Who is sick of Seller Location Misrepresentation?Who thinks UBI smart parcel should be banned in AU?

[buybagsonline]

Who is sick of Seller Location Misrepresentation?

Who thinks UBI smart parcel should be banned in AU? Im fed up with the overseas sellers saying they are in AU when they are not. Its obvious by the feedback they get from annoyed customers that their parcel has taken 3 weeks to arrive from Botany when they live in Sydney. Rather fishy and obvious. 

Im a seller of a quality product and Chinese sellers come in with a cheaper and inferior product with free postage and it takes sales from me because its cheap. Customers find out the hard way and usually end up back buying from me eventually but still its making my life on Ebay a bad experience. Im thinking of quiting. 

[countessalmirena]

@1guldenvijftig,

It doesn't matter whether an overseas seller on eBay is selling less than $75,000 annually to Australian buyers, or whether they're doing a rip-roaring trade with Australian buyers. In the new legislation concerning GST for low-value imported items, 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, you can still purchase from them without GST needing to be collected by the seller on behalf of the ATO. We as Australian buyers are therefore fully compliant with the Act with respect to GST on low-value imported goods if we buy from sellers who have their own website, or something of that nature. I have many wonderful websites bookmarked (or memorised), where the sellers are not required to be registered for GST because they primarily sell within the UK or the US or Germany or France... etc., but whose sales to Australian buyers are not high.

If you do a little searching online rather than heading straight to eBay, there are all sorts of opportunities. I try to think of the EDP provision in the Act as a way to embrace the opportunity of finding international sellers with their own selling platforms!

Naturally, though, if I can only find the items I want by purchasing through a seller who is selling through an EDP, then I acknowledge and accept that I will be paying GST on the total price.

Read the full Treasury Laws Amendment (GST Low Value Goods) Act 2017 here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017A00077

[1guldenvijftig]

Thank you lyndal1838

Please pass that on to countessalmirena if you would.

[1guldenvijftig]

"a way to embrace the opportunity of finding international sellers with their own selling platforms" a bit like paying cash on a corner then?

Or more like not paying GST to a seller who claims his product is local, wink, wink.

Like I said before, it is your right to minimize your tax liabillities.

Sounds like we've come full circle.

I'm going to bed.

Good night Contessa.

[countessalmirena]

No. Nothing like "paying cash on a corner."

❝If you are a merchant you will need to register for, and pay, Australian GST if your GST turnover is A$75,000 or more in a 12-month period.❞

If the merchant's GST turnover is less than $75,000, there is no requirement to be registered for GST, to charge GST on items that are to be delivered to Australia, or to remit a GST component to the ATO.

See Who Charges GST (ATO).