Enabling Multi-jurisdiction Sales Tax

Overview

You can create a tax table for a seller for any eBay site for which tax tables are supported. (To determine if tax tables are supported for a given site ID, see Tax Jurisdictions.) Such tax tables specify, on a state-by-state or jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis, what tax would be charged for that jurisdiction and whether fees related to shipping and handling are to be part of the total that is taxed.

Sales tax is charged based on the buyer's shipping address (independent of the site from which the buyer buys) and on whether tax is to be paid for that jurisdiction. For example, if the item was listed on the US site, the seller provided tax details for Ohio and Florida but not for California, and a buyer in California specifies a shipping address in Ohio, the buyer will be charged the Ohio tax.

There is an association between a user, a tax table and a site. A tax table can be created for a user on a listing site that supports tax tables. A user can have multiple tax tables (as many tables as there are sites that have jurisdictions and support tax tables). It is the listing site of the item that determines which tax table to apply during the checkout process.

The U.S. and U.S. Motors sites share the same global tax table: changing the table on one site changes it for the other.

After having created a tax table, a seller is offered the choice of charging no tax or of charging tax according to the seller's tax table for that site when listing items.

Jurisdiction taxes are separate from and not related to VAT taxes.

Miscellaneous tax field and tax table details:

For a site to charge tax, it must have tax jurisdictions.
A site may or may not support tax tables. Taxes can still be specified for a site that has jurisdictions yet does not support tax tables: there are the single SalesTaxState, SalesTaxPercent, and ShippingIncludedInTax fields.
A user can only have a tax table if the listing site has jurisdictions and supports tax tables.

Using Tax Tables

The following calls and fields enable multi-jurisdiction sales tax:

SetTaxTable
GetTaxTable
The AddItem family of calls: Item.UseTaxTable
The GetItem, GetBidderList, GetSellerList family of calls: Item.ShippingDetails.TaxTable
The GetSeller/ItemTransaction, GetOrder family of calls: Transaction.ShippingDetails.TaxTable

TaxJurisdiction.JurisdictionID is typically an abbreviation representing a jurisdiction. For the US site, all JurisdictionID values are two-letter abbreviations consistent with US postal abbreviations. (For example, the value of JurisdictionID for California is CA.) For a list of valid jurisdictions per site, see Tax Jurisdictions.

TaxJurisdiction.JurisdictionID must match one of the valid jurisdictions for that site, as obtained via GetTaxTable. For example, CA is a valid jurisdiction JurisdictionID for the US site while California is not.

Whatever you send to SetTaxTable is considered to be a complete tax table. Thus, if your goal is to modify certain values in the table while preserving others, you must provide details for all. Omitting details for a jurisdiction eliminates that jurisdiction from the tax table altogether. (Note the difference from a function like ReviseItem which retains a value of a field unless overridden.)

Various functions return TaxJurisdiction blocks along with the older fields, SalesTaxPercent, SalesTaxState, and ShippingIncludedInTax. Applications should inspect the TaxJurisdiction blocks for tax information.

Shipping Address and Jurisdiction Taxes

This topic is for Third-Party Checkout providers only. See Third Party Checkout.

If your application allows a buyer to change his or her shipping address (and therefore the buyer can change to a shipping address in another jurisdiction), make sure you use the tax jurisdiction details corresponding to the shipping address.

During the checkout process, if tax table details exist for the jurisdiction of the buyer's default shipping address, those same details are copied to the single SalesTaxState, SalesTaxPercent and ShippingIncludedInTax fields. But if tax table details do not exist for the jurisdiction of the shipping address, the values of the single fields will not be overwritten. Since it is possible for the buyer to specify a different shipping address during the checkout process, you must not rely on the single fields for jurisdiction information but instead must inspect the shipping address to see if it is the same jurisdiction noted in the single fields. Charge tax according to the jurisdiction of the shipping address and only if that jurisdiction is in the tax table. If the single fields are for a different jurisdiction than the shipping address, the jurisdiction of the shipping address did not exist in the tax table and therefore tax should not be charged.

For example, imagine an item for which a tax table was specified, and the tax table provided details for Ohio yet omitted details for Florida. If the buyer of the item lives in Ohio yet changes shipping address to Florida, the single SalesTax, SalesPercent and ShippingIncludedInTax fields could show Ohio tax details. Ohio taxes should not be charged if the item is to be shipped to Florida. Inspection of the shipping address and tax table would show the jurisdiction to be Florida, a state for which there was no tax table entry, and therefore no tax should be charged.

How Tax Tables Are Applied

A tax table for a seller and site is a global preference. As such, changes to it take effect immediately. However, changes to such a table do not affect active listings.

When an item is listed, the current tax table for that user and site is applied if UseTaxTable is true (or the single state/rate fields are used if the seller is not a tax table user). Currently-listed items are not affected by changes to the tax table or to tax table policy.

In general, when an item is revised or relisted, the following rules apply:

If no tax was originally specified for the item, the item remains without tax.
If tax was specified for the item via the SalesTaxPercent, SalesTaxState and ShippingIncludedInTax fields (in ShippingDetails.SalesTax):
if a tax table exists for the user and site, the tax table is applied.
if no tax table exists (or the tax table has been cleared), tax details are unchanged.
If tax was applied via tax table:
if a tax table exists for the user and site, the tax table is applied.
if no tax table exists (or the tax table has been cleared), no taxes are charged.

One exception when revising items is that tax details cannot be changed for active listings that already have bids.

GetItem always returns the tax table originally associated with the item.

When a transaction is created, the transaction is assigned a copy of the tax table assigned to the item.

An order is a collection of transactions. An order can be created via Web site or via AddOrder. When created via Web site, the order takes on the tax table of the default item, where the default item is the item with which the buyer began the checkout process (e.g. the buyer clicked Pay Now while viewing the item or the buyer selected the first item in the My eBay listing).

When created via AddOrder, no tax table is used; the SalesTaxPercent, SalesTaxState and ShippingIncludedInTax fields are the means by which taxes are specified for all sites.

If no tax information is passed via AddOrder, the order will not charge taxes regardless of any tax information on the individual items.

If a buyer breaks up an order (for example, to pay for a portion of the order), the original order is disbanded and the transactions roll back to their original tax tables.

With the eBay Web site, it is possible in the Send Invoice flow to specify a different jurisdiction or tax rate than was associated with the transaction. (This would modify the tax table on the transaction.) Thus, it is possible for a seller's tax table to be different from a related transaction's tax table and different from a related order's tax table.

A call to GetOrderTransactions returns the tax tables for the transactions and the order. The one that is used is the order's tax table.

Thus, a jurisdiction can be specified via invoice that appears in none of the transactions. (The buyer can reject that order and the original tax tables for the transactions will be restored.)

User-Contributed Notes