topic GST impost from 1st July in Buying

GST impost from 1st July

porcelain_dolls_by_me — Thu, 24 May 2018 05:43:30 GMT

My understanding is that from 1st July EBay will collect from buyers a 10% GST impost on purchases from overseas sellers. Whether the buyer is registered for GST is immaterial, they will still pay the GST but claim it back as an input credit when they lodge their BAS.

My question is, how will EBay determine is it is an overseas seller and the goods will be imported into Australia as a result of the transaction?

They cannot use the "Item Location" for as we know the Chinese state some Australian location and hence the EBay process would probably exclude the transaction from the GST scoop.

Thoughts?

Re: GST impost from 1st July

lyndal1838 — Thu, 24 May 2018 05:46:55 GMT

It would have to based on where the seller is registered.....if it is an overseas registered account then the GST is charged.

Re: GST impost from 1st July

kopenhagen5 — Thu, 24 May 2018 05:57:34 GMT

I'm guessing all of a sudden there will be a lot of drop shipping accounts in Aus started, still with item location as here.

Re: GST impost from 1st July

porcelain_dolls_by_me — Thu, 24 May 2018 06:18:08 GMT

So the Chinese seller opens an account with EBay Australia and lists the item location as Australia, with a (eg) 7 -14 handling/shipping time. Australian seller and item location so no GST would charged.

They make a sale and send an email to their real Chinese office who then ship the goods.

The Chinese are going to find a way to circumvent the GST - I am just trying to work out what it will be (lol)

Re: GST impost from 1st July

Anonymous — Thu, 24 May 2018 06:20:42 GMT

That was my first thought also

Re: GST impost from 1st July

imastawka — Thu, 24 May 2018 06:23:13 GMT

I thought the Government was going to collect it at Customs?

Might have a bit of a google.........

Re: GST impost from 1st July

porcelain_dolls_by_me — Thu, 24 May 2018 06:41:53 GMT

It is my understanding they canned the item of collecting the GST at Customs (as is the present situations) as the cost of doing same would have been prohibitive.

Instead they have flicked to responsibility onto the like of EBay, Amazon, etc.

Re: GST impost from 1st July

imastawka — Thu, 24 May 2018 06:49:52 GMT

Yeah, I found that as a recommendation, but I've found nothing on how they're going

to enforce it.

Didn't ebay say they wouldn't be doing it?

Re: GST impost from 1st July

porcelain_dolls_by_me — Thu, 24 May 2018 08:02:34 GMT

I seem to recall that even though they **bleep**ed and moaned about the added burden they were given no choice.

After all, in the USA for example, Amazon have programmed their systems to collect state taxes where required. So it can be done,

Re: GST impost from 1st July

porcelain_dolls_by_me — Thu, 24 May 2018 08:34:50 GMT

Are the moderators of this forum serious???????

You have "bleeped" my word "**bleep**ed" which is a common usage word and listed in all dictionaries. Do a Dr. Google search and stop being so precious and pedantic!

Re: GST impost from 1st July

joztamps — Thu, 24 May 2018 08:56:08 GMT

It's The Americans, Baby.

They once transformed a book search of mine into **** Times by Charles ****ens.

I didn't get any hits.

Re: GST impost from 1st July

lyndal1838 — Thu, 24 May 2018 08:57:30 GMT

It is automatic....the moderators don't bother with bleeping.

I was bleeped for using the expression t*t for tat....how silly is that.

Re: GST impost from 1st July

joztamps — Thu, 24 May 2018 09:03:09 GMT

Should have tried teat for tat.

Re: GST impost from 1st July

Anonymous — Thu, 24 May 2018 09:06:03 GMT

Or udders for others

Re: GST impost from 1st July

digital*ghost — Thu, 24 May 2018 09:41:37 GMT

@lyndal1838 wrote:
It would have to based on where the seller is registered.....if it is an overseas registered account then the GST is charged.

That was my first thought as well, since that's how the GST on fees works, but I actually can't see that working for the new GST, since (theoretically), if an item is genuinely located in Australia, any applicable import GST has already been paid, so eBay would (I presume) be collecting GST illegally in such cases.

Perhaps sellers who are registered in other countries may need to prove their item location if they set it to Aus? If it becomes so that anyone who sets their item location to Aus will avoid having GST added, would ebay be liable for the GST that wasn't paid, I wonder?

If so, this could finally end item location misrepresentation, if ebay have something to lose if they don't address the issue.

Re: GST impost from 1st July

negron18 — Fri, 25 May 2018 03:55:38 GMT

I think the company/seller from overseas will be hit with the GST charge when the item hits Australian borders rather than the importer.

Maintaining that policy when it comes to international sellers on ebay will be to timely and costly for Aus gov to do, so instead they want to just bill companies like ebay on gst rather than chase millions of individual sellers.

Likewise charging individual buyers in Australia for every international transaction will cost more to operate than if the GST was not collected.

Either way Hardley Normal got his way.

Re: GST impost from 1st July

davidc4430 — Fri, 25 May 2018 04:03:46 GMT

i dont care how its collected, i bet it costs more to collect it than it raises.

but dont worry, it will help shut poor mr harvey norman up.

Re: GST impost from 1st July

porcelain_dolls_by_me — Fri, 25 May 2018 08:37:17 GMT

With all due respect nothing, would stop Gerry Harvey whinging about anything that offers the consumer a fairer deal than his outlandish store prices.

And don't forget this is the retail guru that proclaimed online shopping would never suceed!

Is it any wonder that dinosaurs became extinct?

Re: GST impost from 1st July

davidc4430 — Fri, 25 May 2018 08:45:17 GMT

the stupid man, if he just figured out a way to deliver his 'stuff' to online buyers at a half decent cost hed prolly be selling a lot more.

as it is, if you dont live near one of his stores you can forget buying anything off him, even on sale as delivery kills the deal.

lucky for me my local retravision store price matched old harveys price on my microwave. he had the best price i could find but his charge to deliver it was crazy.

Re: GST impost from 1st July

digital*ghost — Fri, 25 May 2018 09:01:00 GMT

The vendor-collects model is intended to pass on those costs to sellers, because you have sellers, or sites like ebay, doing all of the accounting and remitting the collected funds. It always struck me as such a cop out way to do it, TBH, because it's an imposition and cost on an international business to ensure that the Australian government gets tax dollars from Australian consumers. (i.e. the business gains no additional benefit for outlaying these costs, and doing the work on behalf of the Aus gov. aside from being able to continue to sell to Australians freely).

I may not have the greatest insight to the inner workings of the system, so I know I could be completely clueless, but I fail to see how - in this digital age - a billing or other electronic system facilitated locally couldn't have been implemented.

The vendor collects model is also intended to eliminate backlogs of mail while parcels await GST payment, and a billing system may not necessarily resolve that, but it would be more fair, and I'm sure the gov could come up with consequences for Aussies failing to give them their dues, plus they'd get to have an annual auction of forfeited goods.