GST impost from 1st July

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

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?

[joztamps]

It's The Americans, Baby.

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

I didn't get any hits.

[lyndal1838]

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.

[joztamps]

Should have tried teat for tat.

[enigmabear]

Or udders for others 

[digital*ghost]

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@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.

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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. 

[negron18]

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.

[davidc4430]

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.

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

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?

[davidc4430]

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.

[digital*ghost]

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.