Question about sellers charging sales tax

Hi there. Although I am new to the forum I think I can help answer your question. Sellers that have a business license and a resellers tax number for a particular state by law must collect sales tax for items sold in that state. Hope that helps.

 

That is correct.

And it doesn't matter if an item is used or not, if you were to walk into a consignment shop, they would charge you tax just the same.

 

I avoid Colorado auctions for that very reason.

 

i always wonder if the sellers that charge tax are legit.is there any way to check?... i mean when i list auction, theres a little box that says "charge tax" and i wonder if some unscrupulous sellers charge tax just to make more $

 

ask for a copy of her resale certificate. you have the right to do that. MOST sellers who charge sales tax dont have them, and cant rightfully charge it. I have asked sellers for it before and all of a sudden the tax was waived.

 

Some states allow people to seach for business licenses and resale numbers. It is usually considered public records.

You actually see people submit fake resale numbers to avoid paying tax. In most states it's the same as the sales tax license number.

In California the governments agency is called the State Board of Equalization.

 

There are two things in CA - the resellers certificate and the sales tax license. You use the same number for both.

The reseller certificate is a form where they certify that the good they are buying from you is for resale. It also lists the number.

The resale license is something the state sends businesses with the number on it.

Many business owners have even have trouble with the difference...

Here's a link to the CA Board of Equalization's sales tax number verification page. You need them to provide you with number. You can use this link to verify it's a legit number:
https://efile.boe.ca.gov/boewebservices/verification.jsp?action=SALES

Many people actually fake numbers and say they are reselling the merchandie to avoid paying tax.

Technically in most cases, you are supposed to charge sales tax for the county/city you are delivering to - not the one you're in unless the customer picked it up from a physical locations like a retail store. Most people don't bother and post all their sales to the county they sell from and don't figure it out until an audit.

Let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll try to help. I used to be an accountant in CA and worked with sales and use tax quite a bit.

 

I think it's a problem on eBay's side, they really shouldn't let ANY seller charge tax without verifying their information first... I mean even with paypal, i couldn''t accpet payments for my website (non-eBay related) without giving them my social, and them running an entire background check on me...

 

I've wondered the same thing before. Thanks to everyone that posted information about sales tax on eBay. It seems like a situation that unscrupulous sellers could use to boot their profits.