Sellers in the United States are reporting that they are being blocked from selling on eBay because that have failed to provide PayPal with their tax ID. According to Ecommercebytes, under the terms of a new federal law stateside, online payment processors are required to provide the IRS (the US tax collecting authority) with 1099k reports. Apparently Amazon has been requiring similar information from merchants.
Curiously, eBay has been warning buyers who haven’t provided these details and also those sellers who are not required to pay tax related to their selling activity because they are too small. Quite understandably, sellers who have been blocked from selling are miffed. Several have noted that these sanctions should come from PayPal and not eBay.
This is distinct from the UK where historically eBay has resisted all attempts from HMRC to get access to eBay selling records.
You can read the full story, and the considerable background, on Ecommercebytes.
4 Responses
Should do the same here, makes perfect sense.
National insurance number in the UK.
There isn’t really a direct equivalent in the UK.
But, it is equal to eBay demanding every VAT number and NI number from every seller and giving them to the HMRC, regardless of turnover. Or, indeed, whether you have ever sold anything for profit that the HMRC should know about.
I think we have the right balance here for the time being, to be frank.
Dan