@davewil1964 wrote:It's MY understanding that the $75K definitely includes all domestic turnover (and could well include ALL turnover), regardless of whether GST input credits are available.
There would be very few businesses that don't have input credits for their supplies. What you claim could well, especially in the case of online sellers who post their goods, involve turnovers of well in excess of $150k before triggering a requirement to register for GST.
Good for you if you believe that, but I doubt the ATO will agree. And their fines are normally disproportionate to the crime.
"Your GST turnover is your gross business income (not your profit), excluding any:
GST included in sales to your customers
sales that aren't for payment and aren't taxable
sales not connected with an enterprise you run
input-taxed sales you make
sales not connected with Australia."
The "sales not connected with Australia" seems to throw people, even at the ATO apprently, as I think it's interpreted as a general "sales to international customers", but near as I can tell it's actually referring to sales that take place out of Australia entirely (eg I set up a B&M store for my business in the US, those sales would be subject to the local tax laws and not counted towards my turnover in Australia, though the profit / income I get would certainly be counted as part of my overall income - not sure if dropshipping from say China to international customers would count or not, as you're still being paid the entire sale price directly and the income isn't being subected to any international tax laws etc - question for an actual accountant, I guess, that may even be true for the rest of what I've said 
).
Re: the pros and cons of registering as a small business, it's going to be different for every business - not everyone will pay input tax on stock purchases, for example (if you import and keep the value of shipments under $1k, and purchase from sellers who are not required to charge you GST, for example - that was me for years, but I registered not long after the new rules were brought in when I opened my own website (it was getting to the point where I was required to anyway, and with all 4 stores, I have to stay that way for the forseeable future) - I still keep my imports under $1k, because duty and admin fees suck ). You can get a competitive edge by not registering until required, but if it was by undercutting competitors, you'll lose that when you do register, unles you can handle the cut to profit, so it will make a difference whether someone is in it to build a business long-term and have it be their sole venture, or not. I had to raise my prices when I registered, and that sucked, but I was lucky imports became 10% more expensive (on eBay) around the same time. I wish it was easier to convery that my prices include GST on eBay, though, because my items are purchased by other sellers a lot, some of whom are GST registered themselves, and it often makes me cheaper for them than my non-GST registered competitors.
Right now, the only input tax I claim on my BAS is from postage costs and postal supplies, plus the occasional amount from stationary, office equipment, tools etc. My international suppliers have my ABN so don't apply GST on my orders (all that would do is make me pay more up front, and my GST bill would be the same, so not much sense in doing that), but I do have to send an amount to them every 3 months that makes me a little sad (the trick is to never consider it your money, which it isn't, you're just collecting it for the ATO - I have a dedicated bank account for all my tax and put a certain percentage of my turnover in there a week for GST and income tax, but you have to be disciplined with it).
