GST on dropshipping on ebay.com

[voodootoot]

Hi, does anyone knows if i need to pay GST on income that is made on ebay.com as a dropshipper ? I've never sold anything in australia and never charged GST.

my turnover was over $75K

can anyone recommend a good e-commerce accountant to deal with this situation ?

thanks.

[jensmanchester-australia]

I think it could depend on what country your buyers are from.

If you are dropshipping only to US buyers then I wouldn't think GST applies (only income tax)

If you are dropshipping to Australian Buyers from the US that is effectively the same as importing so I would assume GST would apply to both the purchase price and the sale price if you are over the GST threshold.

[jensmanchester-australia]

I think it could depend on what country your buyers are from.

If you are dropshipping only to US buyers then I wouldn't think GST applies (only income tax)

If you are dropshipping to Australian Buyers from the US that is effectively the same as importing so I would assume GST would apply to both the purchase price and the sale price if you are over the GST threshold.

[voodootoot]

cheers, i only dropship to the US. never dropshipped to aussie buyers.

[phorum_junkie*]

If you only trade in the US are you not liable to pay US sales tax if you do not have to pay GST here. Seems like a very large loophole if you can have that level of turnover without having to pay somebody somewhere.

[clarry100]

Just wondered how it is that neither eBay nor PayPal pay gst on the fees we sellers pay them when they provide that service within Australia?

[annieoakley2000]

Most likely because they have the type of accountants/lawyers the Op is looking for

[transport-posters · Accepted solution]

On a Business Activity Statement (BAS) there is a field to put in an amount of income which is not subject to GST.  If you did not charge GST for those sales then you total the sales from those amounts and put it into that field.

I used to do work for someone in the United Arab Emirates so always put his payments into that field.

You would of course have to declare it as income for your personal income tax return, as it's a source of income in the end.

[ozstockman]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

I agree with bsal....you are providing a service.

Any good accountant should be able to advise you.

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He is providing a service but not to Australians. So he does not need to pay GST.

Morever he needs to be registered for GST to collect and pay it and he only has to registered  if his turnover is over $75000

[ozstockman · Accepted solution]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

You are earning an income in Australia by providing a service.

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And he will be paying a tax on his income. It has nothing to do with GST which does not apply to him.

How is it different from selling overseas? The fact that he is selling a service to overseas customers does not make any difference with seliing a product to the same type of customers.

[voodootoot]

thanks everyone for your replay, i went to a different accountant and was told there is no GST on international sales as expected, but its strange that a different accountant would say otherwise, they might not know a thing or two on e-commerce. There is tax income but i was willing to pay it anyway as i have prepared my BAS and declared all income, its the GST that threw me off as i never charged it so paying GST would mean a huge hole in my pocket, glad it got sorted.

[lyndal1838]

You received 2 different opinions here so it is not surprising that 2 different accountants have differet opinions.

If I were you I would be asking the ATO for a Private Ruling.  Let them decide on whether you need to pay GST.  Once you have that you are not subjected to opinions of different accountants.