Why am I being charged PayPal fees on the sales tax that my buyers pay?

[sfxwizard]

Why am I being charged PayPal fees on the sales tax that my buyers pay?  I do not get to keep this money, I did not request that the buyers pay this money, and I do not even want my buyers to have to pay this money..., why am I being required to pay fees on it..?  The buyer's state gets that money, their state is the one requesting the money, and their state is making them pay that money, it has nothing to do with me, so why is PayPal taking money from me for it?  I understand that it is a small percentage, but over time it adds-up, and my margins are already very small to try to compete with bigger sellers..!  It's bad enough having to pay PayPal fees on the shipping charges, which is an expense that I then have to pay, but then paying PayPal fees on the buyer's taxes, that is just not right..!  If the buyer's state is getting, requesting, and requiring the tax money, then their state should be paying PayPal the fees for collecting it, not the sellers..!!  Is that not logical..?

[MichaelZahavi]

I agree wholeheartedly.  It's a double tax.  I don't think the seller should have to pay a fee to collect the tax.  Paypal or ebay or the state should have to cover that somehow.

[MartinEld]

I believe PayPal may be liable for a potential Class Action Lawsuit.  We are being charged a PayPal 2.9% fee for Sale Taxes eBay is collecting.  This is money we never received.  Yes, it is a small amount of money per transaction.  However, PayPay is processing how many thousands of transactions a day.  A few cents collected on every transaction can quickly amass a huge huge amount of additional revenue for PayPal.  In my opinion this is highly illegal.  In addition, PayPal is also charging a 2.9% fee on our shipping cost.  If I get a quote from USPS for $10.00 to ship something to a buyer and eBay charges the buyer $10.00 PayPal is collecting 2.9% on the $10.00 shipping cost.  In the end, it is costing me money out of my pocket to ship the item since PayPal took $0.29 off the $10.00 USPS will charge me.  Again, in my opinion this is highly illegal and unquestionably unethical.  Finally, it seems it is now impossible to speak with a human being at PayPay.  They used to have an 800 or 888 number you could call to speak with a human.  It appears they have eliminated or hidden any access to actually speak with a human.  Thanks PayPal for charging us 2.9% on Sales Taxes collected by eBay and thanks for taking money out of pocket for shipping costs we have to pay.  What are we supposed to do... Inflate our sell prices and shipping costs in hopes of offsetting PayPals fee?  Guess who would profit more if we we inflated our sell prices and shipping costs... PayPal!  

[gelenad]

So True! My margin is tiny. PayPal charges % and transaction fee. Also, if you are refunding the buyer (even if it's in the next 5 minutes), paypal is keeping that transaction fee. NOW, PayPal is also taking a fee from taxes that have nothing to do with me. It's ruthless.

[waynewafa]

Happened to me today. Why am I being charged fees by Paypal for being an unwitting tax collector for the state of Washington when I dont even live in the US!

I live in Australia. Surely Paypal should be collecting these taxes before they go into sellers accounts in the first place. Why am I supposed to pay the state of Washington the taxes credited to my account from Australia? This is a royal **bleep** up that Paypal will have to fix before it gets out of hand.

[LostGirl]

I just discovered the same thing.  This is a BS!  Paypal digs deeper and deeper into sellers' pockets, and it really hurts small sellers like me.  There is absolutely NO rationale for us having to pay a fee on sales tax.

This is one reason why I use other options for a lot of my items now.  Between Ebay's and Paypal's GREED, it just isn't worth it sometimes.

[Bunzo]

Its ridiculous......The tax should be deducted before the fees!   Just like the government; another way for pay pal to make money 

[burnedseller]

It's not only illogical, it's criminal.  This is a move by Paypal at a time where they have derided to also keep the fees
from any reversals or returns as well.   When eBay started charging final value fees on shipping I thought that was pretty despicable,
but this takes the cake.  We ought to be starting a class action lawsuit against them for theft and unfair charges.

Let's join together, share this with everyone you know and let's all get on board and go after them for their corruption.

[LostGirl]

I'm not sure this rises to the level of criminal, but it certainly is unfair to sellers and Paypal management should address this issue.  It would be nice if sellers could band together to petition them to drop this practice, but that would require a large number of sellers to participate.  Based on the low number of responses, it doesn't seem that too many sellers have a problem with it.  I post on Ebay for awhile, but use local options (yard sales, flea markets) occasionally.  I've had about the same rate of success with these venues as on Ebay....so it's worth the effort.  If I can avoid handing over a big percentage of my little sales to Ebay and Paypal, I'm good with that.  I just don't think that either entity gives a darn about sellers....large or small.  They make enough profit to ignore us, apparently.

[burnedseller]

I'm fairly sure that charging us fees on sales tax that we are not collecting is violating some form of business law. 
I will need to do some more research, but their business practices are at the very least corrupt.  As much as I hate it, since nobody seems to care much about this, I will be moving to eBay managed payments where they don't rob your money on returns and don't charge fees on sales tax.