Quote:
Originally Posted by PoolBrews
The real kicker here is that eBay then charges you a percentage of that collected taxes for their fees! The recent change in what eBay collects has caused me to reconsider selling on eBay. Once they got rid of PayPal and started collected on their own, the fees went up. The average fee they now collect is 12.75%. That 12.75% is calculated based on final sale price + shipping + state tax collected.
It seems illegal to me that they collect the tax from the buyer and another 12.75% of the tax from the seller.
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I was an ebay seller for a few years, and I used to fume over how they nickel and dime'd sellers to death. They were always changing the fee structure. I remember years ago they wouldn't include the shipping in the total for the fees but then they said sellers were overcharging in order to make money off shipping so that was their rationale.
I was angry when buyers had to pay sales tax but ebay couldn't do anything about that. It was a bad decision, borne out of government greed. They were just itching to get their hands on more tax money, even from small sellers like me. The whole concept behind internet commerce is that you didn't have to pay sales tax, it was like a duty-free zone. And by the way, collecting sales tax did nothing to help "brick and mortar" businesses stay afloat. It was inconsequential and a false, straw man argument.
But you're right- it seems there might be something illegal about charging the seller a fee on the sales tax that the buyer is paying.