topic Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling in Selling

Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

painbalm — Mon, 26 May 2014 08:38:33 GMT

Anyone who claims the GST on their postage will be paying more if printing out the postage labels in eBay. Australia Post pricing includes GST. I claim back 10% of my postage account with Australia Post for the GST component. Any seller who does a GST return would be stupid to print out the eBay labelling when there is no GST invoice supplied by eBay thus effectively paying 10% more for postage.

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

phorum_junkie* — Mon, 26 May 2014 08:52:35 GMT

The cost of the postage if you are using the ebay service is less so it really makes little difference IMO.

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

curraone — Mon, 26 May 2014 09:05:30 GMT

6. Can I get a tax invoice for my postage labels?

Tax invoices are available five days after labels are printed (once the option to cancel has expired). You can access your tax invoice through the Manage postage labels page in My eBay.

No tax invoice is issued if a label is cancelled (because you receive a refund).

http://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/postage-and-shipping/australia-post-labels#promotion

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

painbalm — Mon, 26 May 2014 11:49:41 GMT

How would you determine that it makes little difference? A 500gram satchel or box is currently $7.15 on eBay and $7.20 at the post office. I pay Australia Post $6.55 GST exempt for the same postage which is around .65 cents less than the $7.15 eBay are offering. Whilst eBay are offering for a limited time a refund discount and only on certain postage it will not last forever and is for a limited time to act as a sweetener to lure sellers into using their service. Any seller that has a postage account or can claim the GST component of their postage bill is better off not using eBay labels . Australia Post charges GST on postage but naturally as eBay does not pay GST sellers cannot claim the GST component of their postage as eBay will not and cannot provide a GST tax invoice for postage fees paid.

Of course small sellers who do not lodge GST returns may benefit a little but my point was to alert the sellers who would usually claim GST back on their postage.

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

davewil1964 — Mon, 26 May 2014 12:42:45 GMT

Read what curraone posted.

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

misterforgetfulsbooks — Tue, 27 May 2014 00:52:59 GMT

if ebay doesn't charge GST on their fees, does that mean we can't claim GST back on them?

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

lane-ends — Tue, 27 May 2014 03:33:37 GMT

I'd claim it whether you kept an official tax invoice or not. You have proof you paid AP, ATO are not going to argue that there was no gst included in this. GST receipts are really only essential when dealing with suppiers who it is uncertain whether they charged GST or not. Even in those cases if I remember you can claim a tax input credit, effectively the same thing (I'm no longer registered for GST so it may be different now)

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

bsignd — Tue, 27 May 2014 23:35:07 GMT

You can only claim the gst when you can produce a valid tax invoice. You have always only been able to claim the gst back on items on which you have been charged the gst. A lot of sellers are not registered for gst and therefore do not charge it. so you cannot claim gst on that purchase under any circumstances. The ATO can and will argue about any claims for GST input credit claimed without a legitimate tax invoice to back up that claim.

I may buy many business items off ebay for use in my business, but if i buy from a GST non-registered seller, I cannot claim the gst on those items.

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

davewil1964 — Wed, 28 May 2014 08:03:08 GMT

You only have to have a tax invoice for amounts of $82.50 and above.

$7ish postage payments therefore do not require one. Plus if you read what curraone wrote in about post 3, you would see that tax invoices for postage are available. Individually.

If you CAN't claim a GST input, you can still claim a tax deduction.

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

spicy-pickles — Thu, 29 May 2014 09:25:42 GMT

Ah is this for real? So I now have to go back though all my sales and print out each tax invoice? What a crock. This doesn't even make any sense.

So postage is being applied to my eBay monthly invoice and billed by them. However I have a bunch of individual Tax Invoices from Aust Post, even though I never actually made a payment directly to them?

Here I was thinking that eBay would total up the postage and show the GST component for that on their invoice.

The stupid eBay system wouldn't even let me print a label just now because it said the buyers postcode and suburb didn't match. The Aust Post website said it was correct, and in the end I had to pay more and do it via C&S which didn't complain and happily confirmed the postcode was correct and generated a label.

I wish I could just do it all via the C&S site like I used to.

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

thecatspjs — Thu, 29 May 2014 11:41:11 GMT

The set up is cumbersome, ill thought through and time wasting - all in all consistent with eBays lack of understanding and ability to implement systems that save sellers TIME !!!

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

ms_aussie — Thu, 29 May 2014 13:09:24 GMT

I have had a couple of occasions where the label wouldn't print out due to incorrect postcodes. On both occasions the buyer had put the suburb in the second address box and the name of the city in the last box. They had then used the postcode for the suburb. Of course the city and the suburb have different postcodes and that's why the label couldn't be created.

Well that's my experience anyway 🙂

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

porcelainforyou2 — Thu, 29 May 2014 14:21:46 GMT

@painbalm wrote:
Anyone who claims the GST on their postage will be paying more if printing out the postage labels in eBay. Australia Post pricing includes GST. I claim back 10% of my postage account with Australia Post for the GST component. Any seller who does a GST return would be stupid to print out the eBay labelling when there is no GST invoice supplied by eBay thus effectively paying 10% more for postage.

I agree that any seller who is registered for GST and who therefore has to complete a business activity statement (BAS) in order to reclaim input credit from the ATO should not print out postage labels via eBay (as no GST invoice is supplied by eBay).

I would disagree with your mathematics, howeve. In reclaiming GST input costs the GST-included postage costs must be divided by 11 (eleven), not by ten (10%) in order to reclaim the correct amount of GST incorporated into the final postage charge.

If you actually claim back 10% rather than one eleventh of the postage account, you should check with your accountant as to whether byou are using the correct calculation.

Re eBay not providing a "GST invoice", this may be because both eBay and PayPal are for taxation purposes domiciled in Zurich, Switzerland, and therefore pay no GST whatsoever to the ATO. It si possible that although one can legitimately claim GST input credits from the ATO when postage is paid directly to Australia Post (which does pay GST), they cannot be legitimately claimed if postage is paid via eBay by printing postage labels in eBay

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

curraone — Thu, 29 May 2014 21:13:43 GMT

porcelainforyou2 wrote:
wendys_software_site wrote:
Anyone who claims the GST on their postage will be paying more if printing out the postage labels in eBay. Australia Post pricing includes GST. I claim back 10% of my postage account with Australia Post for the GST component. Any seller who does a GST return would be stupid to print out the eBay labelling when there is no GST invoice supplied by eBay thus effectively paying 10% more for postage.

I agree that any seller who is registered for GST and who therefore has to complete a business activity statement (BAS) in order to reclaim input credit from the ATO should not print out postage labels via eBay (as no GST invoice is supplied by eBay).

tax invoices are available! see my previous post. - clumsy and paper-wasting, true - but still available.

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

viewmont1071 — Thu, 29 May 2014 21:44:44 GMT

Curraone.....,. print one and have a look at the gst compnent......... Zilch nada nikl nothing.....curraone take special note of the ABN that needs to be on the Tax invoice......

Could you quote ebays ABN for me from your printed tax invoice ??????

here's a little help for you

Swallow ebays spin if you like but please don't try and peddle it to me

What is eBay's ABN number?

The rights and services available at www.ebay.com.au are provided by eBay International AG, located at Helvetiastrasse 15/17, CH-3005, Bern , Switzerland . As a foreign entity, eBay International AG is not required to be registered for GST and therefore does not have an ABN number.

https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Bus/GST-for-small-business/?page=5

Requirements of a tax invoice

Tax invoices you issue or receive must include certain information. The information required differs depending on the price of the sale. Tax invoices for sales of $1,000 or more require more information than tax invoices for sales of less than $1,000.

Sales of less than $1,000

Tax invoices for taxable sales that total less than $1,000 must include enough information to enable the following to be clearly ascertained:

that the document is intended as a tax invoice
the seller's identity
the seller's Australian business number (ABN)
the date the tax invoice was issued
a brief description of the items sold, including the quantity (if applicable) and the price of what is sold
the GST amount (if any) payable in relation to the sale - this can be shown separately or, if the GST to be paid is exactly one-eleventh of the total price, as a statement such as ‘Total price includes GST’
the extent that each sale to which the document relates is a taxable sale.

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

curraone — Thu, 29 May 2014 22:53:21 GMT

the post is about the ebay labels postage

so, I printed one as you suggested - the invoice is for Australia Post so of course it has an ABN

Australia Post TAX INVOICE Account Enquiries
ABN: 28 864 970 579 Date of Issue: 28/04/2014 Telephone: 13 POST (13 7678)

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

spicy-pickles — Thu, 29 May 2014 23:21:18 GMT

But aren't we being billed by eBay with the usual fees? If that's the case then how can I legitimately claim the Aust Post invoices since I have never made those payments to AP and I wouldn't be able to match them with any transactions in my bank accounts etc.

Also I would have the monthly single payment to eBay, plus a heaps of single Aust Post invoices. How am I supposed to enter that into my records as that would be doubling up on my expense claims?

Re: Warning! if you use eBay prepaid labelling

bigbrickshop — Fri, 30 May 2014 00:07:43 GMT

Your monthly seller Invoice has a summary with separate totals for eBay Fees and Postage paid to AusPost (listed as Shipping fees disbursed).