eBay Buyers Receive Small Mystery Refunds On Months Old Orders - Sales Tax Adjustment Or Scam?
1-24-24
After reviewing many more reports from buyers who have received dozens of small refunds from eBay, the consensus is it's a sales tax adjustment.
We've seen many reports from buyers in Michigan and some from Kansas, both of which changed their sales tax laws last year to exclude separately stated shipping charges from sales tax calculation.
https://www.michigan.gov/taxes/business-taxes/delivery-and-installation-charges
Public Acts 20 and 21 of 2023 changed the tax treatment of most delivery and installation charges in Michigan. Beginning April 26, 2023, most delivery and installation charges are not subject to sales and use taxes as long as the seller (i.e., the taxpayer):
- separately itemizes delivery and installation charges on an invoice to the customer.
AND- keeps books and records that show how the tax levied was calculated for these transactions.
Following changes to the tax code that were made during the 2022 legislative section, as of July 1, 2023, Kansas no longer imposes sales tax on delivery charges that are separately stated on the invoice, bill of sale, or other documentation given to the purchaser. These changes are found in the state’s definition of the sales price subject to sales tax and will affect both state and local taxes.
Other states may have also made similar changes to their tax laws as well and it appears this small refunds from eBay are reconciling overcharges that may have occurred due to a delay in implementing the new rules to exclude shipping from sales tax calculation.
eBay also charges sellers Final Value Fees and ad fees on the total amount of the sale, including sales tax but has not disclosed if they will automatically refund a portion of the seller fees on these transactions where they making adjustments for buyers - it would of course only be pennies, but the thought would count for a lot more than that with sellers.
Buyers are confused and concerned after randomly receiving small refunds from eBay for just a few cents on months old orders with no prompting or explanation - are these refunds legitimate or part of a scam?
This is weird. Ebay has issued 6 different refunds ranging between .95 cents to .23 cents on 6 different purchases I've made over the last year. I don't need the refunds and didn't ask for them. It's happening automatically. Does anyone know why?
Recently I have been receiving notices of refunds coming from ebay/paypal, and I am not sure why. Multiple small refunds, like 22 cents , three cents, etc. Why is this happening?
A few hours ago, I received a tiny refund for a purchase I made back in May 2023. Here's the thing - I did not request for a refund. The refund is less than a dollar. Should I be suspicious of something here? Should I contact the seller? It feels completely out of left field.
I have been having the same thing happen. I have already received a refund for an item, but a couple weeks later a 34 cent, or 56 cent, or 22 cent pops up. I use PayPal to pay. Does that have anything to do with it?
Several sellers suggested they believe it may be a refund for sales tax overpayment, which sounds very plausible and was our first thought as well.
It isn't even possible for a seller to issue a refund on a sale that is over 90 days old (through eBay, anyway) and all sellers are in Managed Payments now, there is no PayPal connection at all for eBay orders on the Seller side.
If I had to guess, I would say it was a Sales Tax refund ... eBay miscalculated something and is now issuing refunds.
I've gotten about three or four of these in the last week. From what I can figure, the refund seems to correspond with the tax I was charged on the shipping amount. Haven't heard anything official though.
Outside of the eBay community, some users are speculating it could be a refund for a shipping over charge as well.
posted by FencingGal to Shopping (5 answers total)
I got two emails this morning saying that I'm going to be refunded 48 cents for a purchase I made in May. I haven't requested a refund of any kind. The purchase was about $70.
The first email is from a Paypal service address and says "Your refund is on the way." It says it will refund the money to my Visa card or, if that is declined, refund it to my Paypal account.
The second email is from eBay and says I should receive a refund in 48 hours.
I wrote the seller and asked if they know what's going on. What could this be? Aside from changing passwords, what else should I do?
For one possibility: As someone who does a lot of shipping for my wife’s small e-commerce company, the timing and amount feels like a postage refund. If you buy a shipping label and mis-state the package weight/dimensions, USPS will correct it and an adjust the postage either way.
I didn't click on anything in the email.I went to my eBay account, and the message does appear there as a message sent to me, so it seems like it's legit.
Postage seems like a good explanation. Thanks everyone!
A postage overage might make sense if it was sellers reporting receiving these refunds. If sellers purchased labels from eBay and eBay discovered they had made an error in the rates they had charged, refunding the difference would be the right thing to do.
However, since it is buyers reporting receiving the refunds, this theory makes much less sense.
When setting up a listing, sellers can offer free shipping, flat rate shipping, or calculated shipping (with or without carrier discounts passed on). eBay does not dictate what sellers charge for shipping and when a buyer checks out, they are agreeing to pay whatever shipping cost was displayed.
It's unlikely eBay would step in after the fact to refund just a few cents of the shipping cost to buyers and something to do with sales tax still seems like the most plausible explanation, based on the reports we are seeing so far.
While it is understandable buyers would be skeptical and caution is certainly warranted, the fact that the messages seems to appear in their eBay account as well as email points to this being a legitimate refund being processed by eBay directly, not the sellers.
We've reached out to eBay for comment and will update once more information is available.
In the meantime, let us know in the comments below if you've received one of these mysterious eBay refunds!
