eBay Canada Forced To Disclose More Sellers' Records To Tax Man,
by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington
Friday, October 02, 2009
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has broadened its clampdown on the tax affairs of
online sellers, issuing eBay Canada with a court-authorized requirement compelling
the company to release the account information and sales data of Canadian resident
eBay members who have made significant transactions via the site.
According to the requirement, eBay must divulge the full name, user id, mailing
address, billing address, telephone number, fax number, email address, and the
selling prices of items sold. The court order applies to eBay users fulfilling the following criteria:
- Users with sales of more than CAD20,000 and at least 24 sales transactions
in any of the calendar years 2006, 2007 or 2008, (irrespective of membership
in eBay’s PowerSeller program); or,
- Sales of more than CAD100,000 in any of the calendar years 2006, 2007 or
2008, regardless of the number of sales transactions.
eBay is only required to release sales information for the year(s) in which
a seller met the above sales thresholds.
This is the second court order of its kind that eBay has received from the
Canada Revenue Agency. EBay Canada was forced to provide the agency with the names and account information of eBay sellers, together with
their merchandise sales records, as a result of a previous Federal Court of Canada decision.
Despite an appeal in November 2008 (on a case that had been ongoing for two
years), ebay was required to divulge information on high-volume traders (PowerSellers)
during the period 2005-2006.
The CRA will be able to match the information provided by eBay to the records
it already holds, to detect whether eBay traders have filed all the required
returns and correctly declared their total business income. If the CRA determines
that an individual or a business did not comply with the tax laws, it was confirmed
that the CRA will take any necessary action, including, if necessary, in-depth
audits.
“We recognize that this matter is of concern to our members. While eBay
strenuously objects to this violation of our members’ privacy, we are
obliged to comply with the court-ordered requests. eBay is alerting all members
who are affected by the court order prior to disclosing their account information
to the Canada Revenue Agency,” eBay Canada said in a statement.
“We remind all eBay members that they are responsible for ensuring that
they are in compliance with all laws and regulations relating to their activities
online.”
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