GST on fees as a business earning UNDER the GST threshold

[new_world_hoarder]

There are a few other gripes & grumbles from sellers who are also being charged GST on their eBay fees.

But...

our Managed Payments sales transactions are being charged VAT (which is a European tax)  when we sell in Australia to Australian buyers. eBay have told us this is GST, so okay, but get it right because it reads VAT on our records.

We supplied our ABN number to eBay when we registered for Managed Payments. We told them all of our personal info and then even took away the number we first thought of. We gave it all.

So when we read the help screens saying that if we had given our ABN details then we would not be charged GST (or VAT), we asked eBay why we were still being charged.

After much transferring of the chat (and several chats & calls later), eBay are now sticking to the story that we have to claim an Exemption from paying GST. 

We have tried to explain that we can't claim an exemption because to claim an exemption means we have to give our GST number. And we can't do that because we don't have one...because we are already exempt by not earning over the ATO limit of $75K as a couple. 

But they do not understand / won't understand / won't look into it / don't understand Australian tax.

I have asked for my question to be answered by an eBay rep who lives & works in Australia so that they can understand what I am talking about. They can't or won't do that either.

Surely someone else has also encountered this? Do we suck it up like we do with all of the other fees? Or is this just plain wrong?  Thanks for your kind replies.

[gutterpunkz05]

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@new_world_hoarder wrote:

Not trying to claim what is not rightly ours.

We were just checking this new fee and asking if it applied to us, our understanding was NO but apparently it is better to suck it up and pay the fees as they are charged, even though they are calling it VAT.

The only thing new about it, is that it is showing as  VAT  instead of GST.

You pay fees for ebays service  and hence GST  applys to the  service,   -  No exemption then the GST is applicable.

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[new_world_hoarder]

Okay, so my mistake is for seeing this as a new fee when it is the same GST add that eBay put on a couple of years ago (the so-called Netflix tax).

It is now displayed as a separate fee and called VAT. That is why I questioned eBay about it.

What I got from them was a different reply each time. The first rep said if I supplied our ABN number then we would not be charged GST. That was where my confusion came from.

I was questioning the inconsistent replies and suggestions from eBay.

I now see what this fee is and would like to thank those who answered in a positive & friendly manner.

And those who have pointed to the ebay link re GST fees, the first link that eBay pointed us to was:

https://www.ebay.com.au/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/ebay-stores-selling-fees-managed-payments...

part of which reads:

Goods and Services Tax (GST)

• If your registered address is in Australia, Australian GST of 10% is payable on your eBay fees. Unless you registered for managed payments as a business and provided your tax registration details, we'll add GST to your eBay fees.
• If you're a business customer and you provided your tax registration number (ABN) to eBay as part of registering for managed payments, we won't add GST to your eBay fees.

So the rep was telling us that if we supplied eBay with our ABN number (which we already had done) then we would not be charged GST.

I was just trying to clear up the misinformation and ended up with some of my own. End of story