John & Bob ----- every commercial sale of personal property in the State of California is subject to the state sales tax unless the buyer is making the purchase for purposes of resale and has a state seller's permit him/her/itself (the item then being subject to sales tax when it is resold). [seller's pemit described below]

The sales tax would apply to an eBay auction sale if the seller is in California and the sale is to a resident of California. This is true whether or not the seller has a business license. Furthermore, most business licenses in California are issued by local authorities and the Secretary of State will have no record of such licenses (generally speaking, only corporations are required to have state issued certification).

In California, however, every business which sells to an end user (retail sale) must have a Seller's Permit issued by the California State Board of Equalization (which collects sales taxes). Technically, it is not legal to make a sale subject to state sales tax without having such a permit. Collecting sales tax without having such a permit and without submitting the collected tax to the Board of Equalization is a crime.

It is my understanding that private party casual sales of personal property are not subject to the state sales tax, but any California resident selling regularly on eBay would be required to obtain a seller's permit, collect sales tax and file appropriate tax returns (with which, of course, the tax would have to be paid).

BTW, it is NOT possible to find out from the Board of Equalization whether a particular person or business has a seller's permit. They will verify a seller's permit number if you have one, but the board apparently does not have the ability to search its records by name (or perhaps chooses not to). I know this for sure because I tried to do it recently on behalf of a client.

----- jim o\-S