@digital*ghost wrote:
@4channel wrote:Thanks for the suggestion. There are a whole lot of other people besides myself who feel the discomfort of GST. Teenagers, retirees, working folk, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers etc. Even if I never were to buy of Ebay any more, I'd still have an issue with other people having to pay GST on second hand items (many of which are from ordinary people selling their unwanted stuff). So there we have it!
So, what are you doing about it? I mean, besides continually lobbying (and I use that term loosely) a forum where there's 0% chance you can effect any change at all.
Are you maybe trying to rally support for a long-term goal by supporting discontent with the GST and the way it's applied, or are you just complaining exclusively on the forum with no practical goal in sight?
Just curious.
Just expressing my right o partake in free speech in a (supposedly) free country and interacting with the people that come here to vent their frustration about GST. You'll note I am not the originator of the many threads here about this subject. I however do defend the right of those people that come here to try to make sense of a bad situation.
Sometimes I come in reaction to the mocking, bullying and attempts to shout down first-time posters who have had a bad run. Not saying that this is the case on this actual thread though. 
@4channel wrote:
@maranock wrote:You know, I think I have a solution for your. it is free to start up a small business under your own name, and free to register for GST - not sure how much it is to get a second hand dealers licence though, but depending on what you want to buy and the nature of your business you may not need to get one.
Start up a little business and then you can claim back the GST you have claimed on your business expenses - no more paying that pesky tax.
Thanks for the suggestion. There are a whole lot of other people besides myself who feel the discomfort of GST. Teenagers, retirees, working folk, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers etc. Even if I never were to buy of Ebay any more, I'd still have an issue with other people having to pay GST on second hand items (many of which are from ordinary people selling their unwanted stuff). So there we have it!
the thing is, the ordinary overseas joe still gets the price they had as a Buy-Now price, or the winning auction price . . . . . . . . the GST is paid by the buyer.
I know that you will say “but they will get less bids because Aussies won’t bid which means less $ for them”, which is true . . . . . . . . BUT NOT FOR ALL ordinary overseas joe’s and their eBay items, only for some.
If a collectable item is rare it will garner bids regardless of whether Aussies bid or not. If the Buy-Now price on a rare item is too high when GST is added then DON’T BUY IT.
I would imagine that any serious collector would know the true value of items they list on eBay. They would be unlikely to run a 99c start auction in the hope that it reaches a desired price. I would imagine that the second hand items listed by the ordinary joe that you harp on about are seen as bargains by you due to the owner (joe) not knowing the true value of the item (for example: an old record from their grandfather’s (joe snr) estate). If an item price on a Buy-Now is at or near it’s true value then it would only have appeal if it was to fill a space in your collection. If that is the case, then there is a price to pay . . . . . . . that is what makes collecting thrilling 
Bottom line for me is that governments need money to run this country and spend on things like roads, hospitals, education, infrastructure etc.
- Governments collect money by many means, including GST
- GST is a tax on consumption
- a consumption tax results in those who spend more paying more tax, and those that spend less paying less tax
- this GST on low-cost imports is not having a high $ affect on the ordinary Aussie joe who only spends a couple of hundred dollars a year on low-cost Chinese widgets
- the GST on low-cost imports is impacting on those that spend thousands on collectable or rare items and vintage items not available in Australia (you know, the essentials in life, not at all ‘luxury’ items!!!!!!)
- if no tax was collected via GST on low-cost eBay imports then the shortfall would either have to be made up by some other means OR government spending would have to be reduced OR government debt levels would have to rise
I have posted this before, but will say it again . . . . . . with the introduction of GST on low-cost imports your collection/s have increased in value as you can sell your items in Australia GST free to Aussie buyers who are priced out of buying from overseas (due to this horrible, unfair, distasteful, ugly GST tax).
@4channel wrote:Just expressing my right o partake in free speech in a (supposedly) free country and interacting with the people that come here to vent their frustration about GST. You'll note I am not the originator of the many threads here about this subject. I however do defend the right of those people that come here to try to make sense of a bad situation.
Sometimes I come in reaction to the mocking, bullying and attempts to shout down first-time posters who have had a bad run. Not saying that this is the case on this actual thread though.
There is no constitutional right to free speech in Australia. Even in countries where it exists, it doesn't mean what the vast majority of people think it means.
That's a little by the by, though, because as long as members abide by the rules in the forums, people are typically free to post what they like, but I asked you the question because personally, I'm more inclined to be a put up or shut up kind of person.
As an example, I think final value fees on postage sucks and is ethically wrong, and I'll mention it in passing if it's appropriate, but I would drive myself insane (not to mention the rest of the forum), if I posted about it every opportunity I could get, yet did absolutely nothing to try and change things, or never look for / offer practical solutions to work with it.
The idea of hanging out here and posting "hear, hear"s (or similar) everytime someone else had a similar opinion on this FVF just makes no sense to me whatsoever, especially since no one has done anything to try and change it in the years since it was introduced, everybody most people just complain once or twice and move on, so I thought you might have had a more practical reason for doing it.
Just two very different people, I guess.
