@grove_burger wrote:
I am livid to see EBay charging GST on imports on second hand goods -kids toys!!! I was reading the laws around GST & it is not suppose to be charged on items where a seller is making no margin!
eBay are classed as the suppliler, under the GST legislation on low value imported goods. 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, unfortunately.
It is completely irrelevant what sort of margin the seller is making.
You may be confusing the seller's margin on an item with the seller's total annual GST turnover from sales that are connected with Australia and made in the course of their enterprise. The threshold is A$75,000.
So... if you buy from an overseas sellers whose turnover in selling to Australia is less than $75,000, no problem. You can buy without being charged GST. However, if that same seller is selling on eBay, the rules change. eBay being treated as the supplier means that GST is applicable.
@grove_burger wrote:
One way around it is to purchase the item local to the buyer & pay international postage separately via another payment system. This worked & stopped the charge on the imported secondhand kids toy!!!
What do you mean by "purchase the item local to the buyer"? If you mean that you stipulated an overseas delivery address, and you'll have the item forwarded to you from that address, you'll only avoid GST if the overseas delivery address is that of a friend or someone happy to forward the purchase to you. If you use a parcel forwarding service, you will be charged the GST on both the item and the shipment cost to Australia by the parcel/freight forwarder. That's because under the GST legislation that I quoted above, the reforms “treat re-deliverers as the suppliers of low value goods if the goods are delivered outside of Australia as part of the supply, and the re-deliverer assists with their delivery into Australia as part of a shopping or mailbox service that it provides under an arrangement with the consumer”.
If you want to purchase from overseas without being charged GST on low-value goods, you will need to buy from sellers with their own website, whose sales to Australia don't meet the GST threshold, and who will post directly to your Australian address.
