Australians:
OK to grumble about it costing you more if GST is applied to overseas purchases, but what to do if the GST legislation SHUTS DOWN your business in Australia?
I am an Australian author and publisher, and have 4 books up on Amazon's POD (Print-On-Demand) site in California. As from July 1, Amazon have declared that it is not workable for them to comply with the new low-value GST regulations, and so they will not ship anything to an Australian address.
I estimate that Amazon have spent tens of millions of dollars on setting up the POD service, and there is no real alternative for POD. The new legislation is largely unworkable, unenforcible, and uncheckable as far as overseas suppliers are concerned. It's getting Australia a reputation as a bad place to do business with.
A new example of this -- ABEBooks are the main source of buying second-hand books, worldwide. In the face of the new legislation, US bookshops have not declined to supply to Australia, they have just added $40 to the cost of postage to Australian customers. Cost of book, $3.50. Cost of postage, $44.00. Message to Australians: we DON'T WANT your business. it's just too hard.
The new legislation came out of an Australian Government Productivity Commission report, which you can see at https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/collection-models/report/collection-models.pdf. In it they say:
The legislated model and the suitability of alternatives should be reviewed five years from commencement, or sooner if triggered by evidence of unduly low compliance, unintended impacts on consumers or adverse trade policy responses.
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I've clearly suffered an unintended impact and seen the adverse trade policy responses. What can be done to get an immediate review of the legislation? I've tried contacting my member of parliament (Julie Bishop), the media, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, all of whom have not responded or have said it's nothing to do with them. ??????
