topic Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9% in Selling

Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

capricorntrading — Sat, 08 Jul 2017 06:17:53 GMT

Don't know if anyone was made aware of the increase of the Final Value Sale and Final Value Postage has now increased to 10.9%

I have 3 different accounts and none have received any notification of fees increasing.

Another ripoff from eBay. Sellers are the only reason eBay exists. The way eBay keep leaning towards the Buyer almost makes selling here near impossible to make a profit.

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Jul 2017 06:21:36 GMT

On top of the GST that started July 1st ?

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

kopenhagen5 — Sat, 08 Jul 2017 06:23:14 GMT

Everyone has been talking about it for months and eBay also notified members.

It is the introduction of the Netflix tax (10% on fees) which the Aus Taxation dept has imposed on eBay and other online services.

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

imastawka — Sat, 08 Jul 2017 06:25:13 GMT

Seems some people don't take any notice of notifications

OP.....it's the netflix tax

http://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/content/gst-fees-ebaycomau

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

k1ooo-slr-sales — Sat, 08 Jul 2017 07:36:43 GMT

@capricorntrading wrote:

Another ripoff from eBay. Sellers are the only reason eBay exists. The way eBay keep leaning towards the Buyer almost makes selling here near impossible to make a profit.

as already mentioned, the increase is due to the Netflix tax . . . . . . also known as the GST in Australia since July 1st 2000.

For many years, companies like eBay have been criticised by both politicians and ordinary citizens for not paying tax here in Australia. In simplified terms, their defence has always been that it is eBay International AG that fees are paid to, and that this company is not an Australian company and the fees were earned outside of Australia despite being fees paid for listings on eBay.au, therefore no tax due.

The Netflix tax is what the Australian government is calling the GST that is now being charged on digitally delivered goods provided by overseas companies but paid for by Australian citizens. There have been countless ads on TV explaining this Netflix tax.

None, nada, zero, zilch of the increase in fees is being pocketed by eBay as the whole of the increase is GST payable to the Australian Tax Office, and is collected by eBay and remitted to the tax office on a regular basis.

None of us like fee increases, but the way I am choosing to view it is that for many years I got away without paying GST on my fees because the government hadn't legislated a way to force eBay to collect GST that was rightly due.

So, in short, eBay is not ripping you off by increasing fees. I will be interested to see just how much extra tax the government collects in the next 12 months.

God help us in July 2018 if the government works out a way to charge GST on ALL goods bought overseas and brought into this country. I say "if" because that tax was due for implementation in July 2017 but has been deferred for year, but it will come eventually. Probably in the form of an import charge as goods arrive in Australia rather than collected by overseas sellers and remitted to out tax office as that a logistical impossibility as every overseas seller from every overseas country would be required to collect GST and give it to the tax office and this is just ludicrous to think that all overseas sellers would be honest enough to do that. Charging on import, or delivery (i.e. collected by Aust Post or couriers), is much more likely.

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

*tippy*toes* — Sat, 08 Jul 2017 14:48:32 GMT

Have you been hiding under a rock? EBay has been spamming us for months about this coming in. You really should check your email occasionally.

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

porcelain_dolls_by_me — Sat, 08 Jul 2017 23:08:02 GMT

"For many years, companies like eBay have been criticised by both politicians and ordinary citizens for not paying tax here in Australia. In simplified terms, their defence has always been that it is eBay International AG that fees are paid to, and that this company is not an Australian company and the fees were earned outside of Australia despite being fees paid for listings on eBay.au, therefore no tax due."

The irony is the "Nextflix tax" WILL NOT BE PAID BY Ebay, rather the the seller of goods which are about 99% Australian citizens.

That is, EBay will still not be paying any tax on their Australia derived income.

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

lyndal1838 — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 04:56:55 GMT

All GST is paid by the end user of the service. In this case the end users are the sellers who use ebay's service to list their items for sale.

While it is true that ebay is not paying the tax it is a step in the right direction. Let's hope it does not take another 17 years for them to be forced to pay regular income tax.

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

rocket2retro — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 07:08:42 GMT

As I see it, eBay fees were already very high (especially after the introduction FVFs on postage). No doubt when it was introduced many sellers decided enough is enough and took their business elsewhere.

With the Netflix tax now added I'd say more sellers will decide it is too expensive to selll on Ebay.

No doubt eBay were aware of this when they sent sellers a message (from Jooman Park) asking them to fight against the introduction.

In essence, although sellers pay the tax, eBay will pay with the potential loss of sellers.

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

k1ooo-slr-sales — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 10:08:46 GMT

@rocket2retro wrote:
In essence, although sellers pay the tax, eBay will pay with the potential loss of sellers.

I think that the smarter sellers, especially those who only do Buy-Now items, factor in all of the costs associated with selling when setting the price of their items. They need to add in final value fees (including Netflix tax), PayPal fees, cost of postage, packaging etc.

For those who run auctions, they need to increase the start bid amount to take the Netflix tax and all other costs into account.

As with all the changes in eBay over the years, there will be those who are able to cope with the changes, and others who will fall by the wayside. The trick is to ensure that you are not one of the ones who falls by the wayside.

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

k1ooo-slr-sales — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 10:28:17 GMT

@porcelain_dolls_by_me wrote:
The irony is the "Nextflix tax" WILL NOT BE PAID BY Ebay, rather the the seller of goods which are about 99% Australian citizens.
That is, EBay will still not be paying any tax on their Australia derived income.

once the Netflix taxes come rolling in the government will have a realistic idea of how much money eBay are making from Aussie sellers. Think about it, multiply the Netflix tax collected by ten and they will know how much the fees are that eBay are 'earning' from those sellers who pay the Netflix tax. Finding a way to convince eBay to pay company tax on those 'earnings' will be difficult because if it was easy they would already be paying.

That Netflix tax might be the catalyst for finding a way to have them pay their fare share of company tax, which would be a windfall for all Australians as the government would have another

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

collect247 — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 10:31:01 GMT

40% should do lol

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

jeni!! — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 11:55:02 GMT

@porcelain_dolls_by_me wrote:
... the "Nextflix tax" WILL NOT BE PAID BY Ebay, rather the the seller of goods which are about 99% Australian citizens.
[emphasis added]

I'd be surprised if 99% of sellers on Aus Ebay are Australian. Many advertise their goods as being in Australia (mostly dishonestly IME) while they are located in Asia (according to their profile).

I wonder whether these sellers will have to pay the GST on Ebay fees? Or will this be another area where overseas sellers have lower costs (postage being the other one, as Australian taxpayers subsidise postage on parcels that come from o/s and are forwarded by Australia Post)?

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

lyndal1838 — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 13:16:06 GMT

If they list on ebay.au then they will be paying the GST as all sellers do who are listing on the site.

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

digital*ghost — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 17:22:12 GMT

@jeni!! wrote:
I'd be surprised if 99% of sellers on Aus Ebay are Australian. Many advertise their goods as being in Australia (mostly dishonestly IME) while they are located in Asia (according to their profile).

I wonder whether these sellers will have to pay the GST on Ebay fees?

GST is (and always has been) a tax on Australian consumers, so the answer to that question is no, overseas sellers who list on eBay AU will not have GST added to their fees. Australian sellers can't avoid it by listing items on other sites either, because it's charged on any fees generated by an account registered in Australia.

Not all Aussies will pay it, either. Sellers who are already GST registered will have no added GST.

(PS - eBay gave 30 days notice, other sites less than 2 weeks. I haven't seen a single TV ad - because I don't have a TV - so the news was probably easy to miss for many).

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

lyndal1838 — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 21:51:03 GMT

Believe me Digi, if you have a TV you cannot miss the ads for the new Tax. They are driiving me crazy and I have a great ability to tune out when ads of any sort come on.

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

jeni!! — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 00:39:46 GMT

@digital*ghost wrote:
GST is (and always has been) a tax on Australian consumers, so the answer to that question is no, overseas sellers who list on eBay AU will not have GST added to their fees....

Thanks DG.

That's what I assumed--that it would be based on where the seller account is located.

No TV here either. but I did see Ebay's terribly worded emails.

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

*tippy*toes* — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 03:54:53 GMT

@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:
@rocket2retro wrote:
In essence, although sellers pay the tax, eBay will pay with the potential loss of sellers.
I think that the smarter sellers, especially those who only do Buy-Now items, factor in all of the costs associated with selling when setting the price of their items. They need to add in final value fees (including Netflix tax), PayPal fees, cost of postage, packaging etc.

For those who run auctions, they need to increase the start bid amount to take the Netflix tax and all other costs into account.

As with all the changes in eBay over the years, there will be those who are able to cope with the changes, and others who will fall by the wayside. The trick is to ensure that you are not one of the ones who falls by the wayside.

The ones that do crumble will be the ones that buy at retail price and try to mark up to make some kind of profit. The ones that pay $20 for a $20 item and then list it for $22 plus postage. Some of these people do see their products but the profit margin is so minimal, that even a few cents extra in fees is going to cause them to be in the red by the time the other fees have been paid. They may not stop selling straight away. They'll offload all their stock first, then stop selling.

Then there are those who make a large profit on the items they sell, so can absorb the extra fee added. If I buy something for $1, sell it for $30 including postage, the fees would be close enough to $3. The 30c extra I pay on that is still going to give me a great profit, so I probably wouldn't change my prices. If I was buying for $1 and selling for $2, then I probably would (maybe).

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

lizzyamelia — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 03:47:14 GMT

I think the issue is that now we are paying GST twice for the postage component which is wrong on all levels.

NETFLIX tax is for DIGITALLY delivered downloads supplied by a foreign source NOT for physical items sold over the internet But this is just ebay increasing their fees.

Re: Sneeky Final Value & Shipping Fees increase to 10.9%

davewil1964 — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 06:04:38 GMT

We are paying GST on eBay's FEES, not the postage, not the goods. eBay's FEES.

Have a look at your account.