The Australian Government is going to impose the GST 10% on all over seas transactions

[marakorpa]

The Australian Government is going to impose the GST at 10% on all overseas trading in Ebay.  This looks like we will soon have a 15%GST before the next elections.

It also means that Australian buyers will not only be paying the exhorbinate postage costs that come out of the US and the UK but as these are services we will also be paying 10% more to cover GST.

A simple example is thus: An item selling at $20au with the usual UK postage at around $35.00au will now cost another 55 cents.  A lot of us are bypassing UK and US items now, with the next impost Ebay is going to struggle holding on to the market. IMO.

[davewil1964]

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@misterforgetfulsbooks wrote:

ebay easily collect 10% off our sales, why won't they be made to collect the GST for the Govt. off all sales made online. You do business in Australia, you pay Australian taxes. These taxes are needed for health, education and the elderly.

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Rama, I think it has been mentioned before.

eBay buyers are NOT the only non-business people who import goods purchased online. Amazon, who allegedly have agreed to collect it, are one big name I can think of who sells significant amounts into Australia outside of eBay. Not counting myriad other sellers who sell to Australian consumers.

So it has to be one in, all in, or eBay buyers may well be disadvantaged.

Plus if an Australian eBay seller has a turnover of less than $75,000 pa, neither the government nor any agent (like eBay) has the right or power to charge or collect GST on their sales. And if they did on top of eBay's fees, I can envisage eBay getting their wish and only having big box stores, who would never agree to eBay collecting and remitting GST on their behalf, left.

[theforevergarden]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

Can you imagine the reaction from some of the Mum and Dad sellers in the US and UK when/if they are told they have to collect money on behalf of the Australian Government.   They will very quickly pull the plug on selling to Australia.

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Au goverment can only ask them to, they can't enforce anyone overseas to register with the ATO.  So unlikely to stop anyone overseas selling into Australia since they can just ignore it....granted people here would be less likely to buy due to additional processing fee's in Australia.

[marakorpa]

A further comment from Hockey was that the GST will only  apply to transactions over $1000.00.  I reckon, that by the time it all comes in, I  many others will be too poor to buy anything anyway, on a pension that is!!!!

If they hit the Sunday markets next, it will be really going low, but they are politicians, how low can they go...a lot lower yet.

[lyndal1838]

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@marakorpa wrote:

A further comment from Hockey was that the GST will only  apply to transactions over $1000.00.  I reckon, that by the time it all comes in, I  many others will be too poor to buy anything anyway, on a pension that is!!!!

If they hit the Sunday markets next, it will be really going low, but they are politicians, how low can they go...a lot lower yet.

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The GST already applies to transactions over $1000 so that is not going to change anything.

All I have heard is a discussion as to whether the threshold is going to be $0 or $20.

GST already applies to Sunday Markets if the sellers have a high enough turnover to be registered for it.

[oldmosmanite]

Your calculation is wrong

GST IS AN INIQUITOUS AND REPETITIVE TAX ON ANY POINT OF  SALE. fOR EXAMPLE, A MECHANIC WORKING ON MY CAR BUYS A PART FROM THE SPAREPARTS PLACE NEXT DOOR INSTEAD OF CALLING ME SO i CAN SUPPLY. HE  PAYS GST ON HIS DISCOUNTED PRICE  PUTS IT ON MY CAR THEN ADDS GST AT RETAIL PRICE AND GST FOR 'TIME' IT TOOK TO GO NEXT DOOR AND BUY IT. HEWSON LOST AN ELECTION OVER IT BUT HOWARD, WHO PROMISED NEVER NEVER, NEVER EVER EVER TO INTRODUCE GST, TO GET INTO POWER WAITED UNTIL A LATE NIGHT MEETING SAW FEW OPPOSIITON MEMBERS THEN RUSHED IT THROUGH. THE SAME MAN WHEN ADVISED BY AN AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT SECURITY EXPERT THAT BUSH WAS LYING ABOUT WMD'S ...IGNORED IT AND THE AGENT WAS DEMISED.THIS IS THE SORT OF THUGGERY AUSTRALIANS LET PASS.

Actually, on your calculation of $35 +$20 price and postage  10% on $55.00...will be $5.50 not 55cents...however also as Austraklian Government and suppliers love seeing our dollar deterirate we also pay  the inflated rate of a pricing (e.g. Pounds Sterling). One problem is when there is no comparable purchase here. An example , I buy a second hand car and later find the spare tyre cover key was not provided. There are no tumbler codes so I spend time and money looking for a replacement lock...no good...locksmith wants $130 likely to supply A key...$11.00 each thereafter. (plus GST of course) I find a lock and keys oveseas and am charged 10% GST which eBay claIms to be sending it to Australian government....but eBay is not the vendor....

Even though though I cannot buy the item locally and would have to pay excessive sums to have it fixed I have to pay for British Postage costs (or USA outrageous amounts or...???.) paying GST to some entity or person overseas, a GST which adds to my costs but will never get to Australia.

The correct procedure is that Customs decides but in the evils (Read of Mayer Amschel Bauer's plans for total domination through taxpayer guaranteed financial control and debt of government and as well, civilian debt )

[digital*ghost]

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@oldmosmanite wrote:

GST IS AN INIQUITOUS AND REPETITIVE TAX ON ANY POINT OF  SALE. fOR EXAMPLE, A MECHANIC WORKING ON MY CAR BUYS A PART FROM THE SPAREPARTS PLACE NEXT DOOR INSTEAD OF CALLING ME SO i CAN SUPPLY. HE  PAYS GST ON HIS DISCOUNTED PRICE  PUTS IT ON MY CAR THEN ADDS GST AT RETAIL PRICE AND GST FOR 'TIME' IT TOOK TO GO NEXT DOOR AND BUY IT.

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That's not how GST works.  Any GST that is paid along the supply chain, is then credited towards the GST owed by a business on their own revenue - only the end consumer pays GST, but of course it is on the final price charged to the customer.

If I buy a spare part to use in my work and pay GST on it, then I have already paid a portion of the GST that my customer will pay. For example, let's say the part costs me $100 - if that includes GST, then $9.09 of the GST I will have to charge my customer in the final invoice has already been paid. That also means I can base my quote on the actual cost to me ~$90, even though my out of pocket cost was $100. 

If I end up charging $200 for the repair, then the customer will have to pay $20 GST, and I'll owe the government that $20, but I've already given $9.09 of it to the other business (who will have to pay it when they pay their GST), so I'll end up handing over $10.91.

That is why Business to Business transactions are exempt from the GST on low value imports (if the purchaser is a GST-registered business that is), because the government won't end up with any more revenue since whatever the business importer pays willl just be a credit against what they owe from their own sales. 

[brerrabbit585]

I just love the way people say Howard promised not to bring in the GST but then changed his mind. At the time, the opposition also said if it was brought in they'd reverse it when they got into power. Surprise, surprise, they also broke their promise, but people like to very conveniently forget that!

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@brerrabbit585 wrote:
I just love the way people say Howard promised not to bring in the GST but then changed his mind. At the time, the opposition also said if it was brought in they'd reverse it when they got into power. Surprise, surprise, they also broke their promise, but people like to very conveniently forget that!

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my recollection is that Howard took the GST policy to an election that he won . . . . . . meaning that under our system of government Australians voted in favour of it through the Coalition having a majority of members of the House of Reps.

Posters wanting to blame anyone for the GST should start with those that voted for the Coalition in the election that Howard won before the year 2000.

[davewil1964]

He won the most seats, but not the most votes.

Why are these years old threads getting dragged up (which were, at the time, speculation) when half the current threads on the boards are about GST on imports? And domestic GST has been around for 18 years, which makes it a bit late to protest.

[brerrabbit585]

Why do old threads get dragged up? Often it's because people intent on having a rant are so wound up they don't stop to check dates or to go through the latest threads, and some actually prefer to bring up old threads just to annoy others.