GST on all imports July 2018

[rapadaan]

Yes kicks in  this July  already talking an extra added  $5 security fee !

[djkingkarim]

How can EBAY.com.au not show the GST included in the purchase price of low value imported goods?  They have a line that says "May include GST".

This appears to be in direct contravention of the GST law whereby the purchase price MUST be inclusive of any GST. 

Ebay cannot add GST on when they then request payment for a good that you have commited to buy at the purchse price - Not the purchase price plus GST!!!

Every other online trading forum (e.g Aliexpress) correctly include the GST now in the purchase price whereas Ebay.com.au appears to have it wrong!

[Anonymous]

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@djkingkarim wrote:

How can EBAY.com.au not show the GST included in the purchase price of low value imported goods?  They have a line that says "May include GST".

This appears to be in direct contravention of the GST law whereby the purchase price MUST be inclusive of any GST. 

Ebay cannot add GST on when they then request payment for a good that you have commited to buy at the purchse price - Not the purchase price plus GST!!!

Every other online trading forum (e.g Aliexpress) correctly include the GST now in the purchase price whereas Ebay.com.au appears to have it wrong!

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You're quoting the law that applies to sellers in Australia.  Being a new tax on imported goods, the law may not require overseas people to display gst-inclusive prices.  

It's early days yet and there are bound to be a few bugs in the system so I can't see any point in all the mass hysteria.

[ambedoola_0]

What's the 'security fee' masking?

[ambedoola_0]

Alot of eBay purchases charge Custom and import fees already, does that mean we'll be paying twice?

[lyndal1838]

Do you mean items from the USA and UK which are using the GSP?

The system only charges import fees if the item is subject to it....and those charges are listed very clearly on the invoice.

Most of the charges on GSP items are just the postage.

[the.last.nazgul]

Hi guys, a UK seller here.

I have had my first GST sales this weekend. Ebay have taken the GST correctly (taking money is always the part they get right).

However, they appear to have no process in place for the seller (me) to show Aussie customs that the GST has been paid. I understand other platforms have given sellers an account number to quote on the customs label. I called ebay customer service and their reply was what's GST!

So my question is does anyone know what is going to happen when my parcels arrive at Australia Customs? Are my customers going to be charged again?

Thanks in advance for any insights

Rob

[countessalmirena]

Hi, Rob,

As you can imagine, most people are still working out the ramifications and speculating on some of the details of how this low-value imported item GST works. The best guess re Customs to date is that Customs won't be collecting GST on low-value items because our government has passed on the administration and collection of this GST to the seller.  For the purposes of the relevant legislation, even though you're the actual seller, eBay is treated as the seller, and Australian Customs should (I say with some trepidation) simply let all goods under the $1,000 threshold through without charge. That way, Customs isn't burdened with holding up the many many many low-value items that come into the country to check whether or not GST has already been paid on them, and whether it should have been paid (because sellers whose annual turnover within Australia - that is, selling to Australian customers - is less than $75,000 aren't required to collect GST at all), and so on and so forth.

The ATO states that the reforms “treat the operator of an electronic distribution platform (EDP) as the supplier of low value goods if the goods are purchased through the platform by consumers and brought into Australia with the assistance of either the supplier or the operator”.

eBay is treated by the ATO as the supplier under this description, and collects the GST on behalf of the ATO. Because of this, it is irrelevant whether or not a seller on eBay is under the $75,000 annual threshold in respect of sales to Australia.

However, if the seller sells on their own platform / website, and is under that $75,000 threshold, Australian buyers can still purchase from them without GST needing to be collected by the seller on behalf of the ATO.

If you want something thrilling and riveting to read, you can do a lot better than read the full Treasury Laws Amendment (GST Low Value Goods) Act 2017 here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017A00077 - but it does at least explain the new GST and how it will be collected.

(By the way, welcome to the Australian Community boards! ... and to make you feel more at home: ->      )

[ivanores2008]

Hi Rob,

As my understanding of the matter is eBay will pay the GST on the buyers behalf if goods are under $1000.00 including post and if they are over eBay wont charge GST and the buyer will pay GST and import tax once it get here

[the.last.nazgul]

Thanks for the welcome and the replies  🙂

I think I understand now.

When my parcels arrive at Australia they will be delivered as normal, so long as the value is less than $AU1000, whether or not GST has been paid (as they would have no way of telling). Is that correct?

Ebay then pay on the GST that has been collected but if the order was from my a seller's own website no GST would be due unless the website hits the $Au75000 threshold.

This way all the work is done by sellers websites and ebay rather than the government itself. The UK government works the same way!

[bcbear75]

Wellington just purchased an item on eBay on July 2nd and yeah an addition 10% GST charge is on my credit card.