Ebay Sales Tax on Everything Now?

[BobC]

Originally Posted by joed25

I have a New Jersey State resale Certificate. Does that exempt me from paying sales tax on all ebay purchases (even out of state)? Thank you. Joe

It depends! If you buy something on Ebay that is actually going to be re-sold by you/your business then, YES, that purchase is generally sales tax exempt to you/your business. But if you buy something that is for you personally and/or used in your business and not necessarily going to be re-sold by you/your business then, NO, that purchase would generally not be sales tax exempt to you/your business.

Just having a resale certificate doesn't automatically exempt you from sales tax on all purchases. And as mentioned by an earlier poster, you would also have to prepare and supply to Ebay, or whomever would otherwise be charging and collecting sales tax from you, a signed copy of any sales tax exemption certificate or form you have that is applicable.

And here's where it can start to get sticky. What if over time you/your business make some Ebay purchases that are sales tax exempt and some that are not. I'm not exactly sure how Ebay will be able to discern between which purchases are or aren't subject to sales tax then. And if a state ever goes back to Ebay to review and audit the sales taxes they are and are not collecting, Ebay will likely turn over their file of any and all sales tax exemption forms they've received for people/businesses. And that helps to show Ebay has no liability for having not collected sales tax from those people/businesses that gave them sales tax exemption certificates. But it also then gives the state a listing of people/businesses to possibly further investigate to see if they are truly sales tax exempt or merely trying to get out of paying sales tax.