Has anyone seen the eBay seller sales tax scam? (paypal, 2014, Iowa)

[freemkt]

Recently I won an eBay auction and out of the blue the seller added a 13 percent state sales tax to the invoice.

That is certainly incorrect, but I have been told there is nothing I can do about it.

Anyone seen anything like this?

[Pitt Chick]

Who told you that?
No state has a sales tax that high, so you should have some recourse.

[daliowa]

State and Local Sales Tax Rates in 2014 | Tax Foundation

Map of U.S. showing sales tax rates for each state. None is anywhere close to 13%.

[daliowa]

Is the seller located in Canada?

[nybbler]

Um, don't pay? Even if they are in Canada, you don't pay GST/PST/HST on international sales.

[harry chickpea]

Report the seller to the department of revenue in your state and the state he is in. That is fraud and the revenue departments stomp on it and send people to jail if they continue. I wouldn't even bother with ebay feedback or resolution on this.

[freemkt]

Originally Posted by daliowa

Is the seller located in Canada?

No, seller is somewhere on the East Coast. I've inquired and learned there are some sellers who add a sales tax in the neighborhood of 12 - 14 percent, with the apparent motive being to recover their eBay + PayPal fees with amount to something like 12.5 percent. (Adding 12.5 percent would be too obvious, so some sellers add a little more or a little less.)

The most disturbing aspect of this is that the seller did not mention sales tax anywhere in the listing.

[Pitt Chick]

Originally Posted by freemkt

I've inquired and learned there are some sellers who add a sales tax in the neighborhood of 12 - 14 percent, with the apparent motive being to recover their eBay + PayPal fees with amount to something like 12.5 percent.

Then that is NOT a seller adding " a 13 percent state sales tax to the invoice".
The state has nothing to do with it.

I would not pay if it was not in the listing.

[freemkt]

Originally Posted by Pitt Chick

Then that is NOT a seller adding " a 13 percent state sales tax to the invoice".
The state has nothing to do with it.

I would not pay if it was not in the listing.

Let me rephrase that: How about a seller "adding a fictional 13 percent state sales tax".

[Rudy53420]

Report the seller to eBay, if I tried to pull that they would kick me off the site!!