Road improvement and food delivery fee

[tony4cats]

Never seen this before.

Sold an item to a Buyer to Glenwood MN USA

41p charged for, "Road improvement and food delivery fee".

Sales Tax of £26.70 both of which the buyer pays for.

I am supposing Donald Trump has made a small charge to help his governmental finances.

Every bit helps i suppose.

[tressygirl]

---

@tony4cats wrote:

Never seen this before.

Sold an item to a Buyer to Glenwood MN USA

41p charged for, "Road improvement and food delivery fee".

Sales Tax of £26.70 both of which the buyer pays for.

I am supposing Donald Trump has made a small charge to help his governmental finances.

Every bit helps i suppose.

---

Shhhh!!  Or it will be imposed here too! 🤐

[papso22]

I don't think even he could rush taxes through that quickly.

[valueaddedresource]

---

@tony4cats wrote:

Never seen this before.

Sold an item to a Buyer to Glenwood MN USA

41p charged for, "Road improvement and food delivery fee".

Sales Tax of £26.70 both of which the buyer pays for.

I am supposing Donald Trump has made a small charge to help his governmental finances.

Every bit helps i suppose.

---

@tony4cats nothing to do with Donald Trump.

That is a state level tax, which means it was instituted by the government of Minnesota not the US federal government, it only applies to orders shipping to addresses in that state and the money collected from the buyer is paid to that state not the Federal government - not to mention it went into effect July 1, 2024 when Trump was not in office.

https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/retail-delivery-fee

Colorado is the only other state I know of that has a similar delivery fee law currently in effect (since 2022, also not when Trump was in office).

https://tax.colorado.gov/retail-delivery-fee

Washington and New York are also considering doing something similar, though their laws about it have not been passed yet - and not that it should matter but since it apparently does to you, probably worth noting every state mentioned here tends to favor the Democratic Party politically.

Oh and the sales tax you mentioned also goes to the state, not the Federal government so - nothing to do with Trump there either.

[bravergrace]

It seems it's been in force since last summer.

Here's a link to the American seller forums:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/What-is-the-Road-Improvement-and-food-delivery-fee-of-50-that-...

[valueaddedresource]

Ran out of time to edit but just a fun fact for the OP - guess who is and was the governor of the state of Minnesota when this road improvement tax was signed into law and implemented? Oh that's right...the guy who would have been Vice President if Trump didn't win. 😂

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/could-retail-delivery-fees-gain-traction-with-a-harris-walz-win 

Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 presidential election recently approved a funding mechanism that charges retailers a 50-cent delivery fee to help fund road improvements in Minnesota.

The per-shipment fee, included in a transportation package Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed into law on May 24, is applied to last-mile shipments and is separate from other taxes or charges.

[tony4cats]

Thanks for the link.

So, reading the link, looks like the retailer pays for this (me) and not the buyer. Not too bad, as this is only levied on sales of over $100, also Quote, It exempts businesses with annual retail sales of less than $1 million from collecting the fee and gives retailers a choice of how to collect it. End quote.

I suppose in this case Ebay is the retailer and collects it through me.

[valueaddedresource]

---

@tony4cats wrote:

Thanks for the link.

So, reading the link, looks like the retailer pays for this (me) and not the buyer. Not too bad, as this is only levied on sales of over $100, also Quote, It exempts businesses with annual retail sales of less than $1 million from collecting the fee and gives retailers a choice of how to collect it. End quote.

I suppose in this case Ebay is the retailer and collects it through me.

---

@tony4cats not exactly.

Without getting too complicated, the way online sales tax works in the US is different states have passed their own laws setting thresholds at different levels and a few other variations but generally the thing they have in common is for sales through "marketplace facilitators" like eBay, Amazon, Etsy etc. the marketplace (rather than individual sellers) becomes the party responsible for calculating, collecting, and remitting taxes which are paid by the buyer.

The states which have added these kinds of additional retail delivery fees also adopt the same methodology for online sales, making the marketplace responsible for collecting and remitting the fees to the state on sales made through their sites.

So that is why in this situation you are not the retailer, eBay is - and any exemptions, obligations, or choices presented in the law apply to eBay, not you.

Note: if you have your own direct website or sell outside of marketplaces, you would be considered the retailer for those transactions and all the various thresholds etc. mentioned on that page would apply to you at that point.

The Minnesota fee adds a twist where the retailer can choose to pay the fee themselves - and some individual retailers may decide to do that - but I'm not aware of any major marketplaces which have gone that route, for obvious reasons....eBay is not just going to eat $0.50 out of every order shipped to MN. 😂

So the marketplaces instead go for the option stated in the law which allows them to collect and remit the fee from the purchaser (buyer).

For sales made through eBay, this tax has nothing to do with you as an individual seller except that eBay of course charges you selling fees on the total amount including all taxes and fees, including the MN retail delivery fee.