The legal team at eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) has been working harder than Mystic Tan guy at Angelo Mozilo's favorite salon.First, Tiffany (NYSE: TIF) sued the company over counterfeit merchandise appearing on the auction site. Then, eBay sued Craigslist, Craigslist sued eBay, and many legal fees were spent by all. Now, eBay and its StubHub subsidiary have attracted the scorn of Chicago, which is suing the company for failing to collect the 8% amusement tax the city charges on ticket sales, including resales. Heaven forbid anyone in Chicago have fun without forking 8% over to the city. eBay says the 8% sales tax doesn't apply to it.
Chicago's city government joins Texas and New York in looking to crack down on e-commerce sites that don't collect sales tax.
It's unclear to me why the 8% amusement tax should apply to the resale of tickets online -- the tax has already been collected on that ticket, hasn't it? But bureaucrats have an infinite number of ways to make money, and that requires an ever-growing pile of money to waste. It'll be a victory for consumers if eBay emerges victorious in this battle.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-21-2008 @ 3:50PM
Former Chicagoan said...
I guess "Da Mare" needs the money to replant his rooftop garden.
Guess all the legal fees is another reason (besides greed) that Ebay (and offspring PayPal) increased their fees.
5-21-2008 @ 3:57PM
uscyeahright said...
typical Chicago. You can't piss without paying .25
5-26-2008 @ 8:36PM
kenneth said...
Can't some of these problems be solved outside of the courtroom. I think it's getting kind of rediculous.
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