Ebay Buyer Sales Tax Scheme Headache!

[BobC]

Originally Posted by nwobhm

A smart tax cheat would submit a mail forward with the USPS.... I suspect there was more going on there.

Maybe, but then the person trying to get around the sales tax would have to have an actual address in a non-sales tax state to use for the USPS to forward from. Not sure that would work for a fake, made-up address, and if he used a real address, that could cause problems by having all mail forwarded from that address, not just the packages for cards he was buying.

I guess he/she could go rent an address at some mail place, or even rent a P.O. Box, but they'd have to pay money for that, which kind of defeats the purpose for dodging the sales tax to begin with, right? Also, a USPS forwarding request isn't permanent. I think it may last for 6 months, not certain though. So what would they do if the forwarding unexpectedly expired and their package went to an address it wasn't supposed to? And if someone kept trying to make continuing forwarding requests for the same address every time they expired, couldn't that draw some unwanted scrutiny from the USPS? And even if they had a friend/relative living in a non-sales tax state willing to receive packages for them, they'd have to spend more postage to get them forwarded, which again defeats the original purpose of not paying the sales tax.

Not sure what else this person could be doing, besides getting out of the sales tax. If you're suggesting they may have been trying to do something like change the address and then file a claim with Ebay for not receiving their purchase, they seller has their emails asking for the shipping change to back them up. That is exactly why I recommended that when the seller notifies them that he was thinking of reporting what they did, that he offer them the chance to contact and explain to him what happened first, on the slim off-chance there is a legit reason for what the buyer did. Not sure what other nefarious things you think this buyer could have been up to.