eBay Tax Question:

[BobC]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

I have a question for all you Americans here:

Do you guys pay tax on your eBay seller fees? I live in Ontario, Canada and we have to pay tax now. This actually started a couple of months ago, and prior to that we didn't have to. Here is some of my invoice below:

New fees Includes promotional savings where applicable
Final value fees $328.83
Subtotal $328.83
Total due $328.83

Tax Summary
Total Non-Taxable amount$0.00
Total Taxable amount $291.00
GST/HST at a rate of 13% $37.83
Total Current Invoice Amount $328.83

Did you say you are paying the tax as a seller, not as a buyer? If as a seller, I assume the tax is then being paid on the fees that you got charged by Ebay, correct? If so, that is a Canadian only issue. In the U.S., sales and use taxes are normally only charged to someone who purchases tangible goods and property. The Ebay fees charged to sellers are not considered services normally subject to sales tax here in the U.S. But just to be safe, in the U.S. sales taxes are handled by the individual states also, it is not a federal tax that covers all the U.S. So there may be one oddball U.S. state out there that does charge sales tax on such services but, if so, I'm not aware of it.