GST on all imports July 2018

[rapadaan]

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

[papermoon.lady]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales

Do we really think customs is going to check every single aBay item for GST compliance as it lands in Australia?  Will they have the staff to check every item with eBay ABN written on packaging?  I don't recall Malcolm or Scomo allocating a heap more $ to Customs or AP in the last budget!

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I think they will probably check companies to see if those with an annual turnover over $75,000 comply, as it would be a tremendous amount of work to check single items.

[tzipiger]

Thank you for your comment, I hope you are right.

[tzipiger]

You are absolutely right, anyone can add to a parcel the eBay ABN number and "GST PAID".
It really doesn't make any sense.
That's why I've asked eBay and ATO so many times how can they know if the customer paid and when the ATO representative told me to mention it on the parcel it was very strange because anyone can write it on any parcel.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

@mariq7

I seriously doubt that our government or any of its agencies (ATO) would have the means to check the annual turnover of overseas sellers.  The only thing I can think of is that they will rely on 'self-reporting' of turnover.

I can see lots of overseas companies (non eBay sellers) charging Aussie buyers GST but not remitting it to the ATO.  If overseas companies don't register with tbe ATO I doubt there is anything they can do about it.

Besides, I think it is accepted that the $75,000 threshold is not applying to overseas sellers . . . . . and all low-cost items from overseas will be subject to GST.

[digital*ghost]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

@mariq7

I seriously doubt that our government or any of its agencies (ATO) would have the means to check the annual turnover of overseas sellers.  The only thing I can think of is that they will rely on 'self-reporting' of turnover.

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It's only annual turnover to Australia, which can be tracked for a lot of businesses via customs declarations (that is, identify the business through invoice or declaration, then accrue the declared or invoiced value of the goods over 12 months).

Found the article I referred to earlier - https://www.insideretail.com.au/news/levying-gst-on-all-packages-is-complicated-and-risky-for-everyo...

It's one of the more informative third-party articles I've found, all things considered and assuming their sources are sound, and at the end it also suggests that it may be possible to switch to a carrier-collects model in (or after) 2023, which would cast a much wider net. It also echoes what I posted previously, that packages with a value under $1k won't be taxed at the border(there might be exceptions, of course, customs can do it based on assessed value rather than declared value, but for your average purchase it seems very unlikely there'll be any interruption or change to the process). 

[c_mount]

Shalom alecheim! Am Yisrael chai.

[p4kvic]

just purchased a secondhand telephone bell from france,and gst 10% has been add to purchase price and also postage,Iwill be checking this ato when the open.

[brerrabbit585]

I wouldn't be surprised if they'd been keeping records of a few overseas sellers as their parcels came through customs. One website I used to buy from sold a lot to Australia and customs would have noticed their name come up regularly. They used to hold regular sales and they sold a lot more then so they would have had a lot of parcels coming through customs at once and would have been noticed. Even with their fudged figures they most likely would have showed over 75K coming through customs in a year. If customs opened a few parcels and looked at the invoices they would have known they could safely quadrulple the declared figures. I used to buy $500 parcels and she'd put a value of $20 on them!

[davewil1964]

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@p4kvic wrote:

just purchased a secondhand telephone bell from france,and gst 10% has been add to purchase price and also postage,Iwill be checking this ato when the open.

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What's to check?

You bought GOODS (the bell) and a SERVICE (the postage). They are both subject to the GOODS and SERVICES tax.

Why do people think the 'S' stands for 'something that doesn't apply to me'?

[papermoon.lady]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

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@p4kvic wrote:

just purchased a secondhand telephone bell from france,and gst 10% has been add to purchase price and also postage,Iwill be checking this ato when the open.

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What's to check?

You bought GOODS (the bell) and a SERVICE (the postage). They are both subject to the GOODS and SERVICES tax.

Why do people think the 'S' stands for 'something that doesn't apply to me'?

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I don't know... Maybe because many articles about the GST in the last few months mentioned it would be applied on "items" entering Australia.

Or maybe because eBay always excludes postage from codes/vouchers (totally unrelated, I know, but maybe some people thought it would also be excluded from the GST).