New hiccup in Reverb purchases - Sales Tax! (in MN)

Chris O

Chris O

Well-known member
I bought a Firebird Studio today. Negotiated a fair price with the PRIVATE seller, and did the transaction.

Imagine my surprise when I was hit with sales tax on a person-to-person transaction on used gear! This is a new twist! Looks like now there isn't even an advantage to buying gear used in Minnesota from a private individual. Gotta love it. This fuckin state just can't get enough of our money. I thought Cali was fucked...this takes the cake. MN just said, "Hold my beer and watch this..." Money grabbing pieces of shit we have in our state government just can't find enough ways to give money to people who don't do anything, but now feel they should be able to tax a person on used gear between two private individuals. Nice. My gear-whoring days are rapidly coming to a close. Good thing I'm getting old enough to think about hanging all this shit up for good...

:thumbsdown:
 
They sent out an email in May about the tax stuff:

Update on Sales Tax Collection in the US
We've started to collect sales tax in certain states. Here's why:

Some states now require taxation on remote purchases, like those made on Reverb, due to the recent Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. According to the court's ruling, the seller's physical presence in a state is no longer a requirement for taxation.

What You Need to Know
Currently, there are two ways states determine whether an online sale is taxable: (a) by selling through a digital marketplace like Reverb, eBay, Etsy, Amazon, etc. ("Marketplace Facilitator States"); or (b) by selling enough in a state to meet that state's designated economic thresholds ("Economic Nexus States").

Marketplace Facilitator States
When you sell to Marketplace Facilitator states, Reverb is responsible for collecting and remitting sales taxes on your behalf. No action is required on your part. Reverb will start collecting sales tax in Marketplace Facilitator states on the following dates:
State Date
Washington Live
Minnesota 5/23/2019
Pennsylvania 7/15/2019
New Jersey 7/15/2019
Arizona 7/15/2019
South Carolina 7/15/2019
Connecticut 7/15/2019
State Date
Alabama 7/15/2019
Oklahoma 7/15/2019
Iowa 7/15/2019
Washington DC 7/15/2019
South Dakota 7/15/2019
Wyoming 7/15/2019
Economic Nexus States
No action is required on your part for Economic Nexus states unless you sell more than $100,000 per year or engage in 100 or more transactions in a state. If you believe you could reach either threshold, our tax partner Avalara has provided this table with a state-by-state breakdown of Economic Nexus thresholds for your reference.

Additional Information
To learn more about how this affects you as a Reverb Seller, please read this article or visit the taxes section of our Help Center.

If you are a reseller or a 501(c)(3) organization and are tax exempt, please send us an email at TaxExempt@reverb.com attaching your reseller certificate or 501(c)(3) paperwork.

This information is intended to inform you of upcoming tax changes. For tax advice, you should contact a tax professional.
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So....if I understand this right, if I sell something to Music Go Round or GC, they should be paying sales tax to me (the seller) or the state of MN on my behalf?

I guess the other thing that comes to mind is that I can't remember the last time I actually did any better than break even on anything I've ever bought and then sold. So technically, I could claim the losses based on this law?
 
Also in MN and also got taxed when I bought a used item earlier today. I didn't bother to read the updated service agreement so it was a bit of a surprise. Jokes on me I guess.

:yes:
 
It's been going on for a few now. Many online stores charge tax now as it went into law. You will see it more and more, and eventually all sales will be taxed.
 
Yeah, this is the new internet, good for mom and pops though. Does level the playing field somewhat.
Also, you are correct about MN, the one that killed me this year was trying to get .20/gal gas tax. Stop spending billions on these useless trains with limited ridership and fix the roads with that money! :doh:
 
You work to earn a living. You're taxed on those wages.
Then when you spend your already-taxed money to purchase something, you're taxed on that purchase. So you've now paid tax twice on the same money.
You then sell that item (used) and the government collects tax for a third time on the sale of an item that's already been taxed multiple times.
From the other side, the item you originally purchased was taxed not only at the retail level, but the wholesale level, and at the manufacturing level. All the components, labor, and manufacturing expenses were also taxed at every stage.

So that guitar has been taxed maybe 100 times already. Fun.

And every time that item is sold used in the future it gets taxed again and again and again. This is the way of the world apparently.
 
Reverb got what they deserved, and they ain't going to absorb any loss, count that! They make shit tons of money and want the buyer and seller to take all the risk and absorb all the funding to list gear. As mentioned. CL and FB marketplace is just as good and no handout to some corporate snowflake driving his Ferarri :doh:
 
The problem with Craigslist and FB and even this forum, is that nobody ever buys anything from those places because they don't have "buyer protection." I remember the days of PM'ing someone on the forum about something, mailing them a personal check, and getting my gear a week later. Now you need two middle men: Reverb/eBay and Paypal. Otherwise nobody will buy what you're selling. I just sold an amp on Reverb. Reverb took $55 and Paypal took $78. Ridiculous.

$78. Seventy-eight dollars. Paypal took $78 to process a single transaction in which someone sent me money. That is exorbitant.

The buyer is on the forums. I had that amp listed for sale on those forums. But the buyer wanted to buy through Reverb and pay via Paypal.
 
FourT6and2":3jgl9cey said:
The problem with Craigslist and FB and even this forum, is that nobody ever buys anything from those places because they don't have "buyer protection." I remember the days of PM'ing someone on the forum about something, mailing them a personal check, and getting my gear a week later. Now you need two middle men: Reverb/eBay and Paypal. Otherwise nobody will buy what you're selling. I just sold an amp on Reverb. Reverb took $55 and Paypal took $78. Ridiculous.

$78. Seventy-eight dollars. Paypal took $78 to process a single transaction in which someone sent me money. That is exorbitant.

The buyer is on the forums. I had that amp listed for sale on those forums. But the buyer wanted to buy through Reverb and pay via Paypal.
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Piece of mind has its value no question. The option of being responsible and talking between buyers and sellers also has value, some would rather not bother and pay the fees. If someone isnt interested in connecting for a few minutes to talk logistics shipping preferences..etc its probably a "return waiting in the wing.
 
Between ebay and reverb collecting tax on used gear, it's going to be harder and harder to get great deals. If the deal is good enough, it's obviously still worth it when tax is added on top, but craigslist will soon be the only place to land stuff at decent prices.

The government will always figure out how to get their pound of flesh through every avenue, and then hand out corporate tax breaks to the wealthy companies. The average Joe will always be the one who pays more than their fair share.
 
Chris O":rjmpkem4 said:
I bought a Firebird Studio today. Negotiated a fair price with the PRIVATE seller, and did the transaction.

Imagine my surprise when I was hit with sales tax on a person-to-person transaction on used gear! This is a new twist! Looks like now there isn't even an advantage to buying gear used in Minnesota from a private individual. Gotta love it. This fuckin state just can't get enough of our money. I thought Cali was fucked...this takes the cake. MN just said, "Hold my beer and watch this..." Money grabbing pieces of shit we have in our state government just can't find enough ways to give money to people who don't do anything, but now feel they should be able to tax a person on used gear between two private individuals. Nice. My gear-whoring days are rapidly coming to a close. Good thing I'm getting old enough to think about hanging all this shit up for good...

:thumbsdown:
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Most states are now so bankrupt that they are concocting any revenue stream they can elicit from the population, Illinois has seriously talked about taxing people on how many miles a person drives annually as well as a 38 cent/gallon gas sales tax, it would hurt anyone not living in downtown Chicago. The result will be even more people will leave the state and they will get even less money for their coffers, the politicians see the demographic numbers every year yet they can only do one thing and that is to raise the taxes of those that remain. The middle class is leaving states like New York, California and Illinois, I'm considering leaving as well. So they will tax all online brokered private sales like they are from an online retailer, which in my opinion is illegal because items privately owned then privately sold has been taxed numerous times as Mike pointed out. It's a WIN WIN for the states that are desperate for money due to losing population because of their bad economic policies.

There was a big banner up on EBAY the other day, we will now collect sales tax for states on sales.
 
Thank God, I just sold my most expensive amp and shipped it today - a week before the sales tax in AZ must be collected.
 
Ordered an AXE FX from Texas->Scotland
Got slapped with 20% VAT + 2.5 import fee + broker fee
Ended up paying 1/5 the price of the unit just to get into the country.... on a unit that already paid it's VAT when bought new
 
It’s not a new tax, it’s the application of existing state tax laws thanks to the Supreme Court and mapping technology that can pinpoint tax rates down to a locality based on a shipping address.

I’ve noticed that when purchasing from a private seller through a marketplace provider (e.g., Ebay) my credit card is charge for two transactions, one for the cost of the item and another for the applicable sales tax. The seller gets the first charge (the item) and Ebay gets the second charge (sales tax), which is subsequently remitted to the buyer’s state revenue department. Conversely, if you purchase an item that would have been exempt in your state from Ebay (e.g., maybe vitamins or clothing), you won’t be charged sales tax.
 
I just sold a couple things that tax was added on to the final sale price. Then, they hit me for the fees on the added amount!
 
napalmdeath":15pb7js3 said:
I just sold a couple things that tax was added on to the final sale price. Then, they hit me for the fees on the added amount!
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