@perfect_pixels wrote:
Hey everyone. So I’ll keep it short and hopefully your responses are detailed. I’m approaching the $75000 gross income made in under a year and I just have no idea how that change is going to affect my business or even how to go about it the right way (everything about it on eBay is very confusing) I also only have my business solely on eBay so does that make the procedure different for me? Also who can I talk to about the whole thing? I have an accountant but he’s not familiar with how GST affects eBay businesses
Have to agree with chameleon - if your accountant thinks things work differently just because you operate your business through eBay, and subsequently doesn't know how GST works in that situation, it's time to find a new accountant.
I registered for GST 18 months ago, after operating online for several years. The only thing that's really different is that I need to keep accurate records of which purchases attracted GST and which ones didn't (most of mine don't - stationery and postage costs are really the only things that reduce my GST obligation when i do my quarterly BAS), as well as keep separate accounts for domestic and international sales since there is no GST collected on international sales, nor paid when purchasing postage for them.
Oh, and I now also have a bank account that I put a minimum amount in each week, watch it grow nicely and then get decimated every three months when I hand over the GST that's been collected. You have to be strict with this, as even though you're getting $x, a portion of it is never yours so it's a lot easier if you can maintain an account that you put that into and never have to worry about how you're going to pay it. A small bonus is that I don't pay GST on my eBay fees, or imports purchased for business purposes if they are under $1k and coming from a business that had to register with the ATO.
There are strategies to avoid having to register as mentioned, it just depends on whether you want to focus on continuing to grow, or put a cap on your annual earnings, or have access to other options - my own personal feeling is that with things as unstable as they are, I'd probably take this opportunity to self-isolate for a little while and keep my earnings under. Once you are registered for GST, you generally have to be for at least 12 months even if your turnover falls under the threshold. I'd be wanting to wait until things are a bit more stable before I committed myself to that, but that is regular Joe opinion, not official tax accountant advice.
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