| Author |
 Replies: 25 / Views: 3,233 |
Page 2 of 2
|
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
921 Posts |
Finally got my ebay sales tax refund for a coin I purchased Feb 6th. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
620 Posts |
RPT, that is great news! I am still waiting on my February purchase. J Frederick, it is not an issue of tax exempt status for a charity, reseller, etc. ebay is illegally collecting tax on items that are NOT taxable in many states. It should not be the responsibility of the buyer to request a refund and then wait 3+ months. Most sellers are likely unaware this is occurring and many buyers don't realize they should not be taxed. Is ebay submitting the inappropriately collected tax to the various states or keeping the money? How many people are now avoiding purchasing precious metals or numismatic products because of this? I, for one rarely purchase such products on ebay any longer. Consider that ebay is collecting between 4-7% on these purchases. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3323 Posts |
I have been charged tax on coin purchases from online auctions. Do these same tax laws apply to those auctions? If so I need to start requesting refunds, too!
Edit: I'm in North Carolina and think tax on coins was added and later removed several years ago.
"Nummi rari mira sunt, si sumptus ferre potes." - Christophorus filius Scotiae
Edited by Bump111
05/15/2023 11:28 pm
|
|
Pillar of the Community
 United States
4591 Posts |
For sure ebay is collecting and remitting taxes. The penalties for not doing that are enormous. Because they're collecting and remitting, they also have to be the ones requesting the refund. Last time I checked (Texas) to receive the refund as the buyer I have to have a notarized document from the person who collected and remitted the taxes to release them to me. -----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
5669 Posts |
Not sure I understand. Are you saying an ebay buyer needs to get a notarized document from ebay before they can get a refund from ebay? I don't think anyone is trying to get a sales tax refund directly from their state. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
620 Posts |
BStrauss3, I wasn't suggesting that ebay wasn't submitting properly collected sales tax to the states and localities, but rather inappropriately collected, non taxable tax collection. One would think that it would be in ebay's interest to get this right if not for fairness to the customer then avoidance of the process you articulated. Bump111, you should check the North Carolina Department of Revenue website. A quick look that I did seems to be that since 2017 there is no sales tax on numismatic products or bullion. You should look more closely to be sure. |
|
Pillar of the Community
 United States
3648 Posts |
@Bump111, I had a months-long battle with ebay after Arkansas passed a law in 2021 broadly exempting all collectible U.S. and foreign coins, currency, and most bullion from state sales tax. After initially getting repeatedly stonewalled by ebay, the process went a lot smoother after I got the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration involved and notified them that ebay was inappropriately charging sales tax on tax-exempt items. They got me the phone number and email of a specific person at ebay to handle my complaint. However, it still took a long time. However, for all purchases I'd made with tax inappropriately charged I got refunds of the tax back from ebay fairly quickly. Curiously enough, major auction firms like Heritage implemented the changes immediately. Not to say there weren't a couple hiccups, but even those were resolved within a day or two, not months as with ebay. Be sure to look in detail at the specific current laws of your state. They vary significantly from state to state. Many states only exempt certain items; for example U.S. legal tender only (so Confederate and obsolete notes and foreign coins/currency are still taxed), or maybe only coins but not currency, sometimes only purchases over a certain amount, etc., etc. |
|
Valued Member
United States
283 Posts |
I look at it this way. As long as that money sits in ebay's coffers, before it is turned over to the states, they are making interest off of it. I am sure the money collected does not automatically go to the state as soon as you pay. Just my thought. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3323 Posts |
Thanks for the insight and advice. Only one auction house charged tax on my item and it was a token, so I guess there is room for debate there. It was a small amount, but this conversation has caused me to look closely at future purchases.
"Nummi rari mira sunt, si sumptus ferre potes." - Christophorus filius Scotiae
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3648 Posts |
Quote:
Only one auction house charged tax on my item and it was a token, so I guess there is room for debate there. Interesting point, Bump111. For example, from the wording of the bill passed in Arkansas, I don't believe tokens would be tax exempt here. Quote:
I am sure the money collected does not automatically go to the state as soon as you pay Nycstlrr, that actually came up in our coin club meeting this afternoon. One member said that ebay turns over the tax receipts to the state quarterly, but I've not checked to see if that is correct. He was trying to get some tax refunded from a while back, and ebay told him he had to contact the state tax authorities directly. All of my refunds came directly from ebay, but those had all been fairly recent purchases when I requested the refunds. Member of SPMC, FCCB, ANA and ANS. My U.S. Classic Commemorative Complete Set: https://www.NGCcoin.com/registry/co...sets/278741/My U.S. Fractional Note Set: https://notes.www.collectors-societ...eSetID=34188 |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3648 Posts |
I'm bringing this topic back, as I'm very aggravated at the moment. Could be the beer talking  . As many of you are aware, I had a battle with ebay regarding charging Arkansas sales tax on tax-exempt numismatic and bullion items. I won't go over that all again, other than to mention it was a very long and drawn out process to get it all corrected, and I had to get the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration involved. Fortunately I'm stubborn as heck, and I'm retired and have nothing better to do... Well, tonight I was going to get a proof gold commemorative on ebay. I don't collect gold any more, but decided just to get one for my type set as NGC has put a slot for one in U.S. type registry set. Went to checkout, and I saw 8% sales tax applied. I canceled, tried the same purchase from another dealer, and the same thing happened. So, I sent off a surprisingly nice email to my old ebay contact on tax-related issues, and I'll be looking forward to their reply. I may be chatting with the Arkansas DFA tomorrow, as well, just to let them know the game ebay is once again playing. This is insane - why the heck would they change this? Everything was working fine for the past year, and then all of a sudden ebay just decides to start illegally charging Arkansas state sales tax again?!? The sad thing is, so many people will just pay the tax and not ask questions, and it costs them 8% more than it should. I've always got refunds when tax was improperly applied, but the vast majority of people are just not aware that they're being ripped off. Edited by hokiefan_82
08/21/2023 02:22 am
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
921 Posts |
This has been happening on and off since ebay started collecting sales tax. My guess is the IT people put changes into production and screw it up again. Edited by RPT
08/21/2023 4:06 pm
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4591 Posts |
ebay most likely uses a 3rd party service provider. Those providers need to update their software every time there is a change in any tax jurisdiction. Lots of taxes are changing 1 September.
-----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3648 Posts |
Quote:This has been happening on and off since ebay started collecting sales tax. My guess is the IT people put changes into production and screw it up again. That's what I assume. Probably just a simple error, but I find it interesting major auction houses like Heritage are able to quickly update their systems when the laws for a state change. I had one solitary experience with Heritage where there was a minor mistake in how the Arkansas tax law changes were implemented, but after I pointed it out to them it was fixed by the next day. Each of the several times I found problems on ebay, the fix took months to implement. This could be an indication of the quality of the IT support which ebay uses as compared to companies like Heritage. Member of SPMC, FCCB, ANA and ANS. My U.S. Classic Commemorative Complete Set: https://www.NGCcoin.com/registry/co...sets/278741/My U.S. Fractional Note Set: https://notes.www.collectors-societ...eSetID=34188 |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4591 Posts |
Could be different service providers, different maintenance schedules, or just scale. How many customers does H have? How many customers does ebay have? How many types of goods does H have? How many types of goods does ebay have? It's most likely that Heritage sells few enough items that they can (manually) properly code each one (and it's a limited set of items too). It's highly unlikely that ebay does the same given their volumes. The more customers, the more types of goods, the more likely you are to see edge cases. -----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
|
Page 2 of 2
|
Replies: 25 / Views: 3,233 |
Page 2 of 2
|
First Page
Posted 05/15/2023 10:29 pm
