Is it a loophole?

[donnashuggy]

Good idea or not to lower the threshold???  Changes to the GST for online international purchases seems to be getting a push today in the media.

[donnashuggy]

Target have really lifted their game, that is good to hear.

It must be to do with the staff training.

[the_hawk*]

oh what happened to free trade and removing trading barriers?

and taxes have always been levied in the country of origin, only import duties apply at the destination and isnt that a restraint of trade? 

and as John has pointed out above many items can be hundreds of $$ cheaper online.

[topsidesoul]

I buy sporst equipment and Musical equipment that has no distributor in Australia......so who exactly am I taking business away from by buying from overseas when I am forced to?

BTW-what ever happened to that parlimantary review that looked into why Australians are overcharged for everything from electronic goods to software, online music etc......

Oh they found it was true? Nothing has been done?

So we are overcharged and now given another tax?

Good old pigs in parliment!

Gerry Harvey crying again because he cannot compete with local online stores that have no frontage....just a warehouse?

[topsidesoul]

I am sure the money collected by the government will not be absorbed by red tape or into their own pockets.

It will go back into the retail sector.....giggle.

[the_hawk*]

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@topsidesoul wrote:

I am sure the money collected by the government will not be absorbed by red tape or into their own pockets.

It will go back into the retail sector.....giggle.

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OMG now that is funny

[spotweldersfriend]

If Gerry wants to save money,cut back on those annoying ads that saturate the airwaves every night.

[kirralaa_dist · Accepted solution]

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@donnashuggy wrote:

In a lot of cases Australian online retailers are disadvantaged by postage costs, perhaps the Australian Government could do something about that instead to assist - 

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Bingo.

For some reason we (the Australian tax payers) subsidise post from China.  The Chinese pay to get the item to shore here, we pay for it the rest of the way.  I should point out this also works in reverse too.

Clearly however there's a lot, lot more products coming into Australia from China than the other way around.

I could compete on price against Chinese traders on item prices, I can NOT compete on post prices when a parcel from China costs $1.00 to send here but the same size parcel costs me $6.95 to send within Australia.