Greetings All,
I’m a new user and I am looking for some clarification regarding tax obligations on a bubble generated online market place. Some background, I’m a US Citizen based here in Seattle, WA. I really want to do everything by the book so apologies if this is longwinded but I’m new to this subject.
For the sake of simplicity let’s pretend I was going to build an alternative to Craigslist. My bubble website is a marketplace where users can pay to make posts. I’m planning on using a service such as Stripe for the payment gateway. These are my questions:
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If users are posting ads across multiple states, how is the state sales tax generated? Does the payment processer automatically account for local tax obligations (based on the credit card address)? If not are you guys hiring accountants to process this manually, breaking out taxes state by state?
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In Washington State when I buy an item on eBay, at the checkout they add a sales tax in addition to the purchase price. I’m sure each state is different but it would be good to know if this is something that Stripe can process on their end, or is it on the bubble site admin to administer?
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When I post ads on Craigslist, unlike eBay which tacks on a sales tax, I am only charged a flat fee per post. Is this because Craigslist just eats the sales tax cost in the post price, and if so would a payment gateway like Stripe be able to charge flat fee rates and process the tax obligations on the back end?
Some of these questions might be technical in nature, but many other users surely have encountered similar issues. Any clarification is much appreciated!