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

[pennyforum14]

Since eBay don't pay much (if any) tax in Australia, I can't see them agreeing to collect it, it would probably negate all the reasons they use to avoid paying it themselves.  EG, they claim their Australian operation is minimal and most functions that generate income occur through the foreign head office and are therefore not taxable.  If they agreed to collect GST on OS sales, the ATO might be able to claim that since they can do that, they must have financial functions in this country and are therefore liable to pay company tax here.  Besides, collecting it is not the issue, those sellers who are regstered for GST collect it on domestic sales now, so they would simply widen the collection to include OS sales.  It's the administration of it that would cost so much, the volume of sales involved would mean additional staff and resources to manage it all, and probably a lowering of the threshold at which businesses would need to register to collect GST.

[beautysecretfashion]

Aus Govt want Aussie importers NOT ebay to pay GST on goods purchases overseas.

Some sellers who do a BAS statement do collect GST from their ebay sales because no doubt the big sellers are paying importers tax when they bring in over $1000 at a time.

The way it is going to be implimented will be interesting. Aust cannot ask an overseas business to collect the GST on their behalf.

There is talk of it being added to the sale at the end of purchase? So depending on one pays, ie: credit card then the Bank would pass the GST on??

Perhaps when we go to collect our deliveries from overseas the amount of value of goods is noted by Aust Post or whoever the delivery service is - then that record is forwarded to the ATO and perhaps we get a monthly account sent to us.

This would mean that we might be given a number (not ABN) that we will need to put on our delivery address?

Who knows??

All I know is it means we the Aussie small seller will be even more disadvantaged and less compettive with overseas sellers who do not need to factor in the GST although countries like USA have Sales tax which I suppose is the equivalent. Great Britain and New Zealand have VAT I believe.

I just want the revenue collected to be spent on things that need the money ie health and education.

JMO

[beautysecretfashion]

Just a thought, the Aust Govt could make us use our TFN every time we make a purchase from overseas. The TFN could then be placed on the address label etc... but then is that a safe method, having our TFN made public??

The mind boggles on how they are going to collect it?

[davewil1964]

But, we the Aussie small seller who is not an importer will be advantaged compared to somebody who imports. And all people buying goods from overseas will be importers, thus helping locals and leaving resellers no worse off, compared to foreign sellers.

[pennyforum14]

In the UK, consumers have to pay VAT on any overseas purchase over GBP15.  The fee is collected by the Royal Mail Service who add a GBP8 fee for the service.  So if you buy something for GBP16, you pay 15% VAT, that's GBP2.40 PLUS GBP8 to the PO for processing.  That makes your GBP16 purchase into a GBP26.40 bill, and a very unattractive proposition (which I guess is what it was intended to do).  What's worse, the wording of the documentation from the PO gives the impression that the charge is for unpaid postage rather than VAT and processing and this cause a lot of angst on another site I sell on where UK customers are always complaining in the forums about sellers underpaying shipping.  I hope if it does happen here it will be handled better.

[phorum_junkie*]

Close but no coconut Penny. With parcels that are delivered by Royal Mail they do not usualy implement any charge for lower priced items, in my experience up to about £50. It is a different story if the sender uses a courier, they will always charge the VAT (GST), the import duty and a rather heavy handling fee.

[pennyforum14]

I'm just going by what I read on the forums on the other site PJ, at least once a day there is another UK buyer asking what an they do about their seller who didn't pay enough postage and they got hit with the bill (I believe the wording on the collection card says something like "postage fees owing" which leads the buyer to think the seller has ripped them off by underpaying postage).  Then the regulars point out to them that it is actually their government's VAT, and associated fees, that the seller cannot pre-pay these fees and that it is the buyer's responsibility to pay it just like with customs duty.  It does not go down well.

[digital*ghost]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

But, we the Aussie small seller who is not an importer will be advantaged compared to somebody who imports. And all people buying goods from overseas will be importers, thus helping locals and leaving resellers no worse off, compared to foreign sellers.

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Unless the goods are manufactured in Australia, someone, somewhere down the line, has to be the importer. The only difference is how many suppliers in the Australian section of the chain down to the retail consumer.

For a great many products, the threshold being lowered to $20 will not advantage small and/or local business over OS business, not as far as I can see it, anyway, since the price gap is quite often more than the GST, even accounting for extra processing fees and so forth. And for those who import items that retail below the proposed threshhold, and especially those who keep their purchases under the current threshold (eg moi  ), they'll be less competitive than they aready are with OS sellers, and less competitive than large retailers who have bigger buying power and can get cheaper unit prices to help off-set import charges.

Some local retailers will be advantaged, for some it will be compared to other local retailers, others compared to overseas retailers, a select few to both, and many simply disadvantaged (on the retail front). 

[phorum_junkie*]

Penny I don't have to go by the UK boards, I live in the UK for half the year so know very well how it works here, There is a seller in India I used to buy from used India post and Royall Mail for parcels and I never had to pay anything then they changed to a courier company and I got whacked with a large charge. Sometimes the courier coompanies will insist on payment before they will deliver the parcel, some just send you a bill later. 

t is not perculiar to the UK either, there are many countries where the import charges and taxes are even higher than here in the UK which is why sellers should always have the blurb about all taxes and charges etc being the responsibility of the buyer.

Now that PB are operating in the UK they collect any duty or taxes before sending and the delivery charge a buyer sees will iinclude those fees. If the Au government does lower the level for the payment of GST and import duty then buyers will know up front what the charges will be before buying.