GST on online sales over $20

[misterforgetfulsbooks]

Why not just get ebay to collect it off the sale of anything sold here in Australia?

ie: you sell items in Australia, you pay Australian taxes - level playing field

[everard6920]

As far as I know, their intention is still to get overseas companies to sign up for GST and remit it to the Australian government.

It's actually already starting to happen. I remember reading an article back in January about how LinkedIn has added the 10% to their 2017 subscription costs for Australian customers, so there will be other companies that will do it (although it's likely to be predominantly the big ones).

Small overseas retailers are unlikely to comply (and if they don't sell over $80,000 p/y to Australian customers, they don't have to anyway), so it's going to create an uneven playing field in favour of them. I can't wait for Gerry Harvey to have a whinge about that.

[lyndal1838]

At a guess I would say that the only international companies who will comply will be those with a substantial presence in Australia.

Do you believe that a small B & M store in the UK which also sells on ebay would even think about registering for an overseas tax unless it is going to benefit them in any substantial way?  I doubt that it would even be a blip on their radar.  There would not be many companies that would sell the amount to Australia that would qualify them for GST anyway.

As far as ebay sellers are concerned it seems to me that the most effective way would be for ebay to collect it....but somehow I can't see ebay being too co-operative.  They will rely on the "We do not sell anything" argument.

[the_racquet_liquidator]

A quick reading the Expalnatory Memorandum for the new Legislation everything it is not clear to me.

If value is under 1k and you are reg for gst and gave seller your abn it will just come through as it does now.

If you are not reg for gst you are treated like an end consumer and have to pay gst.

Mail forwarders and redeliverers doing over $75k will have to charge gst as if they were the seller.

Ebay and Amazon types will be expected to charge and pay Tax Office gst on behalf of overseas sellers.

   -speculation in the media (gerry harvey article)they may change structure of business to avoid doing anything.

I don't see what happens when overseas seller refuses to register if sales over $75k or is under $75k and is not required to

register. They should force delivery companies to collect gst just like if over $1k - but how much process fee for a $30 item?

They will end up keeping all the gst collected which would be ok as it is all about helping local buisnesses. 

[everard6920]

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@the_racquet_liquidator wrote:

I don't see what happens when overseas seller refuses to register if sales over $75k or is under $75k and is not required to

register. They should force delivery companies to collect gst just like if over $1k - but how much process fee for a $30 item?

They will end up keeping all the gst collected which would be ok as it is all about helping local buisnesses. 

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No, they shouldn't. The cost of collection would be greater than the revenue generated, so it'd be a pointless exercise.

I also disagree that it's all about helping local businesses . . . if the government was serious about helping local businesses, they'd make large multinationals pay tax (for starters).

GST on < $1000 overseas items is a money grab disguised as something to "help the little guy". As discussed above, it's going to have little to no impact for local businesses because 1. many items are more than 10% cheaper overseas, and 2. many items bought overseas are not available here. In other words, people are still going to buy overseas, and local businesses will be no better off, but the government will be because they'll have their GST revenue.

[padi*0409]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

I agree that the government has been very quiet on their implementation of the new charges....as has the likes of Gerry Harvey who has been pushing for it for so long.

THB I doubt if Harvey Norman's will benefit at all....very few people would buy furniture from overseas and no-one with any sense would buy electrical items.

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I think Gerry has got his hands too full with this scenario at the moment to bleat about the GST changes.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4357336/Amazon-fully-operational-Australia-end-2018.html

[everard6920]

 Even eBay thinks it's a bad idea:

http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/ebay-threatens-to-block-aussie-shoppers/news-story/40...

[everard6920]

You can read the submissions (including eBay's and AP's) here:

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Economics/GSTLowValueGoods/Submission...

It makes for interesting reading.

AP's stance is that they do not support the "transport" model of collection (ie: assessing and collecting at the border), but they do support the "vendor" model (having companies collect the tax and remit), with a delayed implementation date of July 1, 2018.

eBay's submission is actually really good. I'm really happy with it.

[lyndal1838]

Yes, very interesting reading indeed.   The ebay submission has obviously come from an Australian, from an Australian's point of view rather than from ebay's head office in the USA where they seem unable to understand that conditions in and applying to ebay Australia are very different to the USA.

I have been interested in the submissions from some of the courier companies, in particular FedEx, in relation to how they are being treated compared to Australia Post.

Time will tell I guess and there is little we can do about it.

[maranock]

I love the way Harvey Norman keeps lobbying for this as if his chain will benefit. I and many others would gladly pay more to buy elsewhere and not have to deal with their horrendous customer service and high prices.

[maranock]

Woops, I meant Gerry harvey