@worzel*gummidge wrote:
The ATO cannot apply GST to USED items that have already had tax paid on them in the country of origin. Ebay are stating that they are not the sellers but a site that hosts sellers.
The government cannot request tax on used items that have tax already paid on them. Same with purchasing items in the US where an Australian customer is required to pay local taxes to the US government AND be expected to pay tax here??? Nope.
If the whole idea of this is to stop the whingers like Jerry Harvey because people are buying the goods he sells at a far cheaper price o/s then fair enough but what about items that _do_not_exist_ in Australia and people have no choice but to buy from the UK or US etc??
As dave mentions, goods sold from sellers overseas are not meant to include local sales or consumption taxes - if any of your purchases from overseas sellers have added a sales tax, or additional amounts for their own consumption tax (GST, VAT etc), you are paying money for nothing, because those sellers don't have to pass on that to their government, and there are no current laws in existence (that I am aware of) that can be applied cross-border (that is, in order for an Australian consumer to pay international taxes, there needs to be an international law that compels them to, and I am not aware of any that currently exist; if you are, I would really like to see a source, as the implications of that would be interesting to say the least).
GST is revenue for the Australian government, sourced directly from Australian consumers, anyway, so whether or not tax is paid to an international government is irrelevent, unless there is a system in place where any sales tax that is charged on an item located overseas then makes its way from the government over there, to the government over here (again, I know of no such system in place).
Of course, on a site like eBay where they do not provide a function for sellers who are required to collect things like GST or VAT to separate item price and tax, the purchase price becomes all-inclusive and you can theoretically pay the additional amount, presuming the seller hasn't accounted for the difference in other ways (for example, say a seller lists something for sale that's $50, including any applicable consumption tax they are obliged to charge to domestic buyers, and let's just say - for the sake of ease - the tax payable in that $50 is $5, meaning the item price is really $45. What if the seller is fully aware this means international buyers are overcharged on the item price, so decide to subsidise the postage cost, charging only $10 when it really costs $15? Other sellers will just pocket the extra, but ultimately it means the same thing - no tax has been paid on the purchase of that product by an international buyer).
) but I suspect that in the grand scheme of things, there will be very little change to anything, other than the fact that the sites / sellers who are complying will be 10% more expensive, and the government will be a little bit happier. 
