Posted 06/20/2022 2:37 pm
One last update to this topic - after 4 additional months, ebay is no longer improperly charging Arkansas sales tax on Confederate notes, obsolete currency, and other items that are no longer legal tender.
So a rough timeline to summarize:
1) In May, 2021 Arkansas repealed sales tax on U.S. and foreign numismatic items. It is a very broad exemption covering both current legal tender and items that had been used as legal tender in the past. The law was enacted on October 1, 2021.
2) I repeatedly contacted ebay in early November as they were still charging the tax. I was given the runaround each time and nothing was done.
3) After making no headway, I contacted the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration to report the improper charging of sales tax by ebay on these items. Within 30 minutes, I had an email address of an ebay employee who was not just a help desk person.
4) By December, sales tax on legal tender coins and currency was no longer being applied. Yay!
5) In February, I noticed sales tax was still being charged on currency that was no longer legal tender and reported this to the same ebay contact. I eventually had to provide the full text of the bill to prove that these items were also exempt, as they argued that only legal tender was covered.
6) Last week (mid-June of 2022), those items are no longer being taxed. Success!
So, my stubbornness finally paid off. The key was involving the Arkansas DFA; once that happened, the contact they provided at ebay was very responsive to my emails, provided useful information, and kept me up-to-date on the progress. The process still took far too long, but they did quickly refund the sales tax to me that had been improperly charged on the purchases I'd made before the correction was implemented.
By comparison, Heritage took 1 or 2 days to implement a similar update when I found they also were still charging tax on certain items improperly. And, all that took was an email to the Heritage help desk.
So a rough timeline to summarize:
1) In May, 2021 Arkansas repealed sales tax on U.S. and foreign numismatic items. It is a very broad exemption covering both current legal tender and items that had been used as legal tender in the past. The law was enacted on October 1, 2021.
2) I repeatedly contacted ebay in early November as they were still charging the tax. I was given the runaround each time and nothing was done.
3) After making no headway, I contacted the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration to report the improper charging of sales tax by ebay on these items. Within 30 minutes, I had an email address of an ebay employee who was not just a help desk person.
4) By December, sales tax on legal tender coins and currency was no longer being applied. Yay!
5) In February, I noticed sales tax was still being charged on currency that was no longer legal tender and reported this to the same ebay contact. I eventually had to provide the full text of the bill to prove that these items were also exempt, as they argued that only legal tender was covered.
6) Last week (mid-June of 2022), those items are no longer being taxed. Success!
So, my stubbornness finally paid off. The key was involving the Arkansas DFA; once that happened, the contact they provided at ebay was very responsive to my emails, provided useful information, and kept me up-to-date on the progress. The process still took far too long, but they did quickly refund the sales tax to me that had been improperly charged on the purchases I'd made before the correction was implemented.
By comparison, Heritage took 1 or 2 days to implement a similar update when I found they also were still charging tax on certain items improperly. And, all that took was an email to the Heritage help desk.
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
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
Edited by hokiefan_82
06/20/2022 2:38 pm
06/20/2022 2:38 pm
