Fees being charged for the amount of SALES TAX Ebay is collecting for each sale

[0ldgeezer]

I am really curious to know if I am the only seller who has caught on to this scam by Paypal. I have examined the last few sales I have had on Ebay. Ebay has charged the buyer for Sales Tax on the sale. Then that GROSS amount which includes the Item, Shipping, SALES TAX is collected by Paypal. Then Ebay pulls the shipping cost from my Paypal Account and and Paypal takes their fee from the rest of the payment (Including the SALES TAX). So for those last few sales I noticed a differnce of .03 - .04 more in Paypal FEES dues to the sales tax collected by Ebay. Why do I have to pay additional Paypal FEEs for Ebay to collect a sales tax which is not required for them to do directly (except for CA). I am not making any profit on the sales tax. The Sales Tax is a FEE for certain states being collected by Ebay, not by the sellers.

I have spoken to customer service at both Ebay and Paypal. I was told it was not them it was the other. So the merry go round is spinning and nobody it taking responsibility. So, I issued a complaint on Consumer Affairs, the NY State AG, and next to the BBB.

The Ebay policy on Sales Tax states:

"Once ebay starts to collect sales tax in the required states, no action is required on your part, and there will be no charges or fees for eBay automatically calculating, collecting, and remitting sales tax."

Obviously they don't follow their own policies.

[xpert66]

But Bob in many states has no option to NOT charge sales tax as it is automatically taken out by PayPal and the many Communist states in America.

[Toolada]

I’m all in favor for any class action suit.  I would sign on.  What bothers me the most is I paid sales tax on this item when I bought it 30 yrs ago and now I sold it on eBay and to my surprise I was charged a 10% sales tax for selling it.  I don’t have a business name or store on eBay.  I’m calling it double taxation.  Every time this item gets sold more taxes will be charged towards the buyer and seller.  The government could makes hundreds of Dollars on an item that cost $130.00. 

[rsmhere]

Sign me up for the class action suit, this is crazy.  why should I have to pay a fee on a tax that is collected, that never even passes through my hand.  The defendants should be paypal, and Ebay. Ebay is including both the Shipping, and tax as part of their final value fee... so Sell something for $10 on ebay, charge $4 shipping, and when there is a tax of 8% the final value fee is $14.80 of which Ebay will take $1.48, then they send the entire amount over to Paypal, and paypal takes 2.9% + .35 or  $0.78.  So in conclusion... sell item for $10 and net   $10 - ($1.48 from ebay) - 0.78 from paypal and receive $7.74. Now the scenario without be taxes on the tax and shipping cost and eBay taking their 10% and paypal taking their 2.9% and .30 per transaction....  sell item for $10, charge $4 shipping, and 0.80 tax and net $10 - ($1.00 from eBay, ebay takes their $4.00 for shipping, and collects 0.80 tax) then sends $9 to paypal, and paypal charge thier 2.9% & 0.035 or $0.61 and you net   $8.39 compared to the $7.74 when Paypal and Ebay are in cahoots to drive up fees.  All Ebay does is send all the money (Sales$ + Shipping+ Tax) to Paypal (we never see it) charge us a fee on it, and then send it back to Ebay.  I think I can smell a class action suit in the wind.

[Crooner703]

All this means is the cost will increase to the end consumer.  There is no such thing as a corporate/business tax.  Those cost simply get forwarded onto the consumer since we sellers ALL have to pay the fee for the collection.  Factor this % going forward.  A rough 15% of the total cash collected would be a good estimate of your cost.  So if you want to have $85 when all said and done, you have to charge $100 for the item.  simple, yes?

[ruffattola]

I was never informed of the taxes and fee charges.  the taxes don't even represent my area

a friend sent me some money and I was charged a fee.  It wasn't a sale or business transaction -- just goodwill and then i get charged a fee.

[lovetosell]

This is a late reply, but if they sent you money through "friends and family" then there should not have been a fee.

[dzldummy]

If your item sells, we charge a final value fee based on a percentage of the total cost to the buyer, less any sales tax.

This is some fine print at the bottom of eBay's page for listing an item. If they're not taking their percentage out of sales tax, PayPal shouldn't either.

[trizor]

starting sometime in 2021, ebay will be handling all of their sellers money, paypal will no longer be involved with ebay, AND EBAYS FEES JUST WENT UP TO AT LEAST 12.35%, AND THAT % IS TAKEN OUT OF THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF THE SALE INCLUDING THE SHIPPING AND THE TAXES.  THE TAXES WERE NEVER PART OF THE FINAL VALUE FEES WE PAID BEFORE.  THEY WANT US TO BELEIVE WE ARE SAVING MONEY COMPARED TO THE 10% THEY CHARGED WITH THE 2.90% PAYPAL CHARGED, =12.90% AND NOW IT'S ONLY 12.35%.  EXCEPT THEY ARE NOW CHARGING US 12.35% ON THE SALES TAX COLLECTED ON EACH OF OUR SALES.  EBAY IS SLOWLY KILLING THE PEOPLE IT NEEDS TO SURVIVE, ITS SELLERS.

[Sdh001]

I remember in the 80s when banks got in trouble for putting deposits in their account to add into yours the following day to collect interest. Not sure how this is any different with ebay collecting the money and releasing it days later. Talk about triple dipping with customers money. Up charge percentage of sale including the shipping and sales tax in fees then holding money and collecting interest for days before putting into account. I have stopped using ebay now. Better ways out there.

[esb1922]

Allow me to disagree

They just need re-program the system a bit. I understand that fee is for processing sales tax by PayPal system, so to avoid that sales tax should go directly to eBay (anyway it's calculated by eBay)