PAYPAL FEE ON TAXES; IS THIS LEGAL?

[LostCove]

Why Paypal charge me 2.9 percent fee on TAXES that ebay Customers need to pay.  Is this even legal?

Also, there's is no way of contacting them or their company for any sort of REAL help which is pretty ridiculous for charging us so much fees all the time.

[sharpiemarker]

@LostCove 

Yes, its legal. Many credit card processing merchant accounts do this as well. They do not parse sales tax out to not charge their fees on, ever.

Doing Your Own Business Taxes? Be Careful About Processing Fees

"When you process a credit card transaction, your customer’s credit card is charged for the total amount of the sale including sales tax. Transactions aren’t divided into sale amount and taxes. Since the transaction amount is the sum of the total sale and the sales tax, you pay your processing fees on that amount."

[Asparagus12]

@sharpiemarker 

Agree with your statement regarding retailers,

 "When you process a credit card transaction, your customer’s credit card is charged for the total amount of the sale including sales tax. Transactions aren’t divided into sale amount and taxes. Since the transaction amount is the sum of the total sale and the sales tax, you pay your processing fees on that amount."

The retailer receives the funds/ taxes that they, (retailers), pay, (in theory), to the state, county, and city.

In the eBay scenario, it is eBay that is the retailer collecting the tax and thus should be charged the transaction fee. The tax is already divided on the transaction from eBay, so it could easily have the transaction fee assessed by PayPal.  I am paying eBay to use their platform. Maybe eBay should pay PayPal to use their platform for collecting taxes. I do not own a business and I do not know laws about tax , other than I pay them.

I am just trying to understand how it is fair for someone else, (eBay), to collect funds using a service, (PayPal), and then have that service charge a third party, (me), a fee for that transaction?  All of this would be mute, if I was the one collecting and dispersing the taxes.

As I think about this more, I may have to see how eBay views this? Could it be some left over "understanding", between the two from when they were together? hmmmmm...Something else to ponder.

Thank you for your time. Stay safe.