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.

[weneedtofight]

eBay does not own Paypal.  It spun off as an independent company years ago.

[0ldgeezer]

The Federal Government broke them apart a number of years ago, officially. However, Ebay still directs paypal to withhold money from NEW ebay sellers, and tells them to perform certain tasks they want done regarding their customers, which officially, they have no right to do. Believe what you will, they are still sleeping in the same bed.

[b_brah]

NOT an "accepted solution."  Just because you're fine paying an extra fee on your sales doesn't mean the rest of us are, nor does it mean that it's fair, ethical, or legal for PayPal to charge it.  We're basically being charged a usury fee on money that we NEVER see.  And this is supposed to be OK because it's easier for them to do it that way?  You're either a shill or a fool if you think this is acceptable.  Sure, PayPal is a "private" service, so if you don't like it then don't use it, right?  Except that if it wasn't for us schmoes hawking our crap on ebay, PayPal wouldn't even exist!  In any case, they're flat-out lying about their fee structure and then hiding the fact.  If I have a sale of $100 w/ free shipping, the PayPal fee should be $3.20 (2.9% + 30 cents, their advertised fee).  When you add sales tax of 6.25% (the rate on my most recent transaction), the total becomes $106.25; so the final PayPal fee would be $3.38 or essentially 3.38% of my original $100 sale.  So now my customer has to pay an extra 6.25% and I have to pay an extra 0.18%.  Even if ebay actually passes that $6.25 to the taxing jurisdiction where my customer lives (which I somehow doubt that all of it will make it into the state coffers), I'm pretty sure PayPal is just keeping the $0.18 When you extrapolate this over 3 BILLION transactions worth $600 BILLION per year, it's pretty easy to see that "taxing internet sales" is a windfall for PayPal, more precisely a BILLION dollar per year windfall!  Doesn't anyone remember Superman III or Office Space?  SHAME ON YOU PayPal for treating your customers so badly.  I can't wait for the legal smackdown and my $2 settlement check!

[iaroslavshost]

"eBay don't charge none for the handling of remitting your sales tax but since PayPal is payment processor and charges fee on entire amount you receive, its fair game. Because moving the entire amount for you is PayPal's service. PayPal don't piecemeal their fees out like that, too complicated. Just got to add those few cents to item price. its cost of doing business."

It wouldn't be complicated to deduct the tax amount from the total amount and then charge the PayPal fee since they figure out the way to do the exact opposite. They collecting the fee from the total amount and then deducting the tax collected by eBay (see attached image below). In that particular transaction, I overpaid 19¢  in Paypal fees. Not to mention that eBay invoices are a total mess also. Multiply these stolen cents by millions and millions of transactions and you have a HUGE amount of money stolen from eBay sellers. It's not the cost of doing business it is STEALING from their own clients and I stand by my claim. My intentions are to go to a big law firm with that.

[Beaug30]

Well, what about charging sales tax on the cost to ship? This is not at all customary in my experience, and my sales tax is now approaching 10% of the item's value. I believe this is incorrect and needs to be reconciled. Problem arises when the cost of shipping is built into the item price. I think they have just chosen to solve this by charging the tax on shipping.

[ruffattola]

I also am being charged a fee and taxes. I just had a friend send me some money and I was charged a fee

[Mckev2n]

Fake solution to injust remittance of tax that users have no choice but to pay extra fees because there is no choice to not send tax to PayPal using eBay. Since the tax is coming in my account and automatically back to eBay, it's clearly not necessary that eBay would send money to PayPal for PayPal to send it right back. That's only happening because PayPal//eBay is pulling a fast one on eBay sellers for an extra 2.9-5% of your normal PayPal fees. No other reason why eBay would set it up that way other than raising more money for PayPal. thanks.

[dwellupset]

Ebay shoud pay their part of the tax fees to paypal not the seller! Simple.

[dwellupset]

This is flat out B.S. Ebay should pay their part! Very simple. This is an injustice to their sellers.

[dwellupset]

Ebay should pay their part not the sellers. This is a crocked way to operate!