GST questions

[dont_waste_dollars]

hi there,

Lets say hypothetically i sell an item for $250 and bought it for $220

$20 gst hast already been paid by the supplier. plus i have to pay an additional $2.73 for a total of $22.73gst on the $250 sale

But i was wondering ( hoping.. wishing.. knowing its not true lol ) if i can deduct my ebay and papal fees from my sale price (21.25+5)

giving me a revised sale price of $223.75 which means instead of paying $2.73 in gst i only pay $0.35



Oh and lets say in another situation taking the ebay and paypal fees away from my sold price means i fall below what i paid for it ( made a loss ). lets say i bought for $220 and my revised sale price after fees deducted was $210. Would i have that sale as my gst contribution ruduced to zero or would i actually deduct $0.89 from my overal gst contribution from that sale and for my quarterly BAS?


Thanks so much in advance for any help with this. I've just recently exeeded the 75k turnover mark and thus have to start paying gst and i thought i was all over it but then i found myself wondering a few things about this little tax. 

[clarry100]

The buyer pays the GST on the item sale price. Just as you do when you buy something in a shop that has a GST component on it.

You (the seller) pays the GST on any goods or services related to running your business, but this would then be claimable (if indeed GST was paid by paypal/ebay) as an input tax credit when you lodge your quarterly BAS statements.

Since neither paypal nor ebay pay any GST to the ATO on their services at present then there is no GST component to claim in relation to their fees.

If you don't have enough total sales in a tax year (currently $75K) to register for GST then your tax agent will have the job of taking care of any business expenses you incur when you complete your usual annual tax returns. In this case the GST forms a part of the total cost of the item/service.

Either way you (the seller) are liable to pay the tax (either income or GST) you incur on your profits. Your tax accountant will figure it all out for you.

[joethenuts]

correct . the question was if ebay paid a gst on there fees 

[clarry100]

Same answer...

[flexigav]

As a seller I am employing the services of Ebay to facilitate my sales. I soon will be paying the GST on Ebay's services. The amount being based on the sales revenue from each sale I make using Ebay's services.

As a buyer I am also using Ebay's services to help purchase goods. Therefore I must pay the GST on Ebay's services, also based on the value of the goods they helped me purchase.

Is Ebay collecting two lots of the GST for servicing both the buyer and the seller?

[lyndal1838]

Ebay is not collecting GST on the sale of your items but on the fees that you pay for accessing ebay as a selling venue....the Final Value Fees on the item and the postage.

Everything you buy on ebay has GST included in the sale price but as the end buyer you cannot claim it back.  The only people affected by the GST on the sale price is the seller and then only if they are GST registered.   Ebay has nothing to do with this GST.

[clarry100]

As Lyndal says the GST is only payable on eBay fees.
When you are acting as a buyer eBay do not charge you any fee so you are therefore not subject to this new GST.
As the seller you are charged fees by eBay for the use of their services so in turn you ARE subject to the new GST on their fees.
If you are a seller who is registered for GST (ie sales revenue over $AUD75K per snnum) then you will need to account for this GST in your quarterly BAS statements.
If you are not registered for GST then it will not bother you too much but you might wish to have a look into increasing your sale prices marginally to cover it off.
But for a sale of say $10 where the eBay fee would normally be say $1 then 10% on that $1 fee is only 10-cents so not much of an increase really.
Remember the new GST is only applied to the eBay fee component not the full sale price of the item itself.

[valueexplorerau]

Good explanation.

[kh-stanley1]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.