Taxes On Circulated Coins?

This tax question seems to be coming up a lot these days. In WI every purchase at a LCS (brick and mortar) is supposed to include tax. The 3 coin stores I frequent all charge me tax no matter how I pay or what I buy. Bullion, new coins, old coins, slabs etc. They all charge a 3% premium for charge cards. The online dealers I have dealt with don't charge but in WI the buyer is to report purchases on tax form for that year. I have not purchased from a Canadian Ebayer.

Not enough space on this forum to exhaust the tax laws but in simple terms.....

The threshold for mandatory registration is $30,000 in any 12 month consecutive period (technically it's 13 months but again let's keep it simply). The $30k threshold is gross sales and doesn't distinguish between how the sale is completed. That is, if 10k are on ebay and 20k are at a physical store, then all 30k in sales is subject to tax.

Registration can be done on a voluntary basis below that threshold.

Incidentally, buyers have an obligation here too. If you reside in an area where tax would apply, but you purchase an item from another jurisdiction where tax is not charged, you have a responsibility to report the purchase and remit the taxes to the government. I can't imagine that anyone ever does that on small purchases though.

In terms of real world experience, it's basically large Canadian sellers (either ebay or in a store) that charge taxes. International sellers generally don't charge tax, though it can be collected when the package is delivered. Again the tax burden falls to the purchaser and collected or not, the purchaser is responsible to ensure the tax is paid.

Small sellers on ebay or other places usually don't charge tax.

You can bet that CRA keep an eye on ebay sellers who fail to register (i.e. exceed the threshold).

@Ottawa

I knew it started with a 3

I bought pure silver coin from asyn, still got 12% tax charged, anyone else has same experience?

My question about this is.....How many sellers are charging tax just to collect the extra revenue?

I have a few questions too...

(1) Do buyers have the right to request the sellers for their GST/PST/HST number? And do sellers have the responsibility to disclose their number?
(2) In situation like what SilverBug mentioned, could we request for the GST/PST/HST number and get some kind of reimbursement from some tax department if tax shouldn't be charged?
(3) Lastly, some ebay sellers claim they are in Canada and collected tax for *non* .999 silver coins, but then ship the coins from Germany. If those shipments got charged tax/duty by custom, how can we get reimbursement?

Thanks!

I have read that investments in precious metals must be of specific purity to qualify as "investments" as opposed to a product for your collection. The numbers are 24kt or 99.5% pure gold or better. and 99.9% Silver. Anything less than these purities and taxes (in Ontario) are applicable. This is why the GML and SML will be (should be) tax free, while the 1912-1914 22 kt gold coins - taxes apply. 22kt is not pure 'enough' gold.

If you've been charged taxes - and the invoice specifies pure metals, you can claim that tax back on your income tax in April. Better still to convince the seller to refund the tax.

WRT asyn, you just send a message saying you were mistakenly charged HST and you'll get a refund within a week (or at least that worked for me :-) ). They changed their system a month or so back so it no longer charges HST on bullion by default. I've had a couple of other sellers I've bought from with the same issue. I just send a request for invoice BEFORE I pay and ask for the taxes to be adjusted appropriately. Haven't had a problem so far.