G'day Colic,

It's all about ebay & protecting  their "Only A Venue" defense, particularly in the US.

It's a worldwide issue and it's about  the factual data that ebay compile as part of their normal operating structure. As a 3rd party to a transaction, anything they don't generate a fee on is not legally classed as fact and is open to dispute by the 1st Party, the seller.

The Statutory authorities who want their tax cut cannot enforce onerous reporting requirements on non-liable corporate entities, particularly foreign owned ones. Ebay is Swiss registered. Thus, the IRS, HMRC & ATO cannot force ebay to compile & report on data outside ebay's core stream.

So, while "It would appear that the shipping component should always have been included in the income total whether ebay charged a FVF on that component or not"  the statutories couldn't force ebay to record & report on it.

You also have to look outside Au & it's piddly 5,000,000 registered users & look at the US & UK with their 50,000,000+ active registered sellers & the $Billions being moved around the globe every year.

Ebay has developed & instituted roll out of it's shipping FVF policy in the US, the UK, & now Au.

For ebay, the results are worth the development cost & dramas.

They have fixed the fee manipulation issue.

They ignore the seller "noise" & weather any buyer reaction because Amazon proved the sky will not fall.

They enjoy reporting higher turnover figures & eventually higher profits to Wall St.

But ..... of utmost importance to ebay, they show the Statutories that they are working with them & being a good Global Corporate Citizen, thereby getting Congress, 46 US States, HMRC and that piddly little mob downunder, the ATO who want that tax cut, off their back & putting the onus back on the Statutory & the relevant seller.

Ebay remain in the clear & protect that critical "only a venue" defense for without it, all their carefully crafted legal protection in the US dissipates and they become totally vulnerable to the noise ....