I just had a conversation with Ebay regarding this Managed Payments policy for sellers they are beginning. After several direct questions, I finally got my answers.
Is Managed Payments mandatory? YES
Do I have to provide a Checking Account Number and a Social Security Number to sell on ebay in the future? YES
If I am a buyer, can I still pay for items via Paypal? YES
I don't know if many of you sell on ebay, but I for one do not like this policy and will be looking for other selling venues.
Seems like Ebay has become self serving, and has forgotten the small sellers.
Any other experiences or opinions to share?
Steve I gave up on eBay 2.5 years ago after selling for almost 20. Paypal decided a 1099 was to be sent to certain states, MA was one of them.
IRS scared me even though I did declare everything.
I now sell on CL, audience is much smaller. People do not show and want it for nothing. Good part is my sale price is all mine. I do have many repeat customers.
I also have many excuses why the did not show >:(
CL is a seller friendly place to live, just a lot more laid back ;D...Doug
Am thinking of selling on Etsy... fees are lower, and seems to be a happy place...
Also facebook marketplace...
Used to do a lot of phone shows, but living in AZ now, not many near me.
I am not on Facebook, but Janet is. I found a few nice things for me.
As long as you take PayPal, Big Brother is watching you, not matter where you sell....Doug
I stopped many years ago because e bay told me i HAD to use PayPal for all transactions.
A friend in the ATCA told me they could control their end better that way in regards to refunds if nessisary, they would simply pull the money from my account.
And I saw this coming, I'm surprised it's taken this long to happen.
In my opinion there cutting their throats but frankly what little I buy on eBay it doesn't matter to me if they go down.
I will not give any place such as e bay my SS number or bank account numbers.
I won't sell on Ebay, too much trouble!
It is now.. But I haven't sold on there for better part of twenty years. It was a bit of a hassle then.
I was selling some extra T keys for payphones, and they decided to pull my auction down because I was selling something that could breach payphones security.
I emailed them and said these will not open a phone unless the primary locks are unlocked.
EBay said I need to put that in my description to avoid future issues.
I said payphones are like bank vaults.
Unless you have a cutting touch your not getting into them.
I quit selling on eBay years ago. They're nothing but money sucking parasites.
I don't have access to the local selling haunts. If it isn't on a list or eBay, I can't see it so I can't buy it.
The issues with tax etc that people are complaining about and blaming eBay for are being driven by government. Governments see a loophole in the tax gathering regime and they are forcing eBay and others to collect tax for them. When they are done with eBay they will move on to the next popular platform.
(This applies to VAT in the UK and Europe, GST in Australia and NZ and sales tax in the US).
Moving to a small obscure selling platform might save some fees - for now - but you will often not make the sale price achievable on a larger platform like eBay.
Jack
"Here" I can't complain either. The regulations are quite transparent. I can sell used goods occasionally on eBay trouble free. As soon as a seller sells items repeatedly, income tax and VAT apply like they would for a brick store business. That's only fair.
eBay does not collect these taxes, but in doubt they classify sellers as business and require a firm adress.
A problem can occur for collectors though, if they trade items frequently but not for profit.
Quote from: countryman on July 11, 2020, 02:20:42 AM
"Here" I can't complain either. The regulations are quite transparent. I can sell used goods occasionally on eBay trouble free. As soon as a seller sells items repeatedly, income tax and VAT apply like they would for a brick store business. That's only fair.
eBay does not collect these taxes, but in doubt they classify sellers as business and require a firm adress.
A problem can occur for collectors though, if they trade items frequently but not for profit.
Ditto. I sometimes baulk at eBay and Paypal's fees, but they are providing a service, and where else can I get a national or global audience for selling things. Most of the eBay issues I've had are with other sellers not describing things honestly, and in all cases I've either come to an agreement with the seller or eBay has sorted it quickly and efficiently.
I only sell personal items that I no longer need, but if did this on a small business scale then I would fully expect to pay tax on any profits.
Don't get me wrong, eBay isn't perfect, but I don't know any other platform that comes close for usability or audience coverage.
:)
oh, I forgot to mention..... EBAY is located in Campbell, California and Paypal is in San Jose..... BOTH in silicon valley! since the chinese pretty much own California, you can guess who controls ebay and paypal....
According to the German Wikipedia article 86% of the eBay shares are free float and the founder Pierre Omidyar is the biggest shareholder with 7%. Can't see an overwhelming influence of anyone else (besides the fact that a high percentage of free floating shares encourages a short-sighted business policy)?
Here in Germany a lot of private trade with small items went to "eBay classified ads", it might compare with Craigslist in the US. It's free, but you won't get any service either in case of difficulties. These classified ad sites are more a national thing it seems.
Taxes still apply for business and the taxmen have a look into classified ads, too ;-)
I'm glad there are plenty of folks who will do business on EBAY. Here it is pretty much the only game in town. There is nothing locally available on craigslist and Etsy is difficult to effectively navigate. If I ever decided to sell on ebay, I'd set up a separate account for paypal to play with. I'd never trust them with access to my primary accounts.
As of at least this year as a buyer on eBay, eBay is adding my state's sales tax to my purchases so I assume when someone buys one of my listings, the buyer is charged the sales tax for the state in which they live. Tax charges is right on the eBay invoice and on the PayPal transaction as well. This makes it much easier for me at tax time in that I don't have to figure out how much I bought on eBay or directly from non-eBay sites that did not charge sales tax. Now, only about 1 in 20 or 25 purchases do not include sales tax so that is the pruchase and amount I have to keep a record of to add to my State tax return. There is a line on my state's tax return where one is asked to pay for items bought out of state on which sales tax was not paid. Knowing everything is kept somewhere, entering $0 on that line is a good way to get a letter saying more is desired, plus interest and/or a penalty, and in the worst case, an audit.
As for selling, very little of what I sell has a zero cost to it. For taxes, sales price less cost of goods sold (including original cost plus shipping plus the cost of any repairs) becomes the taxable "profit" and I put profit in quotes in that half the stuff I sell is at a loss. Profit is entered on Schedule C of the Federal return and that form is carried over into my State return. Not being a big seller or mega flipper of a lucky finder of a $5,000 item for $10 at an antique store, my profit each year is usually under $200 but it's reported and income taxes paid on it and I sleep well at night. If the profit is less than $0, the loss can be carried over to the next years return (subtracted from the next year's profit) and if the profit is less than $0 for 2 or more years in a row, the sale of goods is no longer considered a business. It becomes a hobby and not reportable on Schedule C, is not a "business." The problem with getting into hobby status is that gross sales (money sent to me by buyers) is probably also sent to the Feds by eBay or PayPal and seeing a $1,500 report from them with no tax being paid on a return, no Schedule C to explain the difference between gross sales and net profit, can lead to an audit. Schedule C correctly reduces the $1,500 in sales to a the real or actual taxable profit, the $1,500 less cost of goods sold.
I have no problems with eBay collecting tax and they have my banking information already from PayPay so with nothing to hide and tax paid on actual profits, I again sleep well at night.
And I've never had any type of problem with eBay or PayPay on any of my now more than 1,300+ buying and selling transactions. Tik Tok is more of a threat to loss of my personal information plus a lot more than either of those two companies.
My purchasing on eBay is minimal, I live in New Hampshire so no tax. And I get something about twice or three times a year. I get what I can't find local, at least for a decent price.
So I do pretty well over all. I'd like to sell but with all the fees and e bay wanting bank info I'm not comfortable with that. So I stick to buying only what I really need and for the best price I can. Using Bin is my routine as I don't want to get stuck with bidders with deep pockets.
Well, after thinking it over, and cooling off, I decided to stay with ebay. I am familiar with it, and there is no place you can get as wide an audience viewing your items as ebay.
They do provide a good discount on shipping, so you can purchase your shipping labels at a discount, and not stand in line at the post office and risk exposure to Covid.
Nothing is perfect, but in the scheme of things in today's world, Ebay does ok.
Don't know if others have noticed this but eBay collects its fees on the listed BIN price, not the multiple item discount price the buyer ends up paying. For example, a $10 item with a 15% discount for buying more than one has the buyer paying $8.50 each but the seller pays fees on $10 each.
Not a lot of money, just doesn't seem right to make the seller pay fees on a price higher than the actual selling price.
Quote from: TelePlay on August 31, 2021, 07:08:53 PM
Don't know if others have noticed this but eBay collects its fees on the listed BIN price, not the multiple item discount price the buyer ends up paying. For example, a $10 item with a 15% discount for buying more than one has the buyer paying $8.50 each but the seller pays fees on $10 each.
Not a lot of money, just doesn't seem right to make the seller pay fees on a price higher than the actual selling price.
They also collect tax on shipping. I doubt if they pass it along to the tax authorities.
Jim
Quote from: Jim Stettler on August 31, 2021, 07:29:06 PM
They also collect tax on shipping. I doubt if they pass it along to the tax authorities.
Jim
Yes they do and that's fine with me. Keeps me from figuring out the sales tax for the state and county in which the buyer lives and paying it to the buyer's state at the end of the year (adding that tax to the amount the buyer owes is impossible anyway and a bookkeeping nightmare for me to figure out the tax and pay it out of my net profit). Not my concern if eBay does or doesn't pay the tax, I have a record of the tax collected by eBay should some tax collection agency come after me each January to pay them tax I was supposed to collect for that state on each sale.
On the buying side, since eBay adds tax on my purchases, I no longer have to add up my purchases for the year, multiplying it by my state's sales tax rate and add that amount to the "on line purchases" line on my state tax return.
As a buyer and seller, I sleep better at night knowing I won't be getting a letter from the tax collector saying their computer analysis of my online sales and purchases tax needs to be paid, or worse, submit to an audit.
We are going to have to give them our Social Security #??? No way. I will quit selling on E-Bay if that is true.
Quote from: MMikeJBenN27 on August 31, 2021, 09:50:52 PM
We are going to have to give them our Social Security #??? No f-----g way. I will quit selling on E-Bay if that is true.
We are talking the current rules for eBay. I think they already have the info needed.
Another member quit selling on eBay because of Paypal keeping track of the sales.
Quote from: TelePlay on August 31, 2021, 07:08:53 PM
Don't know if others have noticed this but eBay collects its fees on the listed BIN price, not the multiple item discount price the buyer ends up paying. For example, a $10 item with a 15% discount for buying more than one has the buyer paying $8.50 each but the seller pays fees on $10 each.
Not a lot of money, just doesn't seem right to make the seller pay fees on a price higher than the actual selling price.
I had not noticed that. However, on shipping, sometimes it costs less than I originally calculated in the listings, and I pass that savings on to the buyer by issuing a refund. In the past, Ebay customer service has told me that I can request a rebate of the final fees (then at 10%) paid to Ebay on the amount refunded to buyer. Usually too much trouble! (Paypal automatically refunded the 2.9% they had charged when you partially refunded a buyer.)
All said and done, it looks like Ebay's 12.55% commission (+ $0.30 per transaction) works out to about 20-25% if I charge buyer the actual shipping amount (always shown on my shipping labels -- most sellers don't show it) and I have to pay 12.55% of the sales tax (which I never even collect).
Apparently, charging sales tax on shipping is legal. In Georgia, services are not taxed: for example, hair cuts, the labor portion of a car repair bill. So I was surprised that shipping would be taxable.
Be very careful selling on eBay. Paypal also sends a 1099 to the IRS....Doug
Re: Managed Payments on Ebay
« Reply #4 on: June 03, 2020, 09:56:05 PM »
Quote
I sold on eBay for almost 20 years, been gone 2.5 years when PayPal started sending a 1099 to the IRS.
My tax guy said, "you are not making any money!"
State taxes, Government taxes, eBay fees and PayPal fees, not to mention buying the item to sell.
Anytime your SS# is needed, that should be an alarm!
I buy on eBay and sell on CL, not without its challenges. On CL the money is mine, worth the emails and the no shows.
Just my humble opinion...Doug
Well I stopped selling on eBay when they wanted me, demanded me to sell by pay through PayPal and wanted my bank account numbers and all that information. I said nope, just isn't worth the hastle to hope a buyer pays me. I had several that never paid me so I went through the hoops to relist, get credit for the auction etc.
That was way back when PayPal was the new fad.
Never looked back. Because I knew the day was coming that they would want to know everything, SS numbers the whole bit.
And prices for shipping are making it not worth buying on eBay, and getting items sent timely is getting to be an issue too. Takes the fun out of it.