Help Center: Administrative

US Sales Tax
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BrickLink collecting sales tax:
Optional Sales tax settings for all other states:

BrickLink collecting US sales tax

Due to recent Marketplace Facilitator legislation, many states have started requiring that marketplace facilitators such as BrickLink collect sales tax directly from buyers. We will collect the tax directly from the buyer at the time the order is paid and remit it to the correct tax authority. We are partnering with a third party that specializes in sales tax and they will calculate the correct amount of tax for every order based on the “Ship To” address of the order. Currently, there are four Gear categories (pens, school supplies, backpacks & lunchboxes, and clothing) that may have different tax rates depending on the state and the time of year. For most states, tax is charged on the full order amount, which includes shipping and all other fees.
Store requirements
  • Two accepted payment methods
      There are two accepted payment methods for transactions involving US sales tax - onsite PayPal and onsite Stripe. When an order is placed, payment for the order itself will be sent to the seller and BrickLink will receive payment for the sales tax. This will be considered a single transaction by the payment facilitator (PayPal or Stripe). Even though BrickLink is receiving part of the payment, the fee for the whole transaction will be the responsibility of the seller. Calculated sales tax amount will be collected automatically as “partner fee” (PayPal) or “service fee” (Stripe).

  • Store address registration
      We require that any seller sending an order to states where BrickLink collects sales tax, have a normalized address. This is necessary for the third-party solution we are using to calculate the sales tax. If your address is not normalized, you will see a notification on your Orders Received page. It will navigate to your store settings (Management tab) and follow the instructions. We have created a “Seller / Business Address” field in the database and this is the address that must be normalized. The address on your account (“Buyer Address”) will not be affected and can be changed independently of the Business Address. It is the sellers responsibility to enter a legit address. It cannot be a P.O. box address.




      If a seller does not meet the two requirements, orders shipping to states where BrickLink collects sales tax will be restricted.
      When Buyers encounter a store that does not meet both requirements, Buyers will see this warning:

      Buyers will continue to see the warning during checkout. The only way a buyer may checkout is if they update their shipping address, otherwise they will be directed back to the shopping cart.



    US sales tax settings
    In states that BrickLink begins collecting sales tax, BrickLink will collect sales tax on all orders shipped to those states, and the self-collecting sales tax feature for sellers will be disabled. If a seller has previously enabled sales tax in states where BrickLink will now collect sales tax, the state(s) will be removed from the settings.

    BrickLink now collects sales tax for most US states. For a complete schedule of when BrickLink started collecting tax in each state, please check here:
    Helpful link: List of states where we collect sales tax




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    Tax exemptions
    Resellers with a sales tax permit, who can provide a valid resale certificate may be exempted from sales tax when product is purchased for resale.  If you have a reseller certificate, please send it to our help desk and wait for a confirmation from our advisors.   After your reseller status is verified, you will see a checkbox at checkout that will allow you to remove sales tax for each eligible order.

    Tax exemption requirements are different for each state, so please check with corresponding state revenue departments to determine the solution that works best for you. If a certificate has an expiration date, sales tax will be applied automatically for orders placed after the expiration date. Please make sure that you provide new certificates at least 2 weeks before the expiration date of the previous one.

    In most states a resellers permit/ license cannot be used as a resellers tax exemption certificate. Please be sure you are sending a Tax Exemption Certificate from the state you are registered in.



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    Orders
    On the order detail page there will be a line in the upper section where US sales tax is shown. Tax amounts will be shown several other places as well, including on the invoice when using the default invoice template. When using a customized template, the seller is responsible to ensure that the correct of amount of sales tax is shown.



    In cases of tax exempt orders, order detail page would have state tax value at $0.00.



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    New fields in order received
    Sales tax - seller collected
    For US sellers, the “Tax” field name has been changed to “Sales Tax Seller collected” to distinguish it from the new system-collected sales tax. This field will be disabled for orders where BrickLink collects sales tax.

    Sales tax - BrickLink collected
    A new “Sales tax BL collected” field has been introduced. The seller has no control over this field.
    • TBD – Sales tax has not yet been calculated
    • N/A - Orders where BrickLink does not collect sales tax

    Final total
    This is a new field. It is calculated by subtracting Sales tax BL collected from the Grand total.

    Refunds
    A refund field has been introduced. When a refund is issued for an order, the field will indicate if the refund was a full refund or partial refund. The link will take you to the Manage Refund page.



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    Refunds
    We recommend that sellers use BrickLink’s refund system to issue refunds. For orders where BrickLink has collected sales tax, our refund system will calculate the amount refunded by the seller and the sales tax refunded by BrickLink on a “percentage-of-order” basis.



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    New fields in quotes received
    Sales tax - seller collected
    For US sellers, the “Tax” field name has changed to “Sales Tax Seller collected” to distinguish from system-collected sales tax. This field will be disabled for orders where BrickLink collects sales tax.

    Sales tax - BrickLink collected
    New “Sales tax BL collected” field is introduced. Sellers have no control over this field.
    • TBD – Sales tax has not yet been calculated
    • N/A - Orders where BrickLink does not collect sales tax

    Final total
    This is a new field. It is calculated by subtracting Sales tax BL collected from the Grand total.



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    Buyer to seller upgrades
    When upgrading to seller, the Store address entered will become the store / business address.



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    Optional US sales tax settings for all other states

    The sales tax setting for sellers located in the US is located on the Store Management page. This setting is optional and BrickLink does not investigate whether sellers should be charging sales tax to their buyers.
    General Information
    • Tax rates can be entered for multiple states, zip codes, and zip code ranges (e.g. 92602-92603).
    • The tax field will be automatically displayed on the order summary. This field is mandatory for buyers and sellers and cannot be turned off.
    • The tax column will be displayed on the Orders Placed and Orders Received page. This field is mandatory for buyers and sellers and cannot be turned off.
    Sales Tax Calculation

    You can enter a tax rate between 0-25%.

    • Zip code rate will be used if one has been entered for the buyer's shipping destination. The state tax rate will be used if there is no zip code rate entered for the shipping destination.
    Checkout
    • For automated methods, buyers who are logged in will see the order total—including tax—in their shopping cart and when they are checking out.
    • For manual methods, buyers will only see the order total & estimated fees (including tax) at checkout if you have enabled the option to show estimated fees.

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    This document was last updated on Apr 17, 2024 12:12 by CE_Anastasia