GST on all imports July 2018

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

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GST on all imports July 2018

Retailer in country A sells to customer in Country B.
Retailer has to pay taxes in both country A an B.

Since country B is applying the tax on a business in country A, it can in effect turn into a tax war in due course.

Shifting the idea of where the seller is located to where a purchaser is located idea is a dangerous concept to be applied. It extends way beyond the realm of economics into the realm of political infrastructure.
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GST on all imports July 2018

it was long held that experts in the field of collecting tax did the figures and told treasury it would cost more to collect tax for goods under $1000 than it collected, ans so we had that system put in place. seemed fine,

until,

greedy people like Harvey norman decided it was unfair.

so he goes to war over it and our week kneed govt led by Mr Turnbul decided, oh darn it, too bad we are actually losing money collecting this tax, we'll do it anyway.

means i can play golf with Harvs again.

 

of course we will never be told how much money is collected or how much its costing to collect it.

 

i'm not even sure what harvey sells you could get cheaper from overseas, furniture? no, white goods, no (plus you would have to convert them to 240 volts. maybe some computer bits.

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GST on all imports July 2018


@nobledarkmoon wrote:
Retailer in country A sells to customer in Country B.
Retailer has to pay taxes in both country A an B.

Since country B is applying the tax on a business in country A, it can in effect turn into a tax war in due course.

Shifting the idea of where the seller is located to where a purchaser is located idea is a dangerous concept to be applied. It extends way beyond the realm of economics into the realm of political infrastructure.

Not quite - the consumer is paying the tax, charged directly to them in addition to whatever the total cost of goods is, the same way it's always been added on to goods over $1000 at the border, only in this case the seller in country A is collecting it instead, and then forwarding it to the ATO. The retailer may also have to collect and remit local sales tax, but that won't be applied to international sales, and any tax they pay on their income / revenue doesn't change. 

 

I think it's a grey area, still, because it's enforcing (or, at least imposing), one country's tax requirements onto businesses in other countries, and how enforceable that truly is, is (to my mind anyway), untested. 

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GST on all imports July 2018

With the GST impost set to start on 1st July there is going to be a mad rush to make purchases from  overseas sites before that date.

 

I doubt many Chinese sellers are aware of this impending situation and when they see sales going throught the roof they will be left calpping their hands, but also scratching their heads.

 

Perhaps even gear up inventory levels based on current sales, only to see sales collapse after 1st July and are left with a large inventory overhang.    Cry me a river!!

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GST on all imports July 2018

In pre-ebay days most of us bought everything we needed from b&m shops, or by mail order within Australia.  If the goods originally came from overseas, those shops paid import duty and sales tax or gst.  When people started buying direct from overseas and bypassing the middle man they also bypassed paying gst so the govt missed out.  This tax is basically the govt's way of closing the loophole and going back to how it was before.

 

It's no different to in the past when there trade wars and govts imposed tariffs on goods from other countries.   I have no idea what it's been like for the last few years but I remember when only a few brands of cars were imported from overseas (mostly Japan) and a lot of the price the consumer paid for them was because of the tariffs imposed by the Australian govt.

 

As far as ebay sellers are concerned, ebay is doing all the work for them so overseas sellers on ebay aren't collecting the tax on behalf of the Australian govt.  The same applies to all the VAT that's collected on behalf on non-European sellers when they sell to Europeans.  

 

Just wait until Trump slaps huge tariffs on everything that comes in from overseas, and he wakes up to the fact that US citizens are buying from overseas via ebay and not paying as much in tariffs as everyone else.  Their threshhold for imports is already extremely low but he could easily double the amount of the duty to discourage Americans from buying overseas.  If Australia gets ebay to collect the tax on its behalf, other countries will surely follow suit, not just the US.

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GST on all imports July 2018

It is the reintroduction of the Tarrif system by stealth.

 

Other countries can superimpose a similar system as well, which can be used to undermine various infrastructure in Australia.  Such as a requirement for businesses to be registered in another country before sales are allowed to occur.  Other rules of those countries could then be applied to operations in another country, including requirements such as having government employee's within the organisation at senstive parts of the organisation.

 

Australia is in a weak position if China decides to use the same system against us.  It won't happen straight away, but like short term thinking bright idea's it is doomed to fail.  What is Australia willing to trade away for this idea to remain in place when the Chinese online market places start to get a foothold in Australia???

 

If online market places are required to collect GST on behalf of the government.  The stores in the market places will have to provide the market place with a decent amount of sensitve information.  There is more at play than just tax revenue collection, what will also occur is international laws and tax sharing arrangements are called into question.  Where are the liabilities and responsibilities when other processes get undermined?

 

This law has the ability to undermine the under $75k tax per annum law for non-registered businesses.   It can be argued that any person that sells a good at a garage sale has to pay GST, because oversea's businesses that earn less than $75k p/a have to.  It is similar to there will never be a sugar tax when the argument over alcohol and tabacco taxes were occuring over health risks.  We have moved away from an innovative democratic capitalist model, to a low trust high taxed socialist model.

 

Poorly thought out, good as a domestic message, bad as a regional geo-political message.

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GST on all imports July 2018

My biggest problem with all of this is the cost to collect and transmit this precious 10% GST charge on items under $1,000.

Basic customs fees etc usually cost around $70, excluding shipping. When you’re buying something from OS that costs $1,200 the customs and fees hurt but it’s a fact of life.

But now, if I buy an used item from the US for $15 (probably because it doesn’t exist here in Australia) not only am I looking at $30 shipping charge, the paltry $4.50 GST (yup, shipping fee will also be hit) might also cost $70 to collect.

How can a cost of say $70 to me be justified to collect a measly $4.50 worth of GST?

im not buying the item from the US because I want to deny Australian businesses my patronage, I’m buying a used item, I buying an item that no one here has and I need it. Geez, talk about a Govt scam.

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GST on all imports July 2018

I think the duties payable on imports over $1000 are still based on the value of the item (admin fees, if any apply, would be flat rates though, I'm guessing - I dunno, all my imports so far have been under $1k so I've never had to pay import costs). 

 

But, it's not applicable to items under $1k, even after the new laws are in effect - that's one of the main points of the vendor collects model, it's the government foisting the work, responsibility and cost of GST collection on to the seller, or site.

 

This means prices may increase from some sellers (off eBay, at least), a bit more than 10% overall, as I'm sure sellers who comply will want to recoup their costs, but there won't be any costs payable on goods under $1k when the purchase arrives in Australia; unless they decide to go ahead with the security fee per package they were talking about a month or so ago. Goods over $1k will be handled the same as they always have been, still.

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GST on all imports July 2018

My tin foil hat is actually made of aluminium and feels cosy thanks. Only in the over regulated pro-socialist nation of Australia where is population has been conditioned to do whatever nanny says....
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GST on all imports July 2018

Good? Are you serious or just wealthy to throw money around and hand over the hard earned to greedy beaurocrats??
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