GST for Australia rip off

[2013annie8989]

GST charges for Australia ought to be 10% upon purchase price. But recently have noticed the final invoice coming up with something like 20% purchase price and labelled "import duty" i.e GST. Isn't this illegal on ebay's part? 

[davewil1964]

If you were charged GST by eBay on items from Australia, you are correct. And the most useful way of fixing it would be to talk to eBay, not drag up an old thread.

If, instead, you were charged GST on imported items, then you are wrong. It is legal and has been so since 1 July.

[nogod4me]

I would suggest that buying from Australia is pretty stupid, if they are loading up your costs with GST.
Stop buying from Australia. That is my recommendation.

As for buying overseas for Australians, stop doing it, because you will be overcharged on GST, as the postage cost is included for GST purposes.

There is absolutely no advantage to buying goods overseas for Australians, because of the GST.

As for buying local, I notice that many sellers have taken advantage of the GST on foreign products, and have raised their prices roughly by the GST, to take advantage of gaining more profit.
To those people who do this, I will not buy your crud, and you have encouraged me to use shops, or go without.
My finger is pointed at you ebay operators in Queensland in particular... QLD, has long been the land of religion and scam in Australia, and I would advise that people buy nothing from Queenslanders in general, unless you know they are honest dealers.
It is best to assume Queenslanders are scammers unless otherwise proven.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@nogod4me wrote:

I would suggest that buying from Australia is pretty stupid, if they are loading up your costs with GST.
Stop buying from Australia. That is my recommendation.

As for buying overseas for Australians, stop doing it, because you will be overcharged on GST, as the postage cost is included for GST purposes.

There is absolutely no advantage to buying goods overseas for Australians, because of the GST.

As for buying local, I notice that many sellers have taken advantage of the GST on foreign products, and have raised their prices roughly by the GST, to take advantage of gaining more profit.
To those people who do this, I will not buy your crud, and you have encouraged me to use shops, or go without.
My finger is pointed at you ebay operators in Queensland in particular... QLD, has long been the land of religion and scam in Australia, and I would advise that people buy nothing from Queenslanders in general, unless you know they are honest dealers.
It is best to assume Queenslanders are scammers unless otherwise proven.

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OMG I did not know that.

[davewil1964]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

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@nogod4me wrote:

I would suggest that buying from Australia is pretty stupid, if they are loading up your costs with GST.
Stop buying from Australia. That is my recommendation.

As for buying overseas for Australians, stop doing it, because you will be overcharged on GST, as the postage cost is included for GST purposes.

There is absolutely no advantage to buying goods overseas for Australians, because of the GST.

As for buying local, I notice that many sellers have taken advantage of the GST on foreign products, and have raised their prices roughly by the GST, to take advantage of gaining more profit.
To those people who do this, I will not buy your crud, and you have encouraged me to use shops, or go without.
My finger is pointed at you ebay operators in Queensland in particular... QLD, has long been the land of religion and scam in Australia, and I would advise that people buy nothing from Queenslanders in general, unless you know they are honest dealers.
It is best to assume Queenslanders are scammers unless otherwise proven.

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OMG I did not know that.

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Nor I. I suspect that the majority of buyers from Queensland sellers probably don't either.

[digital*ghost]

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@nogod4me wrote:

As for buying local, I notice that many sellers have taken advantage of the GST on foreign products, and have raised their prices roughly by the GST, to take advantage of gaining more profit.
To those people who do this, I will not buy your crud, and you have encouraged me to use shops, or go without.

---

I guess it never occurred to you that those sellers might have been keeping their prices artificially low in order to remain competitive with sellers from overseas, and that the GST on imports did for them exactly what it was supposed to (relieve some of the pressure).

It seems it also didn't occur to you that many sellers import the goods they sell, and that with the previous $1000 threshold, it was entirely possible their stock purchases were previously GST-free, but now they are not, so the cost of their stock rose by 10%, which in turn necessitated an increase to their retail prices. 

It sounds like you wouldn't have bought from them anyway, if you refer to their stock as 'crud', so my guess is they haven't missed out on anything. 

[countessalmirena]

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@nogod4me wrote:

I would suggest that buying from Australia is pretty stupid, if they are loading up your costs with GST.
Stop buying from Australia. That is my recommendation.

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That is an interesting point. Yes, I see what you mean; goods and services in Australia have a GST component, so in order to avoid paying GST, we should stop buying from Australian businesses.

That will mean, though, that my electricity will be shut off, my water bill goes unpaid, my internet will go permanently down, my phone will declare "No service", and I'll starve to death.

But at least I will have stuck the GST up the nostrils of those GST-loving politicians! (Especially the Top End ones. And that's tremendously important, because those Queenslanders will be expecting some sort of sympathy and fellow-feeling in the wake of those devastating bushfires which, truth be known, they probably lit themselves in a cunning religious scam. The Great Burning Rainforest Scamming Religion, it's called - I hear that membership of the GBRSR is holding steady.)

No... wait! I can still buy food if I import it!

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@nogod4me wrote:

As for buying overseas for Australians, stop doing it, because you will be overcharged on GST, as the postage cost is included for GST purposes.

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No, I see I can't. Oh, rats. For one brief shining moment, I thought I'd cracked the survive-without-GST code, but no... If I import, I'll be charged GST. It seems starvation is the only self-respecting way forward.

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@nogod4me wrote:

[...] you have encouraged me to use shops, or go without.

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I feel compelled to remind you of the fatal flaw in your otherwise cogent argument. The shops charge GST too.

This isn't going well for us, is it?

Just for my own enlightenment, what is this "land of religion and scam" bit to which you refer? Which religion? What scam? And are you absolutely sure that you have adequately scrubbed your fingernails before embarking on the fingerpointing?

[holllared-0]

eBay is overcharging the GST portion on purchases and then fees on top of the overcharge for international transactions compounding the problem.

I’ve been in discussions with eBay about this and a representative phoned to confirm I am correct.

The miscalculation happens when a discount is applied. There should be an adjustment to the GST to pay on the purchase, however, there isn’t.

With the introduction of the eBay plus free trial that offers a number of discounts at the checkout this problem will almost definitely have affected a large number of eBay users.

This is a massive oversight via a systemic functionality flaw in their online ecommerce systems ability to calculate our GST correctly with the Australian consumer being the looser.

One can only wonder if this is occurring internationally with other counties that have imposed tax on their platform. Logically I’d say so.

I imagine the is an untold amount of GST and fees on top of the overcharge due to be reimbursed to the Australian consumer by eBay.

Not to mention, how are they reporting this to the ATO?

This is a massive story.. wonder which outlet will pick it up first or if it will be squashed.

I have proof of this error.

Regards,

[digital*ghost]

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@holllared-0 wrote:


I’ve been in discussions with eBay about this and a representative phoned to confirm I am correct.

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Did they simply confirm that you are correct in that the GST portion is not discounted, or did they confirm that not discounting the GST was an error (and then subsequently, I presume, refund any overages)?

I ask because you're not the first person to view this as an error, or an oversight / overcharge, but I tend to think if it was an error, considering it involves the charging and collecting of tax, the second the first person queried it, I expect it would have been fixed quick smart, and I've personally not seen any announcements or refunds (ebay may be big, but they're not deliberately and knowingly sc**w over the ATO big....then again, maybe they think they're big enough). 

eBay do not actually discount the items with voucher codes, though. They pay the percentage that the voucher covers to the seller, which means if you buy a $10 item with a 10% voucher code, the item is not sold for $9, thereby making the GST obligation only 90c - it is still sold for $10, and the GST obligation remains at $1. 

Thus far it would appear that eBay is not prepared to co-pay Aussie's tax obligations on international orders, in addition to co-paying a portion of the item price (they also won't pay for any of the postage amount, and you'll be charged GST on that, too).

This issue doesn't affect eBay Plus items at all - for one, again the seller still gets the full amount of any postage charges that apply when a Plus member buys a Plus item (hence, again it is not a price reduction), and for another, only items located in Australia can qualify for Plus, which means GST is included in the price (where applicable) and collected by the seller, not added separately and collected by eBay, so there are two very different systems at work. 

eBay opted for the simplified collection method for GST on imports, which means they can not claim any GST credits, they only collect and remit, and as much as it is putting some people's noses out of joint, A) they don't owe anyone a discount at all, least of all on the GST portion when they're paying a percentage of the price, and B) since the sale value remains at the original amount, the GST they are collecting and remitting is correct. 

[countessalmirena]

@holllared-0,

As digital*ghost says, you are not the first person to query this.

However, the ATO's website has been updated to clarify the point. Whatever the eBay representative said to you which leads you to think you're correct is not corroborated by the ATO. Au contraire (I'm in pre-Christmas Full Pun Mode; the "au" may stand not only for "On the" as in "On the contrary", but also AU as in Australia): there should not be an adjustment to the GST. It is not a miscalculation.

The amount that is taxable is the customs value of the item. It doesn't affect the amount of that customs value if eBay gave you a redemption code or coupon or discount or voucher towards the purchase price, just as it wouldn't affect the amount of that customs value if a friend put money into your PayPal account to pay for half of it, or if family members chipped in on the total, or you had been given an eBay gift card which paid for part of it or all of it. The customs value remains the same. As per Information for Consumers (on the ATO website):

❝Where the EDP operator offers a 'discount', GST is still calculated on the individual merchant's listed price. The 'discount' offered by the EDP operator is viewed as a part payment made by the EDP operator towards the cost of the good to you, as illustrated in Example 2.

__________________________________________________________

Example 2 – GST and discount offered by an EDP operator

Gavin lives in Australia and purchases a lens cover from a merchant in the US via

an EDP. The individual merchant lists the lens cover for sale on the EDP at a price

of A$66.00 (including shipping to Gavin's Australian address).

The EDP operator is offering a 5% discount on all purchases made on the EDP in

the week Gavin makes his purchase.

Merchant's price A$60.00 (GST exclusive)

GST A$6.00 (10% of merchant's price)

Less EDP discount A$3.00 (part payment made by the EDP operator)

Gavin pays A$63.00

The individual merchant's price of A$60.00 (GST exclusive) is not reduced by the

discount offered by the EDP operator. The EDP operator is required to charge

GST based on the merchant's price.

The discount offered by the EDP operator is viewed as a part payment towards

the cost of Gavin's purchase and does not reduce the GST payable.

__________________________________________________________❞

(Emphasis mine.)

Discussed previoiusly in this thread.

[bjmonty28]

Where on earth is all this “GST” going anyway??? And what are we getting for it’s in return???? Better roads??? More hospitals??? Less immigration???
It’s all going to the greedy pigs in parliament and we are getting nothing. Australia is the scam Not just qld.
When I buy something from overseas sellers my checkout shows huge gst fees. Who’s reaping that? The seller or eBay the Mongrels? I’m sure if it’s the seller they are not forwarding it on to the aus govt