GST on online sales over $20

[misterforgetfulsbooks]

Why not just get ebay to collect it off the sale of anything sold here in Australia?

ie: you sell items in Australia, you pay Australian taxes - level playing field

[ironiton]

It's all smoke and mirrors with Harvey,his wife runs the business while he portrays to be the public face by voicing ads,lobbying and wingeing while his main game is property development.he's a salesman,nothing less and nothing more.

[ironiton]

Google the Lima Agreement and Agenda 21,Australian manufacturing was signed off on forty years ago.

[gec2002]

I might have a bit more sympathy with eBay if they weren't gaming the Australian Tax system as hard as they do.  All seem like a ploy to offside the ATO.   eBay has stated itself it's not an online auction business, it's an advertising business, and their revenues go to Switzerland  (eBay International AG.).  In 2014 eBay paid $381,641 in tax, on revenues of $39.7 million.  The Sydney Morning Herald estimated the true revenue was closer to $324 million and eBay director's report.stated: "The principal activities of the Company during the year were the recommendation of market penetration strategies and advertising and promotion activities".  So why would they care if there is GST on imports?

http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/ebays-no-teddy-bear-when-it-comes-to-tax-2015062...

[digital*ghost]

I understand your point, but eBay paying tax on revenue and collecting tax from Australians on behalf of all international sellers, is a little different, despite that ultimately - from the seller's perspective - the revenue to pay the tax would come from the buyer's pocket.

eBay, and all the other sites that are saying they won't comply, wouldn't care less about GST on imports if they didn't have to collect it (just like they don't stop UK buyers from purchasing anything over £15 just because those buyers will have to pay £9 in addition to VAT before they can get the package). Take Etsy for example - there are some bigger sellers on there, but the vast majority wouldn't even dream of turning over $75K a year in total, let alone to Australians, but their prices on Etsy will increase to Aussies if this goes ahead. If Australia is an important market to any seller who has a presence on these sites, both buyer and seller have a good incentive to move of platforms that don't automatically increase their pricing for, realistically, no particular reason. 

eBay (and all the rest) are certainly acting out of self-interest, but they are leveraging the effect it will have on sellers (and in turn using that to scare buyers) in order to acheive the result they want... (I got an email from Etsy this morning asking me to sign a petition to object to the legislation, and warned me that if this goes ahead, countries worldwide will follow suit and as an Australian seller, I would have to start collecting and remitting VAT, GST and other sales taxes for other countries I sell to...well, no - if this goes ahead as currently intended, and other countries folow suit, and I remain on these platforms selling to international buyers, they'll have to add the taxes to my prices and remit it to the respective governments). 

But that doesn't mean they don't have a point. It's not eBay I'm empathising with, it's the buyers and sellers who this change shouldn't actually affect, but the way the government wants to implement it will make it so.

[phantomchris1984]

HOW ABOUT WE STOP VOTING LIBERALS WHO KEEP PRIVATISING ALL OUR SERVICES THAT BRING IN BILLIONS, OR DID!!! NOW WE NEED MORE GST TO OFFSET ALL THE LOST INCOME FROM THE DECADES OF LIBERALS HAVING THEIR FIRE SALE CAUSE IN THE END ALL THEY KNOW IS HOW TO AUCTION AND NOT HOW TO BUDGET.

YET THEY HAVE CONVINCED THE IDIOTS OF AUSTRALIA THAT THIS MEME THAT LABOR IS SOMEHOW WORSER AT BUDGETING DESPITE GETTING US EASILY THRU THE GFC AND NOW DEBT HAS QUADRUPLED SINCE LIBERALS TOOK OVER. ITS ABOUT PRIVATISING EVERYTHING TO SELL TO THEIR BIG BUSINESS BUDDIES TO EXPLOIT THE MARKET BY JACKING UP THE PRICES WHILE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT NOW MAKES NOTHING AND HAS TO RELY MORE AND MORE ON GST LIKE A CRACK ADDICT LINING UP AT CENTRELINK BLUDGING OFF US THE TAX PAYERS.

[davewil1964]

Stop shouting.

The next election is likely over 2 years away.

How about providing some insight on the issue presented, rather than a political rant.

[lyndal1838]

Nothing to do with this thread but the only reason Labor got the country through the GFC was thanks to the money salted away by the Liberals while they were in government.

[davewil1964]

Of which there would have been a lot more if the windfall gains were not given away.

Oh, sorry, I forgot - the mining boom was going to last forever.

[x3n0m]

I am pretty hard line when it comes to this kind of stuff .. I think it would be fair to tax at least 10% of every dollar leaving the country, that includes pocket change at the airport through to major tax swindlers with Swiss bank accounts etc .. unfortunately the reckless fly by night tax dodger Cayman Islands investor class (our shadow government) would never allow such a thing as are completely addicted to all the free money that can be had by undermining Australian business and aspirations ..