"Sold some Stuff on Ebay..." Topic

And ebay/PayPal sent me the sales tax money it collected from the buyer. What the heck do I do with this sales tax money and when did this start?

Don't know why that would be done. eBay should have sent it directly to your state's tax collection agency. I would advise you do the same.

Jim

I sell on there every week. Never had them send me that money. They collect it and pay the states.

It may depend on the type of account you have with EBay.
They do have "merchant" accounts which, I think, assumes that you have a re-sellers license or business license in the state you live, and a separate EIN tax number.

If you had this setup, you are suppose to send in the sales tax you collect to the state.

Each state has separate rules with a level of sales for which this is not needed, garage sales etc. Typically if your sales are less then $500 USD you do not need to collect sales tax.

Check with EBay about your type of account.

They started doing this in the UK as well, they're now adding a second lot of sales tax to US and Australian customers that buy from us.

As far as I know, the sales tax is taken back from you with your fee payment at the end of the month, and then eBay send it on to the state/country tax people.

Hi

OK here how it works on e-bay now

You pay a posting fee or not. Due at the end of the month.

Cost of item + cost of Shipping+cost of Sales taxes= Final value. They then figure your finale value charge off of this number. It is 13% plus .30 per transaction, They then take the sales tax out and send it to the state the buyer is in.

Then they sit on your money for up to 4 days and then transfer it to your bank, who sits on it for 1-2 days.

Yeah, this is the new Managed Money system. Ebay is dumping PayPal for sellers entirely. Buyer can still pay with PayPal, but Ebay will handling your seller money. There are serious issues with this and, generally, sellers are not pleased. Ebay will now have direct access to your bank account and info.

My date for changing over is Jan 1 and I will not be participating. Etsy and other sites are looking better all the time.

Assuming this is just a sometime thing and not a business, it should fall under the occasional sale rule (regardless of state) and not be taxable. It should be refunded to the buyer as they were charged sales tax that was not necessary to remit.