Another post on my current issue with operating an #Etsy store in #Canada.
I want to explain exactly what the issue is, and see if any #Canadian #sellers know how to deal with this problem.
1. If you hit a certain sales threshold, Etsy demands you add your "taxpayer ID" to your account. This is your GST registration number, usually.
2. Once you add this to your account, Etsy stops collecting all sales taxes on purchases in Canada *except* the provincial sales tax from B.C., Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. It doesn't add GST or HST to sales. They tell you to submit it yourself from the sale proceeds.
3. Etsy provides no way to set #prices differently for different #provinces. Tax rates vary across Canada, from 5% GST in Alberta and the territories, to 15% HST in the maritime provinces.
4. So you have to pick a price that will allow you to take ~15% off each sale to remit as #taxes without losing money on each sale - but this higher price will be higher than it needs to be for provinces with lower tax rates, and even worse will have PST added on top for 3 provinces, jacking the price up even higher.
I ran into this over a year ago, and managed to convince them to take my GST ID off my account (they generally refuse to do this) so they collected the tax again, but they're now demanding I re-add it, which will trigger the above problem again.
Any other Etsy sellers in Canada know how to deal with this problem? Boosts appreciated.
