will actually happen in this case as they're probably still working this out themselves. I'm guessing before they have to actually start doing this that they will come up with a program to allow valid re-sellers purchasing items through them to submit exemption certificates that will allow those purchases to be sales tax exempt. How they're going to implement it though, and differentiate between taxable and non-taxable purchases that a buyer might make, is going to interesting to say the least.
This is exactly why Ebay was against this new Supreme Court ruling and was sending petitions out to people and asking for signatures and telling people to call their Congressmen and so on. And if Ebay does end up having to go through with this and start doing it, you can bet it is going to cost them time and money to comply. How long before you think they'll come up with some way to pass the added cost on to their dealers then???
There was another thread not too long ago where someone asked the question about the possibility that card shows might make a comeback because of all this nonsense. Well, if the various states and taxing authorities keep going after everyone like this it, it may start to happen sooner than later.